Exposition of Psalm 99

1. You have heard the psalm, brothers, while it was being sung; it is brief, and not obscure, so that I may seem to have given you security, that you need not fear hard work. Yet let us look more attentively, and the more freely we may do so, the more diligently, at what those very things mean that ring out so openly, so that—as far as the Lord deigns to grant—they may be understood spiritually. The voice of God sounding through any instrument is still the voice of God; for nothing delights his ears but his own voice. For when we too speak, we delight him only when he himself speaks about us.

2. [v. 1.] A psalm for confession: so it is inscribed; this is its title: A psalm for confession. The verses are few, but heavy with great matters: let the seeds give birth in your hearts, so that a barn may be made ready for the Lord's harvest. This psalm of confession commands us this, and urges us to this: that we should shout for joy to God. And it does not urge some single corner of the earth, or some one dwelling or gathering of human beings; but because he knows that he has everywhere sown his blessing, from every quarter he demands a shout of joy.

3. [v. 2.] Shout for joy therefore to the Lord, all the earth (Ps 100:1 (99:2)). Does the whole earth now hear my voice? And yet the whole earth has heard this voice. The whole earth already shouts for joy to the Lord; and what does not yet shout will shout. For the blessing, reaching out as the Church begins from Jerusalem through all the nations, everywhere lays impiety low and everywhere builds up piety: and the good are mingled with the bad, and the bad are throughout the whole earth, and the good are throughout the whole earth. In the bad the whole earth murmurs; in the good the whole earth shouts for joy. What then is it to shout for joy? For the very title of the present psalm makes us very attentive to this word, since it is inscribed For confession. What is it to shout for joy in confession? There is a saying of another psalm: Blessed is the people that knows the shout of joy (Ps 89:15 (88:16)): surely it is some great thing whose understanding makes one blessed. May the Lord our God, then, the one who makes human beings blessed, grant me to understand what I say, and grant you to understand what you hear: Blessed is the people that knows the shout of joy. Let us therefore run toward this blessedness, let us understand the shout of joy, and not pour it out without understanding. What is the use of shouting for joy and obeying this psalm that says Shout for joy to God, all the earth (Ps 100:1 (99:2)), and not understanding the shout of joy, so that our voice alone shouts and the heart does not shout? For the sound of the heart is understanding.

4. I am going to say what you know. One who shouts for joy does not utter words, but there is a certain sound of gladness without words: for it is the voice of a mind poured out in gladness, expressing its feeling as far as it can, though not grasping its meaning. A man rejoicing in his exultation, out of certain words that cannot be spoken and understood, bursts into a certain cry of exultation without words, so that he plainly rejoices by that very cry, but, as though filled with too much joy, cannot unfold in words what he rejoices over. Notice this in those who sing even disreputable songs. For our shout of joy will not be like theirs; we ought to shout for joy in righteousness, whereas they shout for joy in wickedness: so we in confession, they in confusion. Yet, that you may understand what I say—or rather call to mind a thing you already know—those who labor in the fields shout for joy most of all; gladdened by the abundance of the crops, whether reapers or grape-gatherers or those harvesting any fruits, rejoicing in the very fruitfulness and fertility of the earth, they sing as they exult; and among the songs they utter in words, they insert certain cries without words, in the uplifting of an exulting mind, and this is called the shout of joy. If anyone perhaps does not recognize this because he has never noticed it, let him take note from now on. And would that he might not find any to take note of, lest God find any to overthrow. But since the thorns do not cease to spring up, let us note in those who exult wrongly the shout of joy that is to be condemned, and let us offer to God the shout of joy that is to be crowned.

5. When, then, do we shout for joy? When we praise what cannot be spoken. For we consider the whole of creation, the earth and the sea and the sky and all that is in them; we consider that each thing has its own origins and causes, the power of seeds, the order of birth, the manner of remaining, the passing away of decay, that the cycles of the ages run on without any disturbance, that the stars are turned in a certain way from east to west, completing the courses of the years; we see the measurings of months, the spans of hours; and in all these there is some invisible something, which is called spirit or soul, present in all living things, a kind of trace of unity directing them to seek pleasure and flee distress, to preserve their own well-being; and present in man too is something he has in common with the angels of God—not, as with the beasts, such things as to live, to hear, to see, and the rest, but that he understands God, that this belongs properly to the mind, that just as the eye distinguishes white from black, so the mind distinguishes fairness from unfairness. In this whole consideration of creation, which we have been able somehow to name and run through, let the soul ask itself: Who made all these things? who created these? who created you yourself among them? What are these things you are considering? what are you who are considering them? Who is he who made the things to be considered and the one who considers them? who is he? Speak him; in order to speak him, think of him. For you can think something and perhaps cannot speak it; but in no way will you be able to speak what you could not think. Therefore think of him before you speak him; in order to think of him, draw near to him. For when you wish to see something well, so that you may have something to say, you draw near to look at it closely, lest perhaps by looking from afar you be deceived. But as these bodies are beheld by the eyes, so he is beheld by the mind, attended to and seen by the heart. And where is the heart by which he is seen? Blessed, he says, are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). I hear, I believe, I understand as I can, that God is seen by the heart, and cannot be beheld except by a pure heart; but I hear another Scripture: Who will boast that he has a chaste heart? or who will boast that he is clean from sin? (Prov 20:9) I have considered the whole of creation, then, as far as I could; I have observed the bodily in heaven and on earth, and the spiritual in my very self who speak, who give life to my limbs, who direct my voice, who move my tongue, who pronounce words and distinguish perceptions. And when do I grasp myself within myself? How then can I grasp what is above me? Yet to the human heart the vision of God is promised, and a certain work of cleansing the heart is enjoined; this is what Scripture says: Make ready, before you see it, the means by which to see what you love. For when God and his name are heard, to whom is what he hears not sweet, except to one who is impious and far removed, made very far off? For behold, it says, those who make themselves far from you shall perish; and there follows, you have destroyed everyone who fornicates away from you (Ps 73:27 (72:27)). But what of us? Because they are far off, and therefore in darkness, and so with eyes so wounded in the darkness that they not only do not desire the light but even shudder at it; what is said to us who are found in the distance? Draw near to him and be enlightened (Ps 34:5 (33:6)). But that you may draw near and be enlightened, let your own darkness displease you; condemn what you are, that you may deserve to be what you are not. You are unrighteous, you ought to be righteous; you will never receive righteousness if unrighteousness still pleases you. Crush it in your heart, and cleanse it; cast it out of your heart, where the one you wish to see wishes to dwell. So the human soul draws near in whatever measure, the inner man recreated to the image of God, since he was created to the image of God; he had been made far off in proportion as he had gone into unlikeness. For one does not draw near to God, or withdraw from God, by intervals of space: made unlike, you have withdrawn far off; made like, you draw very near. See how the Lord wishes us to draw near, first making us like, that we may draw near. Be, he says, like your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust (See Matt 5:45). Learn to love your enemy, if you would guard against an enemy. And to the degree that love grows in you, making you and calling you back to the likeness of God, it reaches even to enemies; that you may be like him who makes his sun rise not only on the good but on the good and the bad, and rains not only on the just but on the just and the unjust. The more you draw near to that likeness, the more you advance in love, and the more you begin to perceive God. And whom do you perceive? the one who comes to you, or the one to whom you return? For he never departed from you: God withdraws from you when you withdraw from God. All things are present to the blind as to the seeing: standing in one place, a blind man and a seeing man are both surrounded by the same forms of things; the one is present to them, the other absent: of two standing in one place, one is present, the other absent—not because the things themselves draw near to the one and withdraw from the other, but because of the unlikeness of their eyes. The one who is called blind, because that which is wont to be attuned to the light that clothes all things has been extinguished in him, is present in vain to the things he does not see; or rather he is more rightly called absent than present: for where his perception is not, he is rightly called absent; for this is to be absent, to be away in perception. So too God is everywhere present, everywhere whole. His wisdom reaches mightily from end to end, and orders all things sweetly. And what God the Father is, that too is his Word and his Wisdom, light from light, God from God. What then do you long to see? What you wish to see is not far from you. The Apostle says indeed that he is not placed far from any one of us: for in him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). How great a misery it is, then, to be far from him who is everywhere!

6. Be like him, then, in piety, and loving in your thinking; for his invisible things are perceived, understood through the things that have been made. Gaze upon the things that have been made, marvel, seek the maker. If you are unlike, you are driven back; if you are like, you will exult. And when you have begun to draw near, made like, and to perceive God, in proportion as love grows in you—since love too is God—you will perceive something that you used to speak but did not speak. For before you perceived, you supposed you were speaking God; you begin to perceive, and there you perceive that what you perceive cannot be spoken. But when there you have learned that what you perceive cannot be spoken, will you be silent, and not praise? Will you then be mute in the praises of God, and not render thanks to him who willed to make himself known to you? Did you praise when you were seeking, and will you fall silent when you have found? By no means; you will not be ungrateful. Honor is owed, reverence is owed, great praise is owed. Consider who you are, earth and ashes; see who has deserved, and what, to see; see who, what—a man, God. I acknowledge not the merit of man, but the mercy of God. Praise, then, the one who has mercy. How, you say, shall I praise? That very little which I can perceive in part, in a riddle, through a mirror, I already cannot unfold. Hear the psalm, then: Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. You have understood the shout of joy of all the earth, if you shout for joy to the Lord. Shout to the Lord; do not divide your shout of joy among one thing and another. In the end, other things can somehow be spoken; he alone is ineffable, who spoke, and all things were made. He spoke, and we were made: but we cannot speak him. His Word, by which we were spoken, is his Son: that he might somehow be spoken by us who are weak, he became weak. We can say a shout of joy in place of a word, but we cannot say a word for the Word. Shout for joy, then, to the Lord, all the earth.

7. Serve the Lord with gladness. All slavery is full of bitterness: all who are bound by the condition of slavery both serve and murmur. Do not fear the slavery of that Lord: there will be no groaning there, no murmuring, no indignation; no one asks to be put up for sale from it, because it is sweet that we have all been redeemed. It is great happiness, brothers, to be a slave in that great house, even if in chains. Do not fear, slave in chains, but make confession to the Lord: ascribe your chains to your own deserts; make confession in your chains, if you wish them to be turned into ornaments. It was not in vain, nor without being heard, that it was said, Let the groaning of those in chains enter into your sight (Ps 79:11 (78:11)). Serve the Lord with gladness. Free is the slavery in the Lord's house; free is the slavery where it is not necessity but love that serves. You, he says, were called to liberty, brothers: only do not give your liberty as an occasion for the flesh; but through the love of the Spirit serve one another (Gal 5:13). Let love make you a slave, because truth has made you free. If you remain, he says, in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free (John 8:31-32). You are at once both slave and free: a slave, because you were made; free, because you are loved by God by whom you were made; indeed, free for this very reason, because you love him by whom you were made. Do not serve with murmuring; for your murmurings do not bring it about that you do not serve, but that you serve as a bad slave. You are a slave of the Lord, you are a freedman of the Lord; do not seek to be set free in such a way as to depart from the house of the one who freed you.

8. Serve the Lord with gladness. That gladness will be full and perfect when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality: then there will be perfect gladness, then that perfect shout of joy, then praise without failing, then love without scandal, then fruit without fear, then life without death. What of here? Is there no joy at all? If there is no joy, there is no shout of joy: how then, Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth? There is plainly joy here too; from the hope of the future life there is tasted here the source by which we shall be satisfied there. But it is necessary that much of the wheat endure among the tares: there are grains among the chaff, there is the lily among the thorns. For what does the Church hear? As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters (Song 2:2). It does not say, among strangers, but among the daughters. O Lord, how you console, how you strengthen, how you frighten! What is it you say? As the lily among—what thorns? So is my beloved among—what daughters? Those you call thorns, those very ones daughters? He answers: They are thorns because of their ways; daughters because of my sacraments. Would, then, that there were groaning among the groans of strangers; there would be less to groan over. That is the greater groan: For if an enemy had reproached me, I would surely have borne it; and if one who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would surely have hidden myself from him. These are the words of the psalm: whoever knows our Scriptures, follows; whoever does not know them, let him learn, that he may follow. If one who hated me had spoken great things against me, I would surely have hidden myself from him: but it was you, of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance, who together with me used to take sweet food (Ps 55:12-14 (54:13-15)). What sweet food do those take with us who are not going to be with us forever? what sweet food, except Taste and see how sweet the Lord is (Ps 34:8 (33:9))? Among such it is necessary that we groan.

9. But where will the Christian go off to, so as not to groan among false brothers? Where will he go? what will he do? Will he seek the wilderness? Scandals will follow. Will the one who makes good progress separate himself, so as to put up with no human being at all? What if, before he made progress, no one had been willing to put up with him? If, then, because he makes progress, he is unwilling to put up with any human being, by the very fact that he is unwilling to put up with any human being he is convicted of not having made progress. Let your Charity attend: Bearing with one another, says the Apostle, in love, being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:2-3). Bearing with one another: have you nothing in you for another to bear with? I would be surprised if there is not; but suppose there is not; you are the stronger for bearing with the rest, in that you now have nothing in you for others to bear with. You are not borne with: bear with the rest. I cannot, you say. Then you do have something in you for others to bear with too. Bearing with one another in love. You desert human affairs, and set yourself apart, so that no one may see you; whom will you profit? Would you have reached this point if no one had profited you? Or, because you think you have had swift feet for crossing over, are you going to cut off the bridge? I exhort all; the voice of God exhorts all: Bearing with one another in love.

10. I will separate myself, someone says, with a few good men; with them it will be well for me. For to profit no one is impious and cruel. My Lord did not teach me this. For he did not condemn the servant who embezzled what he had received, but the one who did not put it out to use. Let the punishment of the embezzler be understood from the punishment of the lazy one. Wicked and lazy servant, says the Lord in condemning him: he does not say, You embezzled my money; he does not say, I gave to you, and you did not return to me intact what I gave: Because it did not grow, because you did not put it out to use, for that, he says, I will punish you. God is greedy for our salvation. So I will separate myself, he says, with a few good men: what have I to do with reckoning with crowds? Well, those few good men—out of what crowds were they strained? If, granted, those few are themselves all good; still it is a good human thought, and a praiseworthy one, to be with such as have chosen the quiet life; removed from the noise of the people, from restless crowds, from the great waves of the world, they are as if in harbor. Is that joy, then, already there? is that shout of joy that is promised already there? Not yet; but as yet groaning, as yet the anxiety of temptations. For even a harbor has an entrance from somewhere: if the harbor had an entrance on no side, no ship would enter it; it must, then, lie open on some side; but sometimes through that side where it lies open the wind rushes in; and where there are no rocks, the ships, dashed against one another, are wrecked. Where, then, is security, if not even in the harbor? And yet it must be confessed, granted, it is true, that they are somehow happier in harbor than on the open sea. Let them love one another; let the ships in harbor be well moored to one another, not dashed against one another: let there be preserved there an evenness of fairness, a constancy of love; and when perhaps the wind rushes in from that side where it lies open, let there be careful steering there.

11. For what will someone say to me who perhaps presides over such places—or rather serves the brothers in what are called monasteries? what will he say? I will be careful, I will admit no evil. How will you admit no evil? I will admit no evil man, no evil brother entering; with a few good men it will be well for me. Where do you come to know the one you perhaps wish to shut out? For an evil man to be known, he must be tested within: how, then, do you shut out one who is about to enter, who must afterward be tested, and cannot be tested unless he has entered? Will you repel all the evil? For you claim that you also know how to look into men. Do all come to you with bared hearts? Those who are about to enter do not know themselves; how much less do you? For many have promised themselves that they would carry out that holy life that holds all things in common, where no one calls anything his own, who are of one soul and one heart toward God: they were cast into the furnace, and they cracked. How, then, do you come to know one who is still unknown to himself? Will you shut out evil brothers from the assembly of the good? From your own heart, whoever you are who say this, shut out, if you can, all evil thoughts: let not even an evil suggestion enter into your heart. I do not consent, you say. Yet it entered, in order to make its suggestion. For we all wish to have hearts fortified, so that nothing may enter that is suggested for evil. But who knows from where it may enter? And we fight daily within our one heart; one man wrestles in his heart with a crowd. Greed suggests, lust suggests, gluttony suggests, that popular gladness suggests; all things make suggestions: he holds himself back from all, answers all, and turns away from all; it is hard for him not to be struck by some one of them. Where, then, is security? Here, nowhere; in this life, nowhere, except in the hope of God's promises alone. But there, when we have arrived there, there is perfect security, when the gates are shut and the bars of the gates of Jerusalem are made firm: there is the truly full shout of joy and great joy. But now do not, in your security, praise any sort of life; before death do not praise any man.

12. Now from this men are deceived, so that they either do not take up the better life or rashly attempt it; because both those who wish to praise it praise it so as not to mention the evils that are mixed in there, and those who wish to find fault find fault with so envious and perverse a mind that they shut their eyes against the goods, and exaggerate only the evils that are, or are thought to be, there. Hence it comes about that, whenever any profession is badly praised—that is, not carefully praised—when it has invited men by its praise, those who come there find some such as they did not believe were there; and, offended by the bad, they recoil from the good. Brothers, apply this lesson to your life, and so hear it that you may live. The Church of God is praised, to speak generally: great men are the Christians, the only Christians, great is the Catholic Church; they all love one another, each spends on the others what he can, time is given throughout the whole world to prayers, fastings, hymns, with one consent of peace God is praised. One who does not know that there is silence about the evils mixed in perhaps hears this, comes invited by the praise, finds evils mixed in that were not foretold to him before he came; he is offended by false Christians, he flees from true Christians. Again, the hateful, the slanderous, rush into faultfinding: What sort of Christians? what Christians? Misers, usurers. Are they not the very ones who fill theaters and amphitheaters at the games and at other spectacles, who fill the churches on feast days? Drunkards, gluttons, envious, persecutors of one another. There are such, but not only such. And that faultfinder, with a blind mind, says nothing of the good; and that praiser, with an incautious mind, says nothing of the bad. But if the Church of God is praised in this way in our time, how do the Scriptures of God praise it? See how I said just now: As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters (Song 2:2): a man hears, considers, the lily pleases him, he enters, he clings to the lily, he endures the thorns; he will deserve to be among the praises and the kisses of the bridegroom, who says, As the lily among thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters. So too with the clergy. Praisers of the clergy point there to good ministers, faithful stewards, bearers with all, spending their own hearts on those they wish to profit, not seeking what is their own but what is Jesus Christ's. They praise these, they forget that they are mixed with the bad. Again those who reprove the greed of the clergy, the wickednesses of the clergy, the quarrels of the clergy, coveting others' goods, drunkards, gluttons, fling these about. And you find fault enviously, and you praise incautiously: you who praise, mention the bad mixed in; you who find fault, see the good there too. So too in that common life of the brothers, which is in a monastery: Great men, holy, daily in hymns, in prayers, in praises of God, they live from this, their occupation is with reading; they labor with their hands, from this they support themselves; they ask nothing greedily, whatever is brought to them by pious brothers they use with sufficiency and with love; no one usurps for himself anything that another does not have; all love one another, all bear with one another. You have praised, you have praised: one who does not know what goes on within, who does not know how, when that wind enters, even ships in harbor dash against one another, enters as if hoping for security, expecting to have no one to put up with; he finds there evil brothers, who could not be found to be evil unless they were admitted (and they must first be put up with, in case they should perhaps be corrected; nor can they easily be shut out unless they have first been put up with): and he himself becomes a man of unbearable impatience. Who was looking for me here? I thought that there was love here. And, provoked by the trouble of a few men, since he has not persevered in fulfilling what he vowed, he becomes a deserter of so holy a purpose, and guilty of a vow not paid. Then, when he has gone out from there, he too becomes a faultfinder and a slanderer: and he says only those things which he asserts he could not endure; and sometimes they are true. But the true faults of the bad must be endured for the sake of fellowship with the good. Scripture says to him: Woe to those who have lost endurance (Sir 2:14). And, what is worse, he belches out the foul odor of his indignation, by which he may frighten off those about to enter; because he himself, when he had entered, could not hold out. What sort of men were they? Envious, quarrelsome, bearing with no one, greedy; this one did that there, and that one did that there. O wicked man, why are you silent about the good? Those you could not endure, you fling about: those who endured you when you were evil, you pass over in silence.

13. Rightly, then, dearest brothers, that magnificent saying in the Lord's Gospel, from the Lord's own mouth: Two in the field; one will be taken, and one left: two at the mill; one will be taken, and one left: two in the bed; one will be taken, and one left (See Luke 17:34-36). Who are the two in the field? What the Apostle says: I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth. You are God's field (1 Cor 3:6-9). In the field we labor. The two in the field are the clergy: one will be taken, and one left; the good will be taken, the bad will be left. The two at the mill he referred to the laity. Why at the mill? Because, bound to the world, they are held back by the round of temporal affairs as by a millstone. And from there one will be taken, and one left. Which one will be taken from there? The one who does good works, who attends to the need of the servants of God, the need of the poor, faithful in confession, sure in the gladness of hope, watchful toward God, wishing evil on no one, loving as far as she can not only friends but even enemies, the woman knowing no man but her own husband, the man knowing no woman but his own wife; such will be taken even from the mill: but she who has been otherwise will be left. Others, however, say: We want quiet, we want to put up with no one, we remove ourselves from the crowds; it will be well for us in a certain security. If you seek quiet, you seek as it were a bed, that you may rest without any anxiety. And from there one will be taken, and one left. Let no one deceive you, brothers: if you do not wish to be deceived, and wish to love the brothers, know that every profession in the Church has its pretenders. I did not say that every man is a pretender, but that every profession has pretended persons: there are bad Christians, but there are good ones too. You seem to see more bad ones, because they are chaff, and do not let you reach the grains: there are grains there too; draw near, try, shake out, apply the judgment of the mouth. You find undisciplined nuns; is holy chastity therefore to be reproved? Many do not stay in their own houses, but go about others' houses, busybodies, speaking what they ought not, proud, sharp-tongued, drunken: even if they are virgins, what does intact flesh profit, with a corrupt mind? A humble marriage is better than a proud virginity. For if she married, she would not have a name by which to exalt herself, and would have a bridle by which to be governed. But are we, on account of bad virgins, going to condemn women holy in both body and spirit? or, on account of these praiseworthy ones, shall we be compelled to praise even those who are to be condemned? Everywhere one will be taken, and one left.

14. So, brothers, let us finish the psalm, since it is plain. Serve the Lord with gladness: it addresses you, whoever you are who endure all things in love, and rejoice in hope. Serve the Lord, not in the bitterness of murmuring, but in the gladness of love. Enter into his sight, in exultation. It is easy to exult outwardly; exult in the sight of God. Let not the tongue much exult; let the conscience exult. Enter into his sight, in exultation.

15. [v. 3.] Know that the Lord himself is God. Who does not know that the Lord himself is God? But he speaks of the Lord whom men did not suppose to be God: Know that the Lord himself is God—let that Lord not become cheap in your eyes: you crucified him, scourged him, smeared him with spittle, crowned him with thorns, clothed him in a robe of disgrace, hung him on the wood, fastened him with nails, struck him with a lance, set guards at the tomb; he himself is God. Know that the Lord himself is God. He made us, and not we ourselves. He made us: all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made. What is it that you exult over? what is it that you are proud of? Another made you; and the one who made you suffers from you. But you so boast and glory and exalt yourselves, as though you had been made by your very selves. It is good for you that the one who made you should perfect you. He made us, and not we ourselves. We ought not to be proud: all the good that we have, we have from our maker; what we ourselves have made in ourselves, for that we are condemned; what he has made in us, for that we are crowned. He made us, and not we ourselves. But we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. The sheep and the one sheep: those very sheep are one sheep. And how most loving a shepherd of us we have! He left the ninety-nine, came down to seek the one, carries her back on his shoulders, redeemed by his own blood. Untroubled, the shepherd died for the sheep, who rising again possesses the sheep. But we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

16. [vv. 4, 5.] Enter into his gates in confession. In the gates is the beginning; begin from confession. Hence A psalm for confession, there shout for joy. Confess that you were not made by yourselves, praise him by whom you were made. Let your good be from him, by withdrawing from whom you made your evil. Enter into his gates in confession. Let the flock enter the gates, let it not remain outside among the wolves. And how is it to enter? In confession. Let the gate, that is, the beginning, be confession for you. Hence in another psalm it is said, Begin to the Lord in confession (Ps 147:7 (146:7)). What there he calls Begin, here he has called gates: Enter into his gates in confession. And what then? When we have already entered, shall we not confess? Always confess, you always have something to confess. It is hard in this life for a man to be so changed that nothing is found in him to be reproved: you must reprove yourself, lest he reprove who is going to condemn. So even when you have entered the courts, confess. When will there be no confession of sins? In that rest, in that equality with the angels. But see what I said: There will be no confession of sins. I did not say: There will be no confession: for there will be a confession of praise. You will always confess—him as God, yourself as creation; him as protector, yourself as protected. In him you will somehow be hidden, as it is said, You will hide them in the hiding of your face (Ps 31:20 (30:21)). In his courts confess to him in hymns. In the gates confess; and in the courts, when you have entered, confess in hymns. Hymns are praises. When you enter, reprove yourself; when you have entered, praise him. Open to me the gates of righteousness, he says in another psalm; entering into them I will confess to the Lord (Ps 118:19 (117:19)). Did he say, when I have entered, I will then no longer confess? Even when he has entered he will confess. For what sins did our Lord Jesus Christ confess, when he said, I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matt 11:25)? He confessed by praising him, not by accusing himself.

17. Praise his name, for the Lord is sweet. Do not suppose that you will fail in praising. Your praise will be like eating: the more you praise, the more strength you acquire, and the sweeter becomes the one you praise. Praise his name, for the Lord is sweet. His mercy is forever. For when he has freed you, he will not cease to be merciful: that he should protect you always unto eternal life is the work of his mercy. Forever, then, is his mercy, and his truth even to generation and generation. Either take what is said, to generation and generation, as meaning every generation; or, in two generations, one earthly, the other heavenly. There is one generation that gives birth to mortals; another that gives birth to the eternal. His truth is both here and there. Do not suppose that his truth is not here: if his truth were not here, he would not say in another psalm, Truth has arisen from the earth (Ps 85:11 (84:12)); nor would Truth itself say, Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20).

Exposition of Psalm 100

1. [v. 1.] What this hundredth psalm has in its first verse, that we ought to seek in its whole body. Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. Let no one flatter himself toward impunity over the mercy of God; for there is judgment too: and let no one changed for the better shudder at the judgment of God; for mercy goes before. For when men judge, sometimes, overcome by mercy, they act against justice; and there seems to be mercy in them and no judgment: but sometimes, wishing to keep rigid judgment, they lose mercy. But God neither in the goodness of mercy loses the severity of judgment, nor in judging with severity lets go the goodness of mercy. See, if we distinguish these two by their times, mercy and judgment—for perhaps not without reason are they set in this very order, so that he did not say, Judgment and mercy, but mercy and judgment: if, then, we distinguish these two by their times, perhaps we find that now is the time of mercy, but the time to come is the time of judgment. How is the time of mercy first? Consider it first in God, that you too may imitate the Father in the measure he has granted you. For we do not arrogantly say that we ought to imitate our Father; since the Lord himself, the only Son of God, exhorts us to this, saying, Be like your heavenly Father. When he said, Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you: that you may be, he says, sons of your Father who is in heaven; who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust (See Matt 5:44-45). Behold mercy. When you see the just and the unjust gaze on the same sun, gather the same light, drink from the same springs, be fattened by the same rain, be filled with the same fruits of the earth, alike breathe this air, equally have the goods of the world; do not suppose God to be unjust, who gives these things equally to both the just and the unjust. It is the time of mercy, not yet of judgment. For unless God first spared through mercy, he would not find any to crown through judgment. It is, then, the time of mercy, when the patience of God leads sinners to repentance.

2. Hear the Apostle distinguishing each time, and you too distinguish them: Do you suppose, he says, O man who judge those who do such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? (Rom 2:3) Attend. For he saw himself (but to whom does he say this? For he does not say it to one man, but to such a kind of men), he saw himself committing many evils daily, and yet living, with no evil befalling him; and he supposed that either God was asleep, or did not attend to human affairs, or loved the evil deeds of men. He removes this thought from the heart—but for those who understand well. What then does he say? Do you suppose, O man who judge those who do such things, and do them, that you will escape the judgment of God? And as if he were saying, Why do I commit such evils daily, and no evil befalls me? he goes on to show him the time of mercy: Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and patience and long-suffering? And indeed, because he was despising this; but he made him anxious. Do you not know, he says, that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (Rom 2:4) Behold the time of mercy. But lest he should suppose this would always be so, how did he go on to frighten him? But you (now hear the time of judgment; you heard the time of mercy, because of Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord): But you, he says, according to your hardness of heart and impenitent heart, are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works (Rom 2:5-6). Behold: Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. But he threatened concerning judgment: is the judgment of God therefore only to be feared, and not loved? It is to be feared by the bad because of the punishment, to be loved by the good because of the crown. Because, then, the Apostle frightened the bad in this testimony which I have recalled, hear where he gives hope to the good concerning judgment. He sets himself forward, and speaks, and shows in himself too the time of mercy. For unless he too had found a time of mercy, what sort of man would judgment find him? A blasphemer, a persecutor, an insulter. For so he speaks, and commends the time of mercy in which we now are: I who was formerly, he says, a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insulter; but I obtained mercy. But perhaps he alone obtained mercy? Hear how he lifts us up: That in me, he says, Christ Jesus might show forth all his long-suffering, for the instruction of those who are going to believe in him unto eternal life (1 Tim 1:13, 16). What is it, that he might show forth in me his long-suffering? That every sinner and criminal might see that Paul received pardon, and not despair of himself. Behold, he showed himself, he lifted up others too. Where? In the time of mercy. Hear in the time of judgment what he says about the good, again speaking of himself and of others. First he obtained mercy. Why? Because he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insulter. The Lord came to give to Paul, not to repay. For if he had wished to repay, what would he find to repay a sinner, except punishment and torment? He did not wish to repay punishment, but he gave grace. Hear that the one to whom he gave holds the Lord even as debtor. He found him a giver in the time of mercy; he holds him a debtor in the time of judgment. See how he says this. For I am already being sacrificed, he said, and the time of my release is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. This, in the time of mercy; hear about judgment. For the rest there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render to me on that day, the just judge. He did not say, will give; but, will render. When he was giving, he was merciful; when he renders, he will be judge: because, Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. But by forgiving sins, he made himself debtor of the crown: there, I obtained mercy. Merciful, then, was the Lord first; but here he will render to me the crown of righteousness. On what ground will he render? Because he is a just judge. Why a just judge? Because I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Being just, therefore, he can only crown these things. For he found these things to crown: but before, what had he found? I who was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor. These things he forgave, those he will crown; he forgave these in the time of mercy, he will crown those in the time of judgment: because, Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. But did Paul alone deserve this? For this is what I had said, that as in that testimony he frightened, so in this he lifted up. When he had said, The Lord will render to me on that day, the just judge: not only to me, he says, but to all who love his appearing and his kingdom (2 Tim 4:6-8).

3. Therefore, brothers, since we have the time of mercy, let us not flatter ourselves, let us not let ourselves go, let us not say: God always spares. See, I did it yesterday, God spared; I do it today too, and God spares; I will do it tomorrow too, because God spares. You attend to mercy, and do not fear judgment. If you wish to sing mercy and judgment, understand that he spares for this reason, that you may be corrected, not that you may remain in malignity. Do not store up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. For in the time of mercy it is said in another psalm: But to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my statutes, and take up my covenant through your mouth? But you have hated discipline, and cast my words behind you: if you saw a thief, you ran with him, and you placed your portion with adulterers; sitting, you slandered your brother, and against your mother's son you placed a stumbling block. These things you did, and I was silent. See the time of mercy. What is it, I was silent? Is it: I did not rebuke? No, but: I did not judge. For how is he silent who daily cries out in the Scriptures, in the Gospel, in his preachers? I was silent from punishment, not from the word. These things you did, and I was silent. And because God was silent, that is, did not take vengeance, what did the sinner say to himself in his heart? Hear: You suspected, he says, iniquity, that I would be like you. That is, it is too little that you were such; you supposed me to be such too. And when he had shown him the time of mercy, he frightened him about the time of judgment: I will rebuke you, and set you before your face (Ps 50:16-21 (49:16-21)). You place yourself behind you, I will place you before you. For everyone who does not wish to see his own sins places himself behind his back, and keenly attends to the sins of others, not through diligence, but through envy; not wishing to heal, but to accuse: but he forgets himself. Whence the Lord says to such: You see the speck in your brother's eye, and you do not see the beam in your own eye (Matt 7:3). Because, then, mercy and judgment are sung to us, let us too, doing mercy, await judgment with confidence: and let us be in his body, and sing these things ourselves. For Christ sings this: if the head alone sings, this canticle is from the Lord, it does not pertain to us; but if the whole Christ, that is, the head and his body, then be among his members, cling to him through faith, and through hope, and through love; and in him you sing, in him you exult: because he too labors in you, thirsts in you, hungers and is afflicted in you. He still dies in you, and you have already risen in him. For if he did not die in you, he would not wish to be spared, in you, by the persecutor, when he said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) Therefore, my brothers, Christ sings; but how, you know: We have constantly commended Christ to you; and I know that these things are not raw to you. The Lord Christ is the Word of God, through whom all things were made. This Word, that it might redeem us, was made flesh, and dwelt among us: the man became God over all things, the Son of God equal to the Father; for this he became man, that God-man might be mediator between men and God, and might reconcile those placed far off, and join together those separated, and call back those estranged, and lead back those who were strangers; for this he became man. He became, then, the head of the Church, and he has a body and members too. Seek his members: now they groan throughout the whole world: then they will rejoice in the end, in the crown of righteousness, of which Paul says, which the Lord will render to me on that day, the just judge (2 Tim 4:8). And now too, then, let us sing in hope, all gathered into one. For having put on Christ, we are Christ with our head; since indeed we are the seed of Abraham. The Apostle says this. For I said, We are Christ. The Apostle says, Therefore you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise. You are the seed of Abraham: let us see whether Christ is the seed of Abraham. In your seed shall all the nations be blessed. He does not say: In seeds, as in many; but as in one: And to your seed, which is Christ (Gal 3:16, 29). And to us he says, Therefore you are the seed of Abraham. It is clear that we pertain to Christ; and that, being his members and his body, we are with our head one man. Let us sing, then: Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord.

4. [v. 2.] I will sing psalms, and I will understand in the immaculate way, when you will come to me. Unless you are in the immaculate way, you cannot sing psalms, nor understand. If you wish to understand, sing psalms in the immaculate way, that is, work in cheerfulness for your God. What is the immaculate way? Hear what follows: I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house. This immaculate way began from innocence, and in that very thing it is also reached. Why do you seek many words? Be innocent, and you have accomplished righteousness. But what is it to be innocent? For a man does harm in two ways, as far as it is in him; either by making someone wretched, or by deserting the wretched: for you too do not wish to be made wretched by another, and do not wish to be deserted by another, if you should be wretched. Who is it that makes others wretched? One who inflicts violence or treachery, seizes others' goods, oppresses the poor, steals, solicits others' marriages, is slanderous, wishes to inflict on men something for them to grieve over, out of zeal for malevolence. Who is it that deserts the wretched? One who sees a needy person lacking some help, and, though he has the means to provide it, scorns, despises, estranges his heart. But if he were already altogether such as to have no need of any mercy, he would be proud if he deserted the wretched: he is still set in the tribulation of the flesh, not knowing what may befall him tomorrow, and yet he despises the tears of the wretched; he is not innocent. But who is innocent? One who, while he does no harm to another, does no harm to himself either. For one who does harm even to himself is not innocent. Someone says: See, I have not taken from anyone, nor oppressed anyone: from what is mine, from my just labor, I will treat myself well; I wish to have a feast prepared, I wish to spend as much as delights me, to drink with whom I will as much as delights me; from whom have I taken anything? whom have I oppressed? who has complained of me? He seems innocent. But if he corrupts himself, if he overturns the temple of God in himself, what do you expect, that he should show mercy to others and spare the wretched? Can one who is cruel to himself be merciful to another? The whole of righteousness, then, is reduced to the one word of innocence. But he who loves iniquity hates his own soul (Ps 11:5 (10:6)). When he loved iniquity, he supposed that he was harming others. But see whether he was harming others: He who loves iniquity, he says, hates his own soul. First, then, he harms himself who wishes to harm others; nor does he walk, because there is no room. For all malice suffers from narrows: innocence alone is broad, where one may walk. I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house. By the midst of his house he means either the Church itself—for Christ walks in it—or his own heart; for our inner house is our heart: so that he has explained what he said above, In the innocence of my heart. What is the innocence of his heart? The midst of his house. Whoever has this house bad is driven out of it. For whoever is pressed in heart by a bad conscience, just as one goes out of his house because of a leak, or because of smoke, and does not let himself dwell there, so one who does not have a quiet heart cannot willingly dwell in his own heart. Such men go outside themselves by the bent of the mind, and take delight in the things that are outside, around the body; they seek quiet in trifles, in spectacles, in luxuries, in all evils. Why do they wish it to be well with them outside? Because it is not well with them within, so as to rejoice in conscience. Therefore the Lord, when he had healed the paralytic, said, Take up your bed, and go into your house (Mark 2:11). Let the soul do this, which is as it were loosened by paralysis: let it be braced up in the members of good work, that it may work well, let it take up its bed, govern its body; let it now go into its house, enter its conscience: it will now find it broad, where it may walk, and sing psalms, and understand.

5. [vv. 3, 4.] I did not set before my eyes an evil thing. What is it, I did not set before my eyes an evil thing? I did not love it. For it is commonly said, as you know, of a man who is loved by someone: He has him before his eyes; and one who is scorned is wont to complain thus: He does not have me before his eyes. What then is it, to have before the eyes? To love. What is it, not to love? Not to dwell there in heart. He said, then, I did not set before my eyes an evil thing: I did not love an evil thing. And he explains that evil thing: Those who commit transgression I have hated. Attend, my brothers. If you walk with Christ in the midst of his house, that is, if you either rest well in your own heart, or take a good road in the very Church on the immaculate way; you ought to hate as transgressors not only those who are outside, but whoever you find within. Who are the transgressors? Those who hate the law of God; those who hear it and do not do it are called transgressors. Hate those who commit transgression, drive them away from you. But you ought to hate transgressors, not men. One man a transgressor—see that he has two names, man and transgressor: God made the man, he himself made himself a transgressor; love in him what God made, persecute in him what he made for himself. For when you have persecuted his transgression, you slay what the man made, and what God made is set free. Those who commit transgression I have hated.

6. A depraved heart has not clung to me. What is a depraved heart? A crooked heart. What is a crooked heart? A heart that is not straight. What is a heart that is not straight? See what a straight heart is, and there you find what a heart that is not straight is. The heart of a man is called straight who does not himself refuse all that God wills. Attend. Someone prays that something or other may not happen; he prays, and he is not forbidden. Let him ask as much as he can: but if something happens against his own will, let him subject himself to the will of God, let him not resist the great will. For the Lord himself explains this thus: showing our weakness in himself, when he was about to suffer, he said, My soul is sorrowful unto death (Matt 26:38). For he did not truly fear death, who had power to lay down his soul, and power to take it up again. And Paul the apostle, his soldier, his servant, cries out: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; for the rest there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render to me on that day, the just judge (2 Tim 4:7-8). He exults because he is about to die; and his Lord and his Commander is sorrowful because he is about to die? Is the servant, then, better than the Lord? And where is that which the Lord himself says: It is enough for the servant that he be as his lord; it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master? (Matt 10:25) Behold, Paul is brave at his coming death, and the Lord is sorrowful? I desired, he says, to be dissolved, and to be with Christ (Phil 1:23). He rejoices because he is dissolved, that he may be with Christ; and Christ himself is sorrowful, with whom this man rejoices that he will be? But what was that voice, except the sound of our weakness? Many who are still weak are saddened by coming death: but let them have a straight heart; let them avoid death, as far as they can; but if they cannot, let them say what the Lord himself said, not for his own sake, but for ours. For what did he say? Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me. Behold, you have the human will expressed; now see the straight heart: Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father (Matt 26:39). If, then, a straight heart follows God, a depraved heart resists God. Let something adverse befall him, he cries out: God, what have I done to you? what have I committed? what have I sinned? He wants himself to seem just, God unjust. What is so depraved? It is too little that he is crooked; he even thinks the rule crooked. Correct yourself, and you find straight the one from whom you have made yourself crooked. He acts justly, you unjustly: and therefore you are perverse, because you call a man just, and God unjust. What man do you call just? Yourself. For when you say, What have I done to you, you think yourself just. But let God answer you: You speak truly, you have done nothing to me; for you have done all to yourself. For if you had done anything to me, you would have done good. For whatever is done well is done to me; because it is done from my command: but whatever evil is done is done to yourself, not done to me; because the bad man does nothing except to himself, since this I do not command. When you see such men, brothers, rebuke them, reprove them, correct them: and if you cannot rebuke or correct, do not consent; that you may be able to say, A depraved heart has not clung to me.

7. When the malicious one turned aside from me, I did not know him. What is it, I did not know him? I did not approve, I did not praise, he did not please me. For we find that in the Scriptures to know is sometimes said for what is to please us. For what is hidden from God, brothers? Does he know the just, and not know the unjust? What do you think that he does not know? I do not say, what you do; but, what do you think that he does not know? I do not say, what you think; but, what are you going to think that he has not seen beforehand? God knows all things, then: and yet in the end, that is, in the judgment after mercy, he says of some: On that day many will come, and will say, Lord, Lord, in your name we cast out demons, in your name we did many mighty works, in your name we ate and drank; and I will say to them: Depart from me, workers of iniquity; I do not know you. (See Matt 7:22-23; Luke 13:26-27) Does he not know someone? But what is it, I do not know you? In my rule I do not recognize you. For I know the rule of my righteousness: you do not fit it, you have turned aside from it, you are distorted. So here too he said, I did not know him. When the malicious one turned aside from me, I did not know him. What is it, I did not know him? Is it perhaps that the malicious one, when he meets the just man in a narrow lane, says to himself what is written in the Wisdom of Solomon, He is grievous to us even to look upon (Wis 2:15), and changes his way lest he see whom he does not wish to see? But how many malicious men there are whom we see, and who see us, and who not only do not turn aside from us, but run to us, and sometimes desire to have their iniquities fulfilled through us? This often happens to us. How then do they turn aside? He turns aside from you who is unlike you. What is it, he turns aside from you? He does not follow you. What is it, he does not follow you? He does not imitate you. Therefore: When the malicious one turned aside from me, that is, when the malicious one was unlike me, and was unwilling to imitate my ways, was unwilling to live as a malicious man in the way I set myself before him for imitation; I did not know him. What is it, I did not know him? Not that I did not know him, but that I did not approve him.

8. [v. 5.] The one who slandered his neighbor secretly, him I persecuted. Behold a good persecutor, not of the man, but of the sin. With the proud eye and the insatiable heart, with this one I did not eat. What is it, I did not eat? I did not eat with him; for to feed is to eat. Why then do we find the Lord himself first eating with the proud? Not with those publicans and sinners, for they were humble: for they recognized their own sickness, and sought the physician. With the very proud Pharisees we find him eating. For a certain proud man had invited him: he is the one who was displeased that a sinful woman, who was notorious in the city, came to the feet of the Lord; and he said in his heart (for such was the cleanliness of the Pharisees that no sinner might touch them; if any unclean person had touched them even slightly, they shuddered, lest the unclean touch should as it were make them unclean. But when that sinful woman, who was notorious in the city, came to weep at the feet of the Lord, that man, when he saw her, said in his heart): If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman has come to his feet. How did he know that Christ did not know, except that he suspected him of not knowing, because he did not push her away from himself? Because if he were the man, he would push her away from himself. But the Lord not only knew that woman, the sinner, but the physician also saw the incurable wounds of that proud man. For when he had heard him thinking, in order to show him to be proud, he said: Simon, I have something to say to you: There were two debtors to a certain moneylender; one owed him fifty denarii, the other five hundred; since they had nothing to repay with, he forgave them both: which one loved him more? And the man pronounced sentence against himself, truth wringing the confession from him: I believe, Lord, the one 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 water for my feet: but she has washed my feet with her tears (See Luke 7:36-50); and the rest you know. There is no need to dwell longer on the other matters for which we brought this in as testimony. This Pharisee was proud, and the Lord was eating with him; what then is it that he says, With the proud eye and the insatiable heart, with this one I did not eat? What is it, I did not eat? I did not eat with him. How does he set before us these things which he himself did not do? He exhorts us to his imitation: we see that he feasted with the proud; how does he forbid us to feast with them? We indeed, brothers, for the sake of some rebuke, hold ourselves back even from our brothers, and do not feast with them, that they may be corrected. Let us rather feast with strangers, with pagans, than with those who cling to us, if we see them living badly, that they may blush and be corrected; as the Apostle says, If anyone does not obey our word by the letter, note that man, and do not associate with him; and do not regard him as an enemy, but rebuke him as a brother (2 Thess 3:14-15). We do this very often for the sake of the medicine; and yet we often eat with many strangers and with the impious.

9. What is this that he says, With the proud eye and the insatiable heart, with this one I did not eat? The pious heart has its own feasts, the proud heart has its own feasts: for it is on account of the very foods of the proud heart that he said, with the insatiable heart. On what is the proud heart fed? If he is proud, he is envious: it cannot be otherwise. Pride is the mother of envy: it can only beget her, and always be with her. Every proud man, then, is envious: if he is envious, he feeds on others' evils. Whence the Apostle says, If you bite and devour one another; see that you are not consumed by one another (Gal 5:15). You see them eating, then; do not feed with them, flee such a banquet; for they are not satisfied by rejoicing over others' evils, because they are of an insatiable heart. Beware lest you be caught in their feasts, in the snare of the devil. On such foods the Jews fed when they crucified the Lord: but because they fed as if on the Lord's punishment. (For we too feed on the Lord's cross, because we eat his body.) For they said, when they saw him hanging on the cross, insulting, because they were of an insatiable heart; they said, then, If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross; he saved others, he cannot save himself (See Matt 27:40-42). They were fed on the food of their cruelty, and he was fed on the food of his mercy. Father, he said, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). They, then, had one feast, he another. But hear what is said about the table of the proud: Let their table become before them a snare, and a recompense, and a stumbling block (Ps 69:22 (68:23)). They were fed, they were caught. For just as birds are fed at the snare, or fish at the hook, but are caught; so were they too. The impious, then, have their feasts, and the pious too have their feasts. Hear the feasts of the pious: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6). If, then, the pious man is fed on the food of righteousness, and the impious on the food of pride; it is no wonder if he is of an insatiable heart. He is fed on the food of iniquity: do not be fed on the food of iniquity, and the proud of eye and insatiable of heart does not feed with you.

10. [v. 6.] And on what were you fed? and what delighted you, where that man did not feed with you? My eyes, he says, are upon the faithful of the earth, that these may sit with me. The Lord says, My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that these may sit with me: that is, that they may sit with me. How would they sit? You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt 19:28). The faithful of the earth judge, to whom it is said, Do you not know that we shall judge angels? (1 Cor 6:3) My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that these may sit with me. He who walked in the immaculate way, this one ministered to me. To me, he says, not to himself. For many minister the Gospel, but minister to themselves; because they seek their own things, not what is Jesus Christ's. What is it to minister to Christ? To seek the things that are Christ's. And indeed, when the bad announce the Gospel, others are saved, while they themselves are punished. For it is said, Do what they say; do not do what they do (See Matt 23:3). Do not fear, then, when you hear the Gospel from a bad man. Woe to him who ministers to himself, that is, who seeks his own things there: you, receive Christ's. He who walked in the immaculate way, this one ministered to me.

11. [v. 7.] He who works pride has not dwelt in the midst of my house. Refer this to that house, that is, to the heart. He who works pride did not dwell in my heart: no such man dwelt in my heart; for he sprang back from there. No one dwelt in my heart but the meek and the quiet; the proud did not dwell there. For the unjust does not dwell in the heart of the just. Let the just man be removed from you by I know not how many thousands of miles and dwellings; you dwell together, if you have one heart. He who works pride has not dwelt in the midst of my house. He who speaks unjust things has not prospered in the sight of my eyes. This is the immaculate way, where we understand when the Lord comes to us.

12. [v. 8.] In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth. This is obscure; deign to attend: now is the end of the psalm. In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth. Why? That I might destroy out of the city of the Lord all who work iniquity. There are, then, in the city of the Lord those who work iniquity, and they are as it were spared for now. Why? Because it is the time of mercy: but the time of judgment will come too; for so the psalm began: Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. He has already enumerated above that none clung to him but the good. To the bad he did not cling, nor was he delighted by the feasts of the iniquity of those who ministered to themselves, not to the Lord, that is, who sought their own things. And as if it were said to him: And why have you put up with such men in your city for so long a time? It is the time of mercy, he says. What is the time of mercy? The judgment is not yet revealed: it is night; the day will appear, the judgment will appear. Hear the Apostle: Therefore do not judge anything before the time. What is it, before the time? Before the day. Hear that he said before the day: Until the Lord comes, and lights up the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then there will be praise for each one from God (1 Cor 4:5). For now, as long as I do not see your heart and you do not see mine, it is night. You have asked something of a man; you did not receive it, you think yourself scorned: and perhaps you are not scorned; for you do not see the heart: and you quickly blaspheme; in the night, pardon must be given to one who errs. Some man loves you, and you suppose that he hates you; or he hates you, and you suppose that he loves you: but whichever it be, it is night. Do not fear, presume on Christ, in him have your day: there is no reason for you to think any evil of him, for we are secure, and certain that he cannot be deceived; he loves us. But of one another we are not yet certain. For God knows our love for one another: but as for us, even if we love one another, who sees with what intention these things are done by us? Why does no one see the heart? Because it is night. In this night temptations abound. As if of this very night the psalm said, You set the darkness, and night was made; in it all the beasts of the forest will pass by: the young lions roaring to seize, and to seek from God their food (Ps 104:20-21 (103:20-21)). In the night the young lions seek their food. Who are the young lions? Of the princes and powers of this air, the demons and angels of the devil. How do they seek their food? When they tempt. But because they do not approach unless God has given them power; therefore it is said, Seeking from God their food. Job asked to be tempted. What sort of food? A rich one, a fat one, the just man of God, to whom God himself bore witness, saying, A man without complaint, a true worshiper of God he was (See Job 1:8). He asked for him to be tempted, seeking food from God: and he received him to be tempted, but not to be crushed; to be purified, not to be overthrown; or perhaps not even to be purified, but to be proved. Yet those too who are tempted are sometimes handed over, by their own hidden desert, into the hands of the tempter, because they have perhaps been handed over to their own desires. For the devil harms no one unless he has received power from God. But when? In the night. What is it, in the night? In this present time. But when the night has passed, and the day has come, the bad are sent with him into eternal fire, but the just into eternal life. There will be no tempter there, because there are no young lions there; because the night is over. Therefore the Lord said to his disciples, This night Satan asked to sift you like wheat; and I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith might not fail (See Luke 22:31-32). What is it, to sift like wheat? Just as wheat is not eaten by a man unless it has first been ground, that he may make bread; so the devil eats no one unless he has first overthrown him through tribulation. He grinds, that he may eat: but when you are afflicted, if you remain a grain, do not be disturbed; nothing happens to you. As the oxen tread out the grain, do they enter only into the wheat? They are sent together with the sledge onto the threshing floor. But is the wheat to fear? Far from it. Only the chaff is cut up; the wheat is stripped of what is superfluous, and let the winnowing come, and it will find a pure mass: the one it finds a grain it puts into its barn; and the heap of chaff it will burn with inextinguishable fire.

13. Why did I say this? Because we have the day in hope. The day ought to be for us in Christ. For as long as we are among temptations, it is night. In this night God spares sinners, so as not to take them away; he scourges them with temptations, that they may be corrected; he puts up with them in his city. Do we suppose he will always put up with them? If it is always mercy, there is no judgment: but if Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord; now he spares, then he will judge. But when will he judge? When the night has passed. Therefore he said, In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth. What is it, In the mornings? When the day has now come, the night being over. In the mornings I slew all the sinners of the earth. Why does he spare them until morning? Because it was night. What is it, it was night? Because it was the time of sparing: he spared, while the hearts of men were hidden. You see someone living badly, you put up with him: for you do not know what sort he will be, because it is night; whether the one who lives badly today may live well tomorrow; and whether the one who lives well today may be bad tomorrow. For it is night, and God puts up with all, because he is long-suffering. He puts up with them, that sinners may be converted to him. But those who have not corrected themselves in this time of mercy will be slain. And why will they be slain? That they may be scattered out of the city of the Lord, out of the fellowship of Jerusalem, out of the fellowship of the saints, out of the fellowship of the Church. But when will they be slain? In the mornings. What is it, In the mornings? When the night is over. Why does he now spare? Because it is the time of mercy. Why does he not always spare? Because Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord. Brothers, let no one flatter himself: all who work iniquity will be slain; Christ will slay them in the mornings, and will destroy them out of his city. But now, while it is the time of mercy, let them hear him. Everywhere he cries out through the Law, through the Prophets, through the Psalms, through the Epistles, through the Gospels: see that he is not silent, that he spares, that he dispenses mercy; but beware, because judgment is to come.

Exposition of Psalm 101

1. [v. 1.] Behold, a poor man prays, and does not pray in silence. It is permitted, then, to hear him, and to see who he is: lest perhaps he be the one of whom the Apostle says, Who for your sake became poor, though he was rich, that by his poverty you might be enriched (2 Cor 8:9). If, then, it is he, how is he poor? For how he is rich, who does not see? For from what are men rich? From gold, I suppose, silver, household, land: but all things were made through him (John 1:3). What, then, is richer than he, through whom riches were made—even those that are not true riches? For through him are even those riches, talent, memory, character, life, the very health of the body, the senses, and the conformation of the limbs: for when these are sound, even the poor are rich. Through him are also those greater riches, faith, piety, righteousness, love, chastity, good character: for no one has even these except through him who justifies the impious. Behold how rich. For who is rich—the one who has what he wants, another making it, or the one who makes what he wants, another having it? I suppose the richer is the one who made what you have; because what he has, you do not have. Behold how rich. In one so rich, from what are we to recognize these words: I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping (Ps 102:9 (101:10))? Have such great riches come to this? That is very lofty, this very abject. What shall we do? how shall we attune these depths to those heights? They are too far from one another. I do not yet recognize this poor man; perhaps it is another: but let us still seek. For from the fact that he himself does not seem to us this poor man, it is a wonder if you inquire and do not tremble at the riches: 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 nothing was made (John 1:1-3). He who said these things, when he said them, was rich; how much more he of whom he spoke: In the beginning was the Word: and not just any Word, but the Word God; and not anywhere, but with God; and not idle, but all things were made through him? Did he eat ashes like bread, and mingle his drink with weeping? We must fear lest our poverty do injury to such great riches. Yet still seek whether he is this poor man; for the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Look too at that voice: I am your servant and the son of your handmaid (Ps 116:16 (115:16)). Consider that handmaid, chaste, and virgin, and mother: for there he received our poverty, where he was clothed in the form of a servant, emptying himself; lest you should tremble at his riches, and not dare to approach him with your beggary. There, I say, he received the form of a servant, there he was clothed in our poverty; there he made himself poor, there he enriched us. Now, then, we draw near to understanding these things of him: yet still we must not pronounce rashly. The birth of the virgin is the stone cut from the mountain without hands, where no man worked, no desire was poured in, but faith alone was kindled, and the flesh of the Word was conceived. Then he came forth from the womb; the heavens spoke, the angels announced to the shepherds, the star drew the magi to adore the king, Simeon, filled with the Spirit, recognized the infant God in his mother's hands. Age came on—not to the divinity, but to the flesh. The unlearned old men shudder and marvel at the wisdom of the twelve-year-old boy. Or even if they were learned old men, what is their learning to the Word of God? what is their learning to the Wisdom of God? Are not even the learned, unless he comes to their aid, surely going to perish? He still grows in age of body: he comes to the river to be baptized; the baptizer recognizes God, confesses himself unworthy to loose the strap of his sandal. Now from there the blind are enlightened, hearing is opened to the deaf, the mute speak, lepers are cleansed, the paralyzed are braced up, the sick recover, the dead rise.

2. Now indeed, in comparison with that Word through whom all things were made, I recognize the poverty of the riches; but how far still from ashes and weeping with drink? Still I fear to say: It is he; and yet I wish to. For there are here things that compel me to wish, and again certain things that compel me to fear. It is he, and it is not he. Now he is in the form of a servant, now he bears mortal and fragile flesh, now he comes about to die, and yet he is not yet understood in this destitution. I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. Let him, then, add poverty to poverty, and transfigure into himself the body of our lowliness: let him be our head, let us be his members, let the two be in one flesh. For now, that he might first be poor, taking the form of a servant, he left the Father: but in that he was born of the virgin, let him leave the mother too, and cleave to his wife, and let the two be in one flesh. For so they will be two even in one voice, and in that one voice we shall no longer wonder at our voice: I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. For he deigned to have us as members. There are penitents too among his members. For they are not shut out and separated from his Church: nor would he at all join a spouse to himself, except by that voice, Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matt 4:17). Now, then, let us hear what the head and the body, the bridegroom and the bride, Christ and the Church, both one, pray: but the Word and the flesh are not both one; the Father and the Word are both one; Christ and the Church are both one, a certain one perfect man in the form of his fullness: Until we all meet in the unity of faith, in the knowledge of the Son of God, in the perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13). But until we meet, here our poverty is carried on, here still labor and groaning are carried on. Thanks to his mercy. Whence labor, whence groaning to the Word, through whom all things were made? If he deigned to have our death, will he not give us his life? He has lifted us into a great hope, with a great hope we groan. Groaning has sadness; but there is a groaning that has joy too. I think Sarah, barren, groaned joyfully when she gave birth: and we, from your fear we have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation. Let us hear, then, Christ poor in us and with us, and for our sake. For the very title indicates one who is poor. In short, suppose me to have surmised who this poor man is; let us hear the prayer, and recognize the person: lest you err anywhere, when you hear something that cannot be fitted to his head; therefore I have spoken beforehand, that when you hear such a thing, you may notice that it sounds from the weakness of the body, and recognize the voice of the members in the head. The prayer of the needy, this is what the title has, when he was in distress, and poured out his prayer in the sight of the Lord. He is himself that poor man, who elsewhere says, From the ends of the earth I cried to you, when my heart was in distress (Ps 61:2 (60:3)). This is the same poor man, because he is the same Christ; who in the prophet called himself both bridegroom and bride: As on a bridegroom he set a miter on me; and as a bride he clothed me with ornament (Isa 61:10). He called himself bridegroom, he called himself bride; whence this, except that he is bridegroom because of the head, bride because of the body? The voice, then, is one, because the flesh is one. Let us hear, and rather in these voices let us too recognize ourselves; and if we see ourselves to be outside, let us labor to be there.

3. [vv. 2, 3.] Hear, O Lord, my prayer, and let my cry come to you. This is, Hear, O Lord, my prayer; which is, let my cry come to you: in the doubling is the feeling of one who asks. Do not turn your face away from me. When does God turn away from the Son? when the Father from Christ? But because of the poverty of the members: Do not turn your face away from me. On whatever day I am afflicted, incline your ear to me. For I am afflicted below; but you are above: if I lift myself up, you become far off; if I humble myself, you incline your ear to me. But what is it, On whatever day I am afflicted? Is he not now afflicted? or would he say these things unless he were afflicted? It would be enough, then: Incline your ear to me, for I am afflicted. On whatever day I am afflicted, incline your ear to me: as the unity of the body; if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. You are afflicted today, I am afflicted; another is afflicted tomorrow, I am afflicted; after this generation other descendants, who succeed descendants, are afflicted, I am afflicted; even to the end of the age, whoever in my body are afflicted, I am afflicted. On whatever day, then, I am afflicted, incline your ear to me. On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly. This is the same thing. Even now I call upon you; but, On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly. Peter prayed, Paul prayed, the other Apostles prayed; the faithful prayed in those times, the faithful prayed in the following times, the faithful prayed in the times of the martyrs, the faithful pray in our times, the faithful will pray in the times of those to come: On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly. Hear me quickly: for now I ask what you wish to give. Not earthly things, like an earthly man, but, redeemed now from the first captivity, I desire the kingdom of heaven; Hear me quickly: for it was only to such desire that you said, While you are still speaking, I will say: Behold, I am here (See Isa 58:9; 65:24). On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly. Whence do you call? from what affliction? from what destitution? O poor man before the door of God the rich, with what desire do you beg? with what want do you seek? with what destitution do you knock, that it may be opened to you? Speak, let us hear that very want; in it let us find ourselves too, and ask with you. Hear, and recognize, if you can.

4. [v. 4.] For my days have failed like smoke. O days! if days: for where day is heard, light is understood. But my days have failed like smoke. My days, my times: whence like smoke, except because of the elation of pride? Such days the proud Adam was worthy to receive, from whom Christ received flesh. So Christ is in Adam, and Adam in Christ. He freed indeed even from the days of smoke, who deigned to have the voice of the days of smoke. For my days have failed like smoke. See the smoke, like to pride, rising, swelling, vanishing: rightly, then, failing, certainly not remaining. For my days have failed like smoke; and my bones are scorched as in a frying pan. Even my very bones, even my very strength, not without tribulation, not without burning. The bones of the body of Christ, the strength of the body of Christ, where greater than in the holy Apostles? And yet see the bones fried: Who is made to stumble, and I am not set on fire? (2 Cor 11:29) They are strong, faithful, good understanders and preachers of the word, living as they speak, speaking as they hear: they are plainly strong, but all who suffer scandals are their frying pan. For there is love there, and the more so in the bones. The bones are more inward than all the flesh, and they bear all the flesh. But if anyone suffers some scandal, and is endangered in soul; the bone is fried in proportion as it loves. Let love be absent, no one is fried: let love be present, and if one member suffers along when one member suffers; how are those fried who bear all the members? My bones are scorched as in a frying pan.

5. [v. 5.] I am struck like hay, and my heart has withered. Look back to Adam, whence the human race. For whence, except from him, was misery propagated? whence, except from him, this hereditary poverty? Let him, then, say, now set in the body of Christ with hope, who once in his own body was without hope: I am struck like hay, and my heart has withered. Rightly, since all flesh is hay. But yet whence did this befall you? Because I forgot to eat my bread. For God had given the bread of the commandment. For what is the bread of the soul, except the word of God? At the serpent's prompting, the woman transgressing, he touched the forbidden thing, he forgot the commandment: rightly he was struck like hay, and his heart withered, because he forgot to eat his bread. Forgetting to eat the bread, he drank poison; his heart was struck, and withered like hay. He is the one struck in Isaiah, of whom it is said, and to whom it is said: I will not be angry with you for an everlasting time: for the spirit shall go forth from me, and I have made every breath. For a little sin I grieved him, and struck him, and turned my face from him (See Isa 57:16-17). Rightly here, Do not turn your face away from me: that is, from the one struck, of whom you said, I struck him; of whom you said, I saw his ways, and I healed him (See Isa 57:18). I am struck like hay, and my heart has withered, because I forgot to eat my bread. Now eat the one you had forgotten. But the bread itself has come too, in whose body you may recall the voice of your forgetfulness, and cry out from poverty, that you may take up riches. Now eat; for you are in the body of him who says, I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51). You had forgotten to eat your bread; but now that he is crucified, all the ends of the earth shall be reminded and shall be converted to the Lord (Ps 22:27 (21:28)). After forgetfulness let remembrance come, let the bread from heaven be eaten, that one may live; not manna, as they ate and died: bread of which it is said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt 5:6).

6. [v. 6.] From the voice of my groaning my bones have clung to my flesh. From the voice I understand, from the voice I know: From the voice of my groaning, not from the voice of the groaning of those with whom I suffer. For many groan, and I groan too; and I groan at this, that they groan badly. He lost a coin, he groans; he lost faith, he does not groan: I weigh the coin and the faith, and I find a greater groaning over the one who groans badly, or does not groan. He commits a fraud, and rejoices. By what gain? by what loss? He acquired money, he lost righteousness. From this groans the one who knows how to groan; the one who is near the head, who rightly clings to the body of Christ, groans from this. But the carnal do not groan from this, and make themselves to be groaned over, because they do not groan from this: nor can we scorn them, whether not groaning or groaning badly. For we wish to correct them, we wish to amend them, we wish to restore them: and when we cannot, we groan; and when we groan, we are not separated from them. For From the voice of my groaning my bones have clung to my flesh: the strong clung to the weak, the firm to the infirm. Whence did they cling? From the voice of their own groaning, not from the voice of the groaning of those others. By what law did they cling, except that by which it is said, For we who are firm ought to bear the weakness of the infirm? (Rom 15:1) My bones have clung to my flesh.

7. [vv. 7, 8.] I have become like the pelican that dwells in the wilderness; I have become like the night raven in the ruined walls. I kept watch, and I have become like a solitary sparrow on the roof. Behold three birds, and three places; may the Lord grant that we say what they mean, and that you hear usefully what is said wholesomely. What do the three birds and three places mean? Which three birds? The pelican, the night raven, and the sparrow: and three places, the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the roof. The pelican in the wilderness, the night raven in the ruined walls, the sparrow on the roof. First, what the pelican is must be said. For it is born in that region, so that this bird is unknown to us. It is born in wildernesses, chiefly of the river Nile, in Egypt. Whatever this bird may be, let us look at what the psalm wished to say of it. It dwells, it says, in the wilderness. Why do you seek its form, its limbs, its voice, its habits? As much as the psalm tells you, it is a bird dwelling in the wilderness. The night raven, a bird that loves night too. Those are called ruined walls which we commonly call ruins, where walls stand without a roof, without inhabitants: there dwells the night raven. And what the sparrow and the roof are, you already know. I find, then, someone of the body of Christ, a preacher of the word, suffering with the weak, seeking the gains of Christ, mindful of his Lord who is to come, lest he should say, Wicked and lazy servant, you should have given my money to the bankers (See Matt 25:26-27). From the office of this steward let us look at these three. He has come among some where there are no Christians; he is a pelican in the wilderness: he has come to those who once were and have fallen, he is a night raven in the ruined walls; for he does not desert even the darkness of those who dwell in night, and wishes to win these too: he has come to those who are indeed Christians dwelling in a house, not as those who have not believed, or who have abandoned what they believed, but who walk lukewarmly in what they believe; the sparrow cries out to them, not in the wilderness, because they are Christians; nor in the ruined walls, because they have not fallen; but they are on the roof; or rather under the roof, because they are under the flesh. That sparrow cries out above the flesh, he is not silent about the precepts of God, nor does he become carnal, so as to be subjected to the roof. For he who is on the roof, let him not come down to take anything out of the house (See Matt 24:17); and, What you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops (Matt 10:27). These three birds and three places; and one man can have the persons of the three birds, and three men can have the persons of the three birds; and three kinds of places, there are three kinds of men; yet the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the roof are nothing but three kinds of men.

8. But why so much of these? Let us look at the Lord himself, lest perhaps it be he, and let him be better recognized, both as the pelican in the wilderness, and the night raven in the ruined walls, and the solitary sparrow on the roof. Let this poor man, our head, tell us: poor by will, let him speak to the poor in their need. For what is said, or even read, about this bird, that is, the pelican, let us not pass over in silence; not rashly affirming anything, but yet not being silent about what those who wrote it wished to be read and said. Hear it in such a way that, if it is true, it agrees; if it is false, it does not hold. These birds are said to kill their little ones as it were with blows of their beaks, and to mourn over the same, killed by themselves, in the nest for three days: finally they say that the mother gravely wounds herself, and pours out her own blood over her offspring, and they, drenched with it, come back to life. Perhaps this is true, perhaps it is false: yet if it is true, see how it agrees with him who gave us life by his own blood. It agrees with him that the mother's flesh gives life to her offspring by her own blood; it agrees well enough. For he himself too calls himself a hen over her chicks: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen her chicks under her wings, and you would not? (Matt 23:37) For he has paternal authority, maternal affection: just as Paul too is both father and mother; not through himself, but through the Gospel: father where he says, Even if you have many tutors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus through the Gospel I begot you (1 Cor 4:15); but mother where he says, My little children, of whom I am again in labor, until Christ be formed in you (Gal 4:19). This bird, then, if it is truly so, has a great likeness to the flesh of Christ, by whose blood we have been given life. But how does it agree with Christ that the bird itself kills its own offspring? Or does this too not agree with him: I will kill, and I will make alive; I will strike, and I will heal? (Deut 32:39) Or would Saul the persecutor have died, unless he had been struck from heaven; or would the preacher have been roused, unless he had been given life by his blood? But let those who wrote this see to it; we ought not to set our understanding upon what is uncertain. Let us rather recognize this bird in the wilderness; for it is this that the psalm wished to set down: The pelican in the wilderness. I think Christ born of the virgin is here understood. For he alone was so born, hence the wilderness: born in the wilderness, because he alone was so born. After the nativity it came to the passion: by whom was he crucified? was it by those who stood firm? was it by those who mourned? Therefore, as in the night of their ignorance, and as in the ruined walls of their downfall. Behold the night raven, both in the ruined walls and loving the night. For unless he loved it, why would he say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do? (Luke 23:34) Then, born in the wilderness, because he alone was so born; suffering in the darkness of the Jews as in the night, in transgression as in the ruins: what afterward? I kept watch. So you had slept in the ruined walls, and had said, I slept. What is it, I slept? Because I willed, I slept; loving the night I slept: but there follows, And I rose up (See Ps 3:5 (3:6)). So here, I kept watch. But after he kept watch, what did he do? He ascended into heaven, became like a sparrow by flying, that is, by ascending: solitary on the roof, that is, in heaven. So a pelican by being born, a night raven by dying, a sparrow by rising: there in the wilderness, as it were alone; here in the ruined walls, as it were slain by those who could not stand firm in the building; here now watching and flying solitary on the roof, there he intercedes for us. For our head is a sparrow, his body a turtledove. For the sparrow has found itself a home. What home? It is in heaven, he intercedes for us. And the turtledove a nest for itself, the Church of God a nest from the wood of his cross; where it may lay its young (Ps 84:3 (83:4)), its little ones. I kept watch, and I have become like a solitary sparrow on the roof.

9. [v. 9.] All day my enemies reproached me, and those who praised me swore against me. With the mouth they praised, in the heart they prepared treachery. Hear their praise. Master, we know that you teach the way of God in truth, and accept no one's person: is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar? (See Matt 22:16-17) Whom you praise, you trip up. Why, except because those who praised me swore against me? But whence this reproach, except that I came to make sinners my members, that by doing penance they might be in my body? Hence the whole reproach, hence the persecution: Why does your master eat with sinners and publicans? The physician is not needed by the healthy, but by the sick (See Matt 9:11-12). Would that you knew yourselves to be sick, that you might seek the physician; you would not kill, and through proud madness perish by a false health.

10. [v. 10.] But whence did my enemies reproach me all day? whence did those who praised me swear against me? Because I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. Because he wished to have in his members these kinds of men to be healed and freed, hence the reproach. Even today, what sort of reproach of the pagans is there against us? what do you think, brothers, what do you think they say to us? You corrupt discipline, and pervert the morals of the human race. What do you inveigh against? say for what reason; what have we done? By giving, he says, men a place for repentance, by promising impunity for all offenses: therefore men do evil, secure that, when they have been converted, all is forgiven them. Hence, then, the reproach: Because I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping. O you who insult, I invite you to this bread. For you do not dare to say that you are not a sinner. Examine your conscience, ascend the tribunal of your mind, do not spare yourself, examine yourself, let the marrow of your heart speak to you; see whether you dare to profess innocence. Here, plainly, if he looks back at himself, he will be disturbed; if he does not flatter himself, he will confess. And what will you do, wretched man, if there will be no harbor of impunity? If there was only license for sinning, and there is no indulgence for sins, where will you be? where will you go? Surely it was for your sake too that this poor man ate ashes like bread, and mingled his drink with weeping. Does such a banquet no longer delight you? But still, he says, men increase sins by the hope of pardon. On the contrary, they would increase sins by despair of pardon. Do you not notice with what licentious cruelty gladiators live? Whence this, except that, as if now destined for the sword and the slaughter, they wish to fulfill their lust before they pour out their blood? Would you not say this too to yourself: I am now a sinner, now wicked, now to be condemned, there is no hope of pardon; why should I not now do whatever I please, even if it is not permitted? Why should I not fulfill, as far as I can, whatever desires, if after these nothing remains but torments alone? Would you not say this to yourself, and become worse by that very despair? Rather, then, he corrects you who promises indulgence, and says, Return, transgressors, to the heart (Isa 46:8). I do not will the death of the impious, so much as that he turn back and live (See Ezek 33:11). With this harbor without doubt set before you, you lower the sails of iniquity, you turn the prow, you set sail toward righteousness, and, hoping for life, you do not neglect the medicine. Nor let God displease you in this, as though through that promise of indulgence he had made sinners secure. For indeed, lest men live worse through despair, he promised the harbor of indulgence; again, lest they live worse through the hope of pardon, he made the day of death uncertain: most providently establishing both, both whither those returning may be received, and whence those delaying may be frightened. Eat ashes like bread, and mingle your weeping with your drink; through this banquet you will come to the table of God. Do not despair; indulgence is promised to you. Thanks be to God, he says, that it is promised; I hold God's promise. Then live well now. Tomorrow, he says, I will live well. God has promised you indulgence; no one has promised you tomorrow. If you have lived badly, live well now, today. Fool, this night your soul will be taken from you. I do not say, The things you have prepared, whose will they be? (See Luke 12:20) but: According to how you have lived, where will you be? Correct yourself, then, that you may be able to have in the body of Christ this voice, which, unless I am mistaken, you gladly recognize: Because I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

11. [v. 11.] From the face of your wrath and your indignation, because you lifted me up, and dashed me down. That is that wrath of yours, O Lord, in Adam; the wrath with which we were all born, to which we clung in being born; the wrath from the propagation of iniquity, the wrath from the mass of sin: according to which the Apostle says, We too were once by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3); and whence the Lord says, The wrath of God remains upon him, because he did not believe in the only-begotten Son of God (John 3:36, 18). For he does not say, The wrath of God will come upon him; but, remains upon him: because that in which he was born is not taken away. Why, then, and what does this voice mean: Because you lifted me up, and dashed me down? For he does not say, Because you lifted me up, and you dashed me down; but, Because you lifted me up, you dashed me down. You dashed me down for this reason, because you lifted me up. Whence this? Man, set in honor, was made to the image of God: lifted into this honor, raised from the dust, raised from the earth, he received a rational soul, and was set, by the very liveliness of reason, over all beasts, cattle, birds, fish. For which of these has the reason of understanding? Because none of these was made to the image of God. Just as none of these has this honor, so none of these has this misery. For what beast laments over sin? what bird fears the Gehenna of eternal fire? Because it has no share in the blessed life, it has no goads of miseries. But man, because he was made to be in the blessed life, if he lives well; therefore he will be in a wretched life, because he has lived badly. Therefore: Because you lifted me up, you dashed me down: punishment follows me for this reason, because you gave me free choice. For if you had not given me free choice, and through this reason had not made me better than the cattle, just condemnation would not follow me when I sinned. Therefore through free choice you lifted me up, and through the judgment of justice you dashed me down.

12. [v. 12.] My days have declined like a shadow. For your days could have been days that do not decline, if you had not declined from the true day: you declined, and you received declining days. What wonder if your days have been made like you? For they are themselves declining days, because you went astray; they are days of smoke, because you swelled up. For above he had said, My days have failed like smoke; and now he says, My days have declined like a shadow. In this shadow the day is to be recognized, in this shadow the light is to be seen; lest afterward, in late and fruitless repentance, it be said, What did pride profit us? and what did the boasting of riches confer on us? All things have passed away like a shadow (Wis 5:8-9). Now say: All things will pass away like a shadow, and do not pass away yourself like a shadow. My days have declined like a shadow; and I have withered like hay. For above too he had said, I am struck like hay, and my heart has withered. But the hay will grow green again, watered by the blood of the Savior. I have withered like hay: I, the man, after that transgression; this I by your just judgment: but you, what?

13. [v. 13.] But you, O Lord, abide forever. My days have declined like a shadow, and you abide forever: let the eternal one save the temporal one. For it is not that, because I have fallen, you too have grown old: for you are vigorous to free me, who were vigorous to humble me. But you, O Lord, abide forever; and your memorial unto generation and generation. Your memorial, because you do not forget; unto generation, not one, but generation and generation: for indeed we have the promise of the present life and of the future.

14. [v. 14.] You, rising up, will have mercy on Zion, for it is time that you have mercy on it. What time? But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the Law. And where is Zion? That he might redeem those who were under the Law (Gal 4:4-5). First, then, the Jews: for from there came the Apostles, from there those more than five hundred brothers, from there next that multitude which had one soul and one heart toward God. Therefore: You, rising up, will have mercy on Zion, for it is time that you have mercy on it, for the time has come. What time? Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). Who says this? The servant of God, the builder, who said, You are God's building; who said, As a wise architect I laid the foundation; and, No one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:9-11).

15. [v. 15.] So here too, what does he say? For your servants have been well pleased with its stones. With the stones of what? With the stones of Zion. But there are non-stones there too. The non-stones of what? So what follows? And they will have mercy on its dust. Let us recognize the stones in Zion, let us recognize the dust in Zion. For he does not say, They will have mercy on its stones; but what does he say? For your servants have been well pleased with its stones, and they will have mercy on its dust. They were well pleased with its stones; but they will have mercy on its dust. I understand the stones of Zion to be all the Prophets: there was sent ahead the voice of preaching, from there the office of the Gospel was taken up, through that proclamation Christ was made known. Therefore your servants were well pleased with the stones of Zion. But those transgressors, withdrawing from the Lord, and offending the Creator by their evil deeds, returned to the earth from which they were taken. They became dust, they became impious: of whom it is said, Not so the impious, not so; but like the dust which the wind drives from the face of the earth (Ps 1:4). But wait, O Lord; bear with them, O Lord; be patient, O Lord: let not the wind rush in, and carry away this dust from the face of the earth. Let them come, let your servants come, let them recognize your words in the stones, let them have mercy on the dust of Zion, let man be formed to your image: let the dust say, that it may not perish, Remember that we are dust (See Ps 103:14 (102:14)). And they will have mercy on its dust. This concerning Zion. Was not the dust the one who crucified the Lord? And what is worse, dust from the ruined walls. Dust it was utterly: yet not in vain had it been said of the dust, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). From that very dust came a wall of so many thousands of believers, laying the prices of their goods at the feet of the Apostles. So from that dust there arose a humanity both formed and shapely. For who among the gentiles did so? How few we marvel did this, in proportion to their many thousands? Suddenly first three, afterward five thousand; all living in unity, all laying the prices of their sold goods at the feet of the Apostles, that it might be distributed to each as each had need, who had one soul and one heart toward God (See Acts 4:32-35). Who did this even out of that dust, except the one who also made Adam himself out of dust? This, then, concerning Zion, but not only in Zion.

16. [v. 16.] What then follows? And the nations will fear your name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory. Now since you have had mercy on Zion, now since your servants have been well pleased with its stones, recognizing the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets; now since they have had mercy on its dust, that man living might be formed, or rather re-formed, out of the dust; from this the preaching grew among the nations: let the nations fear your name, and all the kings of the earth your glory; let another wall come too out of the nations, let the cornerstone be recognized, let the two coming from different sides cling there, but now no longer thinking opposed things.

17. [v. 17.] For the Lord will build up Zion. This is being done now. Come, living stones, run into the structure, not into the ruin. Zion is being built; beware the ruined walls: the tower is being built, the ark is being built; watch for the flood. This is being done now: For the Lord will build up Zion. But when Zion is built, what will happen? And he will be seen in his glory. That he might build up Zion, that there might be a foundation in Zion, he was seen by Zion, but not in his glory: We saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness (Isa 53:2). But truly, when he comes to judge with his angels, when all the nations will be gathered before him, when the sheep will be separated to the right, the goats to the left, will they not then see him whom they pierced? And they will be confounded too late, who would not be confounded by the first and wholesome repentance. The Lord will build up Zion, and he will be seen in his glory: he who in it was first seen in his weakness.

18. [v. 18.] He looked upon the prayer of the humble, and did not despise their petition. In the building of Zion this is being done now; those building Zion pray, they groan: that one poor man, because the poor are many; because the thousands in so many nations are one, because of the unity of the peace of the Church. He himself is one, he himself is many: one, because of love; many, because of breadth. So now there is prayer, now there is running; now, if anyone was otherwise and held himself otherwise, let him eat ashes like bread, and mingle his drink with weeping. Now is the time, while Zion is being built; now the stones enter into the structure: when the building is finished and the house dedicated, why do you run, about to seek too late, to ask in vain, to knock to no purpose, to remain outside with the five foolish virgins? Now, then, run: for He looked upon the prayer of the humble, and did not despise their petition.

19. [vv. 19, 20.] Let these things be written for another generation. When these things were written, they did not so profit those among whom they were written: for they were written to prophesy the New Testament, among men who lived by the Old Testament. But God had given that Old Testament too, and had settled his people in that land of promise. But since your memorial is unto generation and generation, this belongs not to the unjust, but to the just: in one generation it pertains to the Old Testament; in another generation it pertains to the New Testament. And because what is prophesied foretells the New Testament: Let these things be written for another generation: and the people that will be created will praise the Lord. Not the people that has been created, but the people that will be created. What is more evident, my brothers? Here was foretold that creation of which the Apostle says, If, then, anyone is a new creation in Christ, the old things have passed away, behold, all things have been made new; but all things are from God (2 Cor 5:17-18). What is it, but all things are from God? Both the old and the new, because your memorial is unto generation and generation: And the people that will be created will praise the Lord. For he has looked out from his holy height. He looked out from on high, that he might come to the humble: from on high he was made humble, that he might exalt the humble.

On the Same Psalm 101

1. Yesterday we heard the groaning of a certain poor man in prayer; and we recognized him to be the one who for our sake became poor, though he was rich, and the members clinging to him and speaking through their head. For there we saw ourselves too; if indeed we too are anything by his grace. But the words of groaning were already finished, and those of consolation had begun; but they could not be finished by yesterday's discussion: in what remains, let us today hear the poor man no longer groaning, but rejoicing; rejoicing for this reason, because he hopes; hoping for this reason, because he does not presume on himself. He foretold the happiness of human affairs in the Scriptures of God, and added: Let these things be written for another generation: and the people that will be created will praise the Lord. For he has looked out from his holy height. Yesterday's sermon was carried this far; see what follows.

2. [vv. 20-22.] The Lord looked out from heaven to earth, to hear the groaning of those in chains, to set free the sons of those who were put to death. We find it said in another psalm: Let the groaning of those in chains enter into your sight (Ps 79:11 (78:11)); and said in that place where the voice of the martyrs was understood. Whence are the martyrs in chains? Were they not in fetters rather than in chains? For we know that the holy martyrs of God were led after the judges, going around through the provinces, and put in fetters; but in chains we do not know. There are recognized also the chains of God's discipline and of his fear, of which it is said, The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps 111:10 (110:10); Sir 1:14). For through this fear the servants of God did not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; because they feared him who has power to kill both body and soul in the Gehenna of fire. For unless the martyrs had been bound with the chains of this fear, when would they have endured all those hard and grievous things from their persecutors, since they were free to do what they were being compelled to do, and to escape what they were suffering? But God had bound them with these chains, hard indeed and grievous for a time, but to be endured for the sake of his promises, to whom it is said, Because of the words of your lips, I have kept hard ways (Ps 17:4 (16:4)). One must indeed groan in these chains, to obtain the mercy of God; whence the voice of the martyrs is in another psalm: Let the groaning of those in chains enter into your sight: yet such chains are not to be avoided, so that a ruinous liberty be sought, and the brief sweetness of temporal life, which perpetual bitterness follows. Accordingly Scripture, lest we refuse to be in the chains of wisdom, addresses us thus: Hear, son, and accept my judgment, and do not cast away my counsel; and put your foot into her fetters, and your neck into her collar: bow your shoulder and bear her, and do not hate her bonds. With all your soul draw near to her, and with all your strength keep her ways: search out and seek, and she will become known to you; and having become continent, do not forsake her. For at the last you will find her rest, and she will be turned for you into gladness, and her fetters will be for you a protection of strength, and her collar a robe of glory. For there is a golden adornment upon her, and her bonds are threads of hyacinth: you will put her on as a robe of glory, and place her on yourself as a crown of exultation (Sir 6:23-31). Let those in chains cry out, then, as long as they are in the bonds of God's discipline, in which the martyrs were trained: the chains will be loosed, and they will fly, and those same chains will afterward be turned into ornament. This happened with the martyrs. For what did the persecutors do by killing them, except that their chains were loosed and turned into crowns?

3. From heaven, then, the Lord looked out, to hear the groaning of those in chains, to set free the sons of those who were put to death. They were put to death; but the sons of those who were put to death, who are they but we? And how are we set free, except when we say to him, You have burst my bonds; to you I will sacrifice a sacrifice of praise (Ps 116:16-17 (115:16-17))? For each one is set free from the bonds of evil desires, or from the knots of his sins. The remission of sins is a setting free. For what would it have profited Lazarus that he came forth from the tomb, unless it were said, Loose him, and let him go (John 11:44)? He indeed raised him from the tomb by his voice, he restored the soul by crying out, he overcame the earthly mass placed upon the buried man, and the bound man came forth: not, then, by his own feet, but by the power of the one bringing him out. This happens in the heart of the penitent: when you hear a man repent of his sins, he has now come back to life; when you hear a man, by confessing, bring forth his conscience, he has now been led out of the tomb, but he is not yet loosed. When is he loosed? by whom is he loosed? Whatever you loose, he says, on earth, will be loosed in heaven too (Matt 18:18). Rightly can the loosing of sins be given through the Church: but the dead man himself can be raised only by the Lord crying out within; for this God does inwardly. We speak to your ears; how do we know what is being done in your hearts? But what is done within is done not by us, but by him.

4. He looked out, then, to set free the sons of those who were put to death. Of which you have heard who those put to death were, and which sons you have heard. For what then? That the name of the Lord may be announced in Zion. For first the Church was oppressed, when those in chains were being put to death: after those oppressions the name of the Lord is announced in Zion, with great liberty, in the Church itself. For it is itself Zion: not that one place, first proud, afterward taken captive; but the Zion whose shadow was that Zion, which is interpreted "watching"; for this reason, because, set in the flesh, we see into the things ahead, stretching ourselves not to the present that is, but to that which is to come. Therefore "watching." For every watchman looks out from afar. That is called a watchtower where guards are set: these watchtowers are made on rocks, on mountains, in trees, for this purpose, that from a higher place one may see far. Zion, then, is watching, the Church is watching. Whence watching? To see far, this is watching. For there is labor before me, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand the last things (Ps 73:16-17 (72:16-17)). What watching is it, to understand in the last things? To cross the sea by seeing, not by sailing, and to dwell at the ends of the sea; that is, to set one's hope there, in that which will be when the age is finished. So if the Church is watching, there already the name of the Lord is announced. Not only is the name of the Lord announced in this Zion, but also his praise, he says, in Jerusalem.

5. [v. 23.] And how is it announced? In gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Whence was this done, except by the blood of those put to death? whence was this done, except by the groanings of those in chains? They, then, were heard, who were in oppression and lowliness; so that in our times the Church might be in such great glory as we see, so that now the kingdoms which used to persecute themselves serve the Lord.

6. [v. 24.] It answered him in the way of his strength. To whom did it answer, except to the Lord? Who answered, let us see above: And his praise, he says, in Jerusalem; in gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. It answered him in the way of his strength. What answered him, or who answered him, in the way of his strength? Let us, then, first seek who answered, and so we will seek what the way of his strength is. The earlier words indicate that either his praise, or Jerusalem, answered him: for above he had said, And his praise in Jerusalem; in gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. It answered him: we cannot say, The kingdoms; because he would have said, They answered. It answered him: we cannot say, The peoples; because here too he would have said, They answered. Because, then, it answered him, we seek a singular number above, and find none, except either his praise, or Jerusalem. And because it is ambiguous, whether his praise or Jerusalem, let us treat it according to both. How does his praise too answer him? When they give him thanks, called by him. For he calls, we answer; not by the voice, but by faith; not by the tongue, but by our life. For if God calls you, and commands you to live well, and you live badly, you do not answer his calling, nor does his praise answer him concerning you; because you live in such a way that he is not praised, but rather blasphemed through you: but when we live in such a way that God is praised through us, his praise answers him. Concerning his called and holy ones, Jerusalem also answered. For Jerusalem too was called, and the first Jerusalem refused to hear, and it was said to her, Behold, your house will be left to you desolate. Jerusalem, Jerusalem (he cries out, and is not answered), how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen her chicks under her wings, and you would not! (Matt 23:38, 37) She is not answered: it is rained upon from above, and instead of fruit thorns are brought forth. But truly that Jerusalem, of which it is said, Rejoice, barren one, who do not bear; break forth and cry out, you who are not in labor, for many are the children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband (Isa 54:1; Gal 4:27); it answered him. What is it, it answered him? It did not scorn the one who called. What is it, it answered him? He rained, she gave fruit.

7. It answered him, but where? In the way of his strength. Was it in itself? For what would it be in itself, or what voice would it have in itself, of itself, except only the voice of sin, the voice of iniquity? Shake out its voice, what do you find except, for the most part, I said: Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:4 (40:5))? Further, if it has been justified, it answered him, not from its own merits, but from his hands. Where? In the way of his strength. It is Christ, it is he: I am, he says, the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). But before the resurrection he was not recognized by his people; and especially, crucified out of weakness, who he was lay hidden, until, strong by rising again, he should appear. The Church, then, did not answer him in the way of weakness, but in the way of his strength; because after the resurrection he called the Church from the whole world, now not weak on the cross, but strong in heaven. For the praise of the faith of Christians is not that they believe Christ died; but that they believe Christ rose again. For even the pagan believes him dead; and casts this at you as a charge, that you have believed in a dead man. What, then, is your praise? To believe that Christ rose again, and to hope that you will rise again through Christ: this is the praise of faith. For if you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, and confess with your mouth that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). He does not say: If you confess that God handed him over to be killed; but, if you confess that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But why do we believe him dead too? Because we cannot believe that he rose again, unless we first believe that he was dead. For who rises, unless he has been dead? who wakes, unless he has first slept? But shall not he who sleeps add that he rise again? (See Ps 41:8 (40:9)) This is the faith of Christians. In this faith, then, by which the Church was gathered, those many children of the deserted one, more than of her who has a husband; it answered him, it spoke its praise to him according to his precepts; in the way of his strength, not in the way of his weakness.

8. How it answered him you have already heard above: In gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. In this, then, it answered him, in unity: but whoever is not in unity does not answer him. For he is one, the Church is unity: nothing answers the One but unity. But there arise some who say: This has already been done; the Church answered him in all the nations, bearing more children than she who had a husband, it answered in the way of his strength; for it believed that Christ rose again, all the nations believed in him: but that Church which was of all the nations now is not; it has perished. This those say who are not in it. O shameless voice! Is it not, because you are not in it? See lest you, for that reason, are not; for it will be, even if you are not. This abominable, detestable voice, full of presumption and falsehood, propped up by no truth, illuminated by no wisdom, seasoned by no salt, vain, rash, headlong, ruinous, the Spirit of God foresaw, and, as if against them, when he announced unity: In gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. And when he had added, It answered him, certainly his praise, certainly Jerusalem our mother to be called back from her pilgrimage, fruitful with many children, more than she who had a husband; since certain men were going to say against it, It was, and is not: The fewness, he says, of my days announce to me. What is it, that some men, withdrawing from me, murmur against me? what is it, that the lost contend that I have perished? For surely they say this, that I was, and am not: Announce to me the fewness of my days. I do not ask of you those eternal days: those are without end, where I will be; those I do not ask: I ask the temporal ones, announce to me the temporal days: The fewness of my days, not the eternity of my days, announce to me. How long I will be in this age, announce to me; because of those who say, It was, and now is not; because of those who say, The Scriptures are fulfilled, all the nations have believed, but the Church of all the nations has apostatized and perished. What is this, The fewness of my days announce to me? And he announced, nor was that voice in vain. Who announced it to me, except the Way itself? How did it announce it? Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (Matt 28:20).

9. But here they arise, and say: I am with you, he says, even to the consummation of the age; because he foresaw us, because the party of Donatus will be in the land. Is it itself the one that said, The fewness of my days announce to me; and not rather that one which spoke above, In gathering the peoples into one, and kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord? Whence does your heart ache? Because the emperors too set forth laws against heretics: there is fulfilled, And kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. For you are not the sons of those who were put to death, whose voice, the voice of those in chains, was heard by the Lord. Far from it: your deeds do not indicate this, your pride does not indicate this, your vanity does not indicate this: you have no taste, and you are outside; you are salt that has lost its savor, and therefore you are trodden underfoot by men too. Hear what it says: which Church? The one that gathered the peoples into one. Which Church? The one that gathered kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Moved by your voices and your false opinions, it asks of God that he announce to it the fewness of its days, and it finds that the Lord has said, Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age. Here you say: He spoke of us; we are, we will be, even to the consummation of the age. Let Christ himself be questioned, to whom it was said, The fewness of my days announce to me. And this Gospel will be preached, he says, in the whole world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come (Matt 24:14). What is it that you were saying: Surely this was, and it perished? Hear the Lord announcing the fewness of my days. This Gospel will be preached, he says. Where? In the whole world. To whom? As a testimony to all the nations. What afterward? And then the end will come. Do you not see that there are still nations among whom the Gospel has not yet been preached? Since, then, it is necessary that what the Lord said be fulfilled, announcing the fewness of my days to the Church, that this Gospel be preached among all the nations, and then the end come; what is it that you say that the Church of all the nations has already perished, when the Gospel is preached for this very purpose, that it may be among all the nations? Therefore even to the end of the age the Church is in all the nations; and this very thing is the fewness of days, because everything that is finished is small; so that one may now pass from this fewness into eternity. Let the heretics perish, let them perish from what they are, and be found so as to be what they are not. The fewness of days will last to the end of the age: small for this reason, because this whole time—I do not say from today to the end of the age, but from Adam to the end of the age—is a tiny drop compared to eternity.

10. [v. 25.] Let the heretics, then, not flatter themselves against me, because I said, The fewness of my days, as though it would not remain to the end of the age. For what did he add? Do not call me back in the half of my days. Do not, as the heretics speak, so deal with me. Lead me through to the end of the age, not to the half of my days; and perfect for me my few days, that you may afterward give me eternal days. Why, then, did you ask about the fewness of days? Why? Do you wish to hear? Your years are unto generation of generations. For this reason I asked about the few days, because, although these days last with me to the end of the age, they are few in comparison with your days: for your years are unto generation of generations. Why does he not say, Your years are unto ages of ages; for so eternity is more usually signified in the holy Scriptures: but says, Your years are unto generation of generations? But what are your years? What, except those that do not come and pass away? what, except those that do not come in order not to be? For every day in this time comes for this purpose, that it may not be; every hour, every month, every year: none of these stands; before it comes, it will be; when it has come, it will not be. Those years of yours, then, the eternal ones, your years that are not changed, will be unto generation of generations. There is a certain generation of generations; in it your years will be. What is it? There is a certain one, and, if we recognize it well, we will be in it, and the years of God will be in us. How will they be in us? As God himself will be in us: whence it is said, That God may be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). For the years of God are not one thing and he himself another: but the years of God are the eternity of God: eternity is the very substance of God, which has nothing changeable; there nothing is past, as if it now were not; nothing is future, as if it were not yet. There is nothing there but: It is; there is not there: It was and It will be; because what was, now is not; and what will be, is not yet: but whatever is there, simply is. Rightly so God sent his servant Moses. For he asked the name of the one sending him; he asked, and he heard, nor was the longing of his good desire deserted. He asked, however, not as if out of the curiosity of presuming, but out of the necessity of ministering. What, he says, shall I say to the sons of Israel, if they say to me: Who sent you to us? And he, indicating himself to the creature as Creator, to man as God, to the mortal as immortal, to the temporal as eternal: I am, he says, who I am. You would say: I am. Who? Gaius; another, Lucius; another, Marcus. Would you say anything except your name? This was awaited of God. For this was what was asked. What are you called? By whom shall I answer that I am sent, to those who ask? I am. Who? Who I am. Is this your name? is this the whole of what you are called? Would to be itself be your name, unless whatever else is, compared to you, were found not truly to be? This is your name: express this same thing better. Go, he says, and say to the sons of Israel: He who is sent me to you. I am who I am: he who is sent me to you. Behold a great Is, a great Is! Compared to this, what is man? Compared to that so great Is, what is man, whatever he is? Who can grasp that being? who can become a partaker of it? who can pant for it? who can aspire to it? who can presume that he can be there? Do not despair, human frailty. I am, he says: the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (See Exod 3:13-15). You have heard what I am in myself, hear too what I am for your sake. This eternity, then, called us, and the Word burst forth out of eternity. Already eternity, already the Word, and not yet time. Why not yet time? Because time too was made. How was time too made? All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made (John 1:3). O Word before the times, through whom the times were made, born in time too, though he is eternal life, calling the temporal, making them eternal! This is the generation of generations. For a generation goes, and a generation comes. And you see that the generations of men are on the earth as leaves on a tree; but on a tree of the olive, or laurel, or any other that is clothed in foliage all the time. So the earth bears the human race as it were as leaves: it is full of men, but while some die others succeed by being born. For always that tree is adorned with a green garment: but look beneath, how many dry leaves you tread on.

11. So there was a generation under Adam; it passed. From there were born some who would be partakers of God's eternity even in that time: for from there came Abel, from there Seth, from there Enoch. That generation passed, the flood came, one house remained. And that generation gave some, Noah himself, and his three sons, and his three daughters-in-law: for in that whole house of eight only one sinner was found. The number was added to the earlier generation. Then from the three sons of Noah, as from three measures of flour, the world was filled. Abraham was chosen, Isaac, and Jacob; holy men, patriarchs, pleased God. That generation too gave those who followed, who also begot, they gave the Prophets, they gave the heralds of God. Afterward came our Lord Jesus Christ himself, he put leaven into three measures of flour, until the whole was leavened. In the times of his flesh on earth there were the Apostles, there were holy men; after them other holy men: and now in the name of Christ whoever are holy, and after us whoever will be, and to the end of the age whoever are holy. Out of so many generations you will gather all the holy offspring of all the generations, and make of them one generation: In this generation of generations are your years, that is, that eternity will be in that generation which is gathered from all the generations, and reduced into one; it will itself be a partaker of your eternity. The other generations are begotten to fill up the times, out of which that one is regenerated unto eternity; changed, it will be made alive, it will be fit to bear you, receiving strength from you. Unto generation of generations are your years.

12. [vv. 26-28.] In the beginning you founded the earth, O Lord. I have come to know your eternity, by which you precede all the things you have made. In the beginning you founded the earth, O Lord; and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish; but you abide: and all will grow old like a garment, and like a covering you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the very same. Who are you? You are the very same. You who said, I am who I am, you are the very same. And although even these things would not be except from you, and through you, and in you, yet they are not what you yourself are: for you are the very same. And your years will not fail. Those years of yours will not fail, those years of yours which will be unto generation of generations will not fail. Knowing this, then, I would have asked you about the fewness of my days, unless I knew that all the days of the age, from the beginning to the end, are few in comparison with your eternity. I have come to know, then, from what I asked. Let the heretics not exalt themselves, as though the days of the Church, spread throughout the whole world, were few; for even though they last to the end, they are few. Why are they few? Because at some time they are to be finished. Those years which will be unto generation of generations, these are to be loved, these to be desired, for these one must sigh; for these one must remain in unity, for these one must shun whatever evil of the heretics there is, for these one must answer the lost, for these one must win those who had erred, and call back those who had perished: there our desire ought to be. But yet, that I may answer the verbose, the badly garrulous, the slanderous, the whisperers, the detractors, for this reason announce to me the fewness of my days; and do not call me back in the half of my days, so as to take me away from the earth before the whole world is filled with the Gospel, against the answer of my Lord, who says, This Gospel must be preached in the whole world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come (See Matt 24:14). What of this, brothers? These things are plain, they are manifest: God founded the earth, we know; the heavens are the works of his hands. For do not suppose that God makes one thing as it were by hand, another by word. What he makes by word, this he makes by hand; for he is not distinguished by bodily members, who said, I am who I am. And perhaps his word is his hand. Certainly his hand is his power. For because it is said, Let there be a firmament, and the firmament was made; he is understood to have made it by his word: but because he said, Let us make man to our image and likeness (Gen 1:26); he is seen to have made it as it were by hand. Hear, then: The heavens are the works of your hands. Behold, what he made by word, he surely made also by hands; because he made it by his power, by his might. Attend rather to what he made, and do not ask how he made it. It is too much for you to grasp how he made it, since he so made you that you should first be an obedient servant, and afterward perhaps an understanding friend. Therefore: The heavens are the works of your hands.

13. They will perish; but you abide. The apostle Peter said this openly: The heavens existed of old, constituted of water and through water by the word of God; through which the world that then was, deluged with water, perished: but the earth and the heavens that now are, by the same word are stored up, reserved for fire (2 Pet 3:5-7). He has already said, then, that the heavens perished through the flood: and we know that the heavens perished according to the extent and the spaces of this air. For the water swelled up, and occupied all this capacity where the birds fly; and so certainly the heavens near the earth perished: the heavens according to which the birds are called the birds of heaven. But there are also the higher heavens of heavens in the firmament: but whether they too are to perish by fire, or only these heavens which also perished by the flood, is a somewhat thornier dispute among the learned, nor can it easily be unfolded, especially in the narrowness of time. Let us, then, dismiss it, or defer it; let us know, however, that these things perish, that God abides. And if certain things abide with God, which were made by God, they do not abide in themselves, but in God, by not withdrawing from God. For what? are we going to say, brothers, that the angels are to perish by the fire with which the world will be burned? Far from it. But what? shall we say that God did not make the angels? Far from it. But what shall we say? And whence would they be, if they had not been made by him? He spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created (Ps 33:9 (32:9); 148:5). For this was said when the commemoration of his works was made, among which the angels too were named. The angels, then, will be with him, even while the world blazes with fire; and there will be a burning of the world, not burning the holy ones of God: what the furnace of the king was to the three boys, that the burning world will be to the just signed in the Trinity.

14. Perhaps here too we may not inopportunely understand the heavens to be the just themselves, the holy ones of God, in whom God, abiding, thundered with precepts, flashed with miracles, rained upon the earth with the wisdom of truth; for the heavens declared the glory of God. But will they too perish? Or will they perish in a certain manner? In what manner? According to the garment. What is it, according to the garment? According to the body. For the body is the garment of the soul; for the Lord named it a garment, where he said, Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than the garment? (Matt 6:25) How, then, does the garment perish? Even if our outer man is corrupted, yet the inner is renewed from day to day (2 Cor 4:16). They will perish, then, but according to the body: but you abide. If, then, they will perish according to the body, where then is the resurrection of the flesh? where is the example of the members that went before in the head? where? Do you wish to hear? It will be changed; it will not be such as it was. Hear the Apostle saying, And the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed. How will we be changed? A natural body is sown, a spiritual body will rise (1 Cor 15:52, 44). The mortal, then, is sown, the immortal will rise; the corruptible is sown, the incorruptible will rise. We await, therefore, a change: so the heavens will perish, and the heavens will be changed. But perhaps the bodies of the saints are not rightly called heavens? If they do not bear God, let them not be heavens. And whence, you say, do you prove to me that they bear God? Has it so far slipped your mind: Glorify and bear God in your body (1 Cor 6:20)? Such heavens, then, will perish, but not forever; they will perish in order to be changed. Or does the Psalm not say this? Read what follows: And all will grow old like a garment, and like a covering you will change them, and they will be changed; but you are the very same, and your years will not fail. You hear a garment, you hear a covering, and do you understand something other than the body? Let us hope, then, also for the change of our bodies, but yet from him who was both before us, and abides after us; from whom we are what we are, to whom we will come when we have been changed; changing, not changed; making, not made; and moving, but abiding; and—how can it be understood by flesh and blood?—I am who I am: but you are the very same, and your years will not fail. But we, compared to those years, with these tattered years of ours, what are we? And those, what are they? And yet we ought not to despair. For already by a certain greatness and excellence of wisdom he had said, I am who I am; and yet to console us: I am, he says, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exod 3:15): and we are the seed of Abraham: and we, although abject, although earth and ashes, hope in him. We are servants; but for our sake our Lord took the form of a servant (Phil 2:7): for our sake the immortal willed to die for mortals, for our sake he showed this example of resurrection. Let us hope, then, that we will come standing to those years, in which the days are not carried on by the circuit of the sun, but that which is abides as it is, because this alone truly is.

15. [v. 29.] But tell whether we can ever be there. Hear, and see whether you ought to despair; hear what follows: The sons of your servants will dwell there. Where, except in the years that do not fail? The sons of your servants will dwell there; and their seed will be directed unto the age: unto the age of the age, unto the eternal age, unto the abiding age. But the sons, he says, of your servants: is it to be feared that we are the servants of God, and our sons will be there, not we? Or if we are sons of servants, because we are sons of the Apostles, what shall we say? What audacity, then, so unhappy, of subsequent sons, glorying in their recent succession, would dare to say: We will be there; the Apostles will not be there? Far be this from the piety of sons, far from the faith of little ones, far from the understanding of the great. The Apostles too will be there: the rams go before, the lambs follow. Why, then, The sons of your servants, and not, more compactly, Your servants? Both they are your servants, and their sons are your servants, and the sons of these, the grandsons of those, what are they, except your servants? You would include all compactly, if you said: Your servants will dwell there. Let us see what he wished to admonish us. For there is a certain thing done in former ages. For forty years the sons of Israel were worn down in the desert: none of them entered into the land of promise, but their sons; they indeed entered, for so we recall, unless I am mistaken, two, the rest did not. Of so many thousands two entered. So much was labored with them: but God does not labor; certainly his servants labored. How much did Moses bear, how much did he hear, for the men who would not enter into the land of promise? Their sons entered, what does it signify? New men entered, the old did not enter. Yet from there two entered, one and unity, as it were head and body, Christ and the Church, with all that newness, that is, of the sons. Therefore: The sons of your servants will dwell there. The sons of the servants are the works of the servants; no one will dwell there except through his own works. What, then, is it, And the sons will dwell there? Let no one glory that he will dwell there, if he says he is a servant of God, and does not have works; for none will dwell there but the sons. What, then, is it, The sons of your servants will dwell there? The servants will dwell there through their works, the servants will dwell there through their sons. Do not, then, be barren, if you wish to dwell there; send ahead the offspring you will follow, by sending them ahead, not by burying them. Let your sons lead you to the land of promise, the land of the living, not of the dying: while you live here in this pilgrimage, let them go before, let them receive you. For the sake of carnal refreshment, the son went before Jacob into Egypt, and said to his father and his brothers, I have gone ahead to prepare food for you (See Gen 45:5-9). Let your sons, then, go before, let your works go before you: such sons as you have sent ahead, such you will follow.

Exposition of Psalm 102

1. [v. 1.] In every gift of the Lord our God, in every consolation of his, in every rebuke, in the grace he has deigned to give, in the indulgence by which he has not repaid us what he owed, in all his works, let our soul bless the Lord. For this we have sung; from this begins the psalm of which we will speak, with him granting what we can, whom our soul blesses. Let each one of us rouse and exhort his soul, and say to it: Bless the Lord, O my soul. And let all of us, and the brothers who are everywhere in Christ, one man, whose head is in heaven, let that one man exhort his soul, and say to it: Bless the Lord, O my soul. It obeys, it complies, it does this, it is persuaded—not from our gifts, but from the gifts of him whom our soul blesses. For this psalm has undertaken to show us why our soul should bless the Lord, as if its soul had answered it: Why do you say to me: Bless the Lord? Let us hear, then, let our soul itself hear, let it consider all the things by which it is roused, lest it be lazy in blessing the Lord; and let it see whether it is just what is said to it: Bless the Lord, O my soul: let it see whether it ought to bless anything besides the Lord. Bless, he says, O my soul, the Lord.

2. He repeats this, and says more expressly what he had said: Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, his holy name. I think he does not speak to the inward parts of the body; I think he does not say this, that our lung and liver, and whatever the intestines of the flesh are, should burst forth into a voice of blessing the Lord. There is indeed the lung of our breast as it were a kind of bellows breathing the reciprocal breath, which breath of the air taken in is pressed out into voice and sound when we form words; nor can any sound of voice come from our mouth except what the lung, pressed, has sent out: but this is not what is meant here; all this is for the ears of men. God has ears, the heart too has a sound. A man addresses his inward parts, that they may bless the Lord, and says to them: All that is within me, bless his holy name. Do you ask what your inward parts are? Your very soul. So what he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul; this he says, all that is within me, his holy name: for it is understood: bless. Cry out with the voice, if there is a man to hear; be silent in voice, when there is no one to hear; your inward parts never lack one to hear. And so the blessing was sounding a while ago from our mouth, and we sang these very words: Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, his holy name. We have sung as much as was enough for the time, and we have fallen silent: but ought our inward parts to be silent from blessing the Lord? Let the sound of voices alternate according to the time, let the voice of the inward parts be perpetual. When you come together to the church to say a hymn, your voice sounds the praises of God: you have said as much as you could, you have departed; let your soul sound the praises of God. You do business; let your soul praise God. You take food; see what the Apostle says: Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). I dare to say: when you sleep, let your soul bless the Lord. Let no thought of disgrace rouse you, let no plotting of theft rouse you, let no corruption perhaps agreed upon rouse you. Your innocence, even in the sleeper, is the voice of your soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, his holy name.

3. [v. 2.] Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his recompenses. Bless, he says, O my soul, the Lord. What is your soul? All that is within you. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The repetition is for the sake of exhortation. But that you may always bless the Lord, Do not forget all his recompenses. If you forget, you will be silent. But the recompenses of the Lord cannot be before your eyes, unless your sins have been before your eyes. Let not the delight of past sin be before your eyes, but let the condemnation of sin be before your eyes: condemnation by you, remission by God. For these things the Lord recompenses, so that you can say, What shall I render to the Lord, for all that he has rendered to me? For considering this, the martyrs, whose memory too we celebrate today, and all the saints whatsoever who scorned this life, and, as you heard in the Epistle of John, laid down their souls for the brothers—which is the perfection of love, as the Lord says, No one has greater love than to lay down his soul for his friends (John 15:13): considering this, then, the holy martyrs scorned their souls here, that they might find them there, following the words of the Lord, who says, He who loves his soul will lose it; and he who has lost it for my sake will find it unto eternal life (See John 12:25). For they wished to render: who? and what? and to whom? Men rendered their service, even unto death, to God. What, that he had not given? What did they give, that they had not received? He, then, truly renders, who alone gives: but he did not render according to our sins; for some recompenses were owed to us, and others were rendered. Do not, he says, forget all his recompenses: not allotments, but recompenses. For one thing was owed, and there was rendered what was not owed. Whence he too: What shall I render to the Lord, for all, he says, that he has rendered to me? (Ps 116:12 (115:12)) He does not say, that he allotted to me; but, that he recompensed to me. You rendered evil for good; he rendered good for evil. How did you, O man, render to God evil for good? You who were formerly a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and an insulter, rendered blasphemies. For what goods? First, that you exist: but the stone too exists. Then, that you live: but the beast too lives. What will you render to the Lord, for the fact that he made you, above all beasts and above all birds, to his image and likeness? Do not seek what to render him: render him his own likeness, he seeks no more; he demands his own coin. But you, instead of giving thanks, instead of humility, instead of obedience, instead of religious worship—that is, instead of all those goods which you owed to your God, for the goods you received, which I mentioned—you rendered blasphemies. What, then, does he do? Confess, I forgive. I too render, but not what you rendered: you rendered evil for good; I render good for evil.

4. Consider, then, O soul, all the recompenses of God, by considering all your evil deeds: for as many as your evil deeds are, so many are his good recompenses. And what perhaps of gifts will you offer him? what of presents? what of sacrifices? Since you will not forget his recompenses, he delights in this sacrifice: Bless the Lord, O soul. The sacrifice of praise will glorify me: offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and render to the Most High your vows (Ps 50:23, 14 (49:23, 14)). God wishes to be praised; and this, that you may profit, not that he may be exalted. There is nothing at all to render him: and what he demands, he demands not for himself, but for you; it will profit you, it is kept for you. He loves this from you, not because it increases him, but because it leads you to him. Therefore the martyrs sought, and failed in a certain way by not finding, and said, What shall I render to the Lord, for all that he has rendered to me? And they did not find what to render, except, I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord (Ps 116:13 (115:13)). What will you render to the Lord? For you were considering, and not finding: I will take the cup of salvation. What? Did not the Lord himself give the cup of salvation? Render something of your own, if you can. I would not say it; do not do it, do not render of your own; God does not wish to be rendered of your own. If you render of your own, you render sin. For all that you have, you have from him: only your sin you have of your own. He does not wish to be rendered of your own, but of his own. As with the farmer, from the earth he sowed, if you bring a crop, you have rendered of the farmer's fruit; if thorns, you have offered of your own. Render truth, praise the Lord in truth: if you wish to render of your own, you will lie. He who speaks a lie speaks of his own (John 8:44). If he who speaks a lie speaks of his own; he who speaks the truth speaks of God's. But what is it to take the cup of salvation, except to imitate the passions of the Lord? This the martyrs did. This he said to those who were being proud, and already seeking lofty seats, and shunning the valley of weeping, who wished to sit, one at the right hand, the other at the left. What, then, does he say? Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? (Matt 20:22) Now, then, the martyr, prepared for the holy victim, says, I will take the cup of salvation: I will take the cup of Christ, I will drink the passion of the Lord. Beware lest you fail. But I will call upon the name of the Lord. Those, then, who failed, did not call upon the Lord; they presumed on their own strength. Render in such a way that you remember that you have received what you render. So, then, let your soul bless the Lord, so as not to forget all his recompenses.

5. [vv. 3-5.] Hear all his recompenses: Who is gracious to all your iniquities, who heals all your weaknesses. Who redeems your life from corruption, who crowns you in compassion and mercy. Who satisfies your desire in good things: your youth will be renewed like the eagle's. Behold the recompenses. What was owed to the sinner, except punishment? what was owed to the blasphemer, except the Gehenna of burning fire? He did not recompense these: do not be terrified, do not shudder, do not fear without love. Do not forget all his good recompenses; and change now, lest you experience his recompenses: what shall I say? his bad ones? If they are just, they are not bad. To you, then, bad; but to God, even these evils which you suffer are not evils: for if they are just, they are good; but to you who suffer them these are evils. Do you not wish that the things which are just on God's part be evils to you? Let not your iniquity be an evil in the sight of God. For he did not cease to call, nor neglect to instruct the one called, nor cease to perfect the one instructed, nor neglect to crown the one perfected. What do you say? That you are a sinner? Be converted, and receive these recompenses; he is gracious to all your iniquities. After the remission of sins you carry an infirm body: it is necessary that there be certain carnal desires that titillate you, and that suggest to you illicit delights; they come from your weakness. For you still carry infirm flesh, death is not yet swallowed up in victory, this corruptible has not yet put on incorruption; the soul itself is still shaken by certain disturbances after the remission of sins; it is still set among the dangers of temptations, it is delighted by certain suggestions, by certain ones it is not delighted, and in those by which it is delighted, sometimes it consents to certain ones, it is caught. It is a weakness; he heals too all your weaknesses. All your weaknesses will be healed, do not fear. They are great, you will say: but the physician is greater. To the almighty physician no weakness is incurable: only let yourself be cured, do not push back his hands; he knows what he is doing. Be not only delighted when he soothes, but endure too when he cuts: endure the medicinal pain, thinking of the health to come. See, my brothers, in these weaknesses of the body, how much men endure, that they may live a few days, and die, and these few days uncertain. For many, after enduring great pains, when they were cut by physicians, either died in the hands of the physicians, or, now healthy, were carried off by some sickness rushing in. If they expected death so near to themselves, would they take on those immense pains to be endured? You do not endure for something uncertain: he who promised health cannot be deceived. A physician is sometimes deceived, and promises health of the human body. Why is he deceived? Because he does not heal what he made. God made your body, God made your soul; he knows how to recreate what he created, he knows how to re-form what he himself formed: only be under the hands of the physician; for he hates the one who pushes back his hands. This does not happen in the hands of a human physician. Men wish to be bound, and to be cut; about to give, for uncertain health, certain pain, a great fee. God, whom he made, heals you both with certainty and for free. Bear, then, his hands, O soul, who bless him, not forgetting his recompenses; for he heals all your weaknesses.

6. Who redeems your life from corruption. From this he heals all your weaknesses, because he redeems your life from corruption. Behold, the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul. The soul, then, has life in a corruptible body. What sort of life? It suffers burdens, it bears weights. For thinking of God himself, as it is fitting for God to be thought of by man, how many things impede, as it were interrupting from the necessity of human corruption? how many call it back? how many twist it away from its lofty intention? how many interrupt? what a crowd of phantasms? what a populace of suggestions? All this in the human heart, as it were, teems with the worms of this corruption. We have exaggerated the disease, let us praise the physician too. Will he not, then, heal you, who made you such that you would not be sick, if you had been willing to keep the law of health you received? Did he not both arrange for you and command you what to touch, what not to touch, to retain your health? You were unwilling to hear it for retaining; hear it for recovering. By your weakness you have experienced how true were the things he had commanded. At long last let a man hear at least by experience what, warned, he did not hold. What hardness is it, which not even experience teaches? Will he not, then, heal you, who had made you such that you would never be sick, if you had been willing to keep his precepts? will he not heal you, who made the angels, and who will make you, restored, equal to the angels? will he not heal what was made to his image, who made heaven and earth? He will heal you; you must be willing to be healed. He heals indeed any weak person, but he does not heal the unwilling. And what is happier for you than to have, as it were in your hand, so in your will, your health? If you wished to be in some lofty honor on this earth; if you coveted a dukedom, a proconsulship, a prefecture: could you immediately do as you wished? would power follow your will? Many wish to attain these things, and cannot: but if they attained them, what does honor profit the sick? For who is not sick in this life? who does not drag out a long weakness? To be born here in a mortal body is to begin to be sick. Our needs are propped up by daily remedies, the refreshments of all our needs are daily remedies. Would not hunger kill you, unless you applied its remedy? would not thirst destroy you, unless by drinking you, not entirely extinguished it, but deferred it? For thirst, a little tempered, will return. We temper, then, with these poultices the misery of our sickness. You were wearied by standing, you are refreshed by sitting; the very sitting is medicine for weariness: in this very medicine you are wearied again; you cannot sit long. Whatever it is where weariness is relieved, another weariness is begun. Why, then, do you, weak, desire these things? First think of your health. Sometimes a man is sick in his house, in his bed, with a more manifest sickness; although that too is manifest which men are unwilling to look at: yet with that sickness for which human physicians are sought, anyone is sick in his house, panting with fevers in his bed; he might perhaps wish to think about his household affairs, to order something, whether in the house or on the estate, or to arrange things; immediately, with the care of his people clamoring and murmuring around, he is called back from such cares, and it is said to him: Leave these things, first think of your health. So this is said to you: Every man, if you are not sick, think of other things; if your very weakness convicts you of being sick, first think of your health. Your health is Christ: think, then, of Christ. Take the cup of his salvation: Who heals all your weaknesses: if you will this health, you will obtain it. Honors and riches, when you seek them, you will not immediately have, if you will them: this is both more precious, and follows the will. Who heals all your weaknesses, who redeems your life from corruption. There every weakness of yours will be healed, when this corruptible will put on incorruption. For your life has been redeemed from corruption; now be secure: a contract of good faith has been entered; no one deceives your redeemer, no one circumvents, no one oppresses. He has carried out the transaction here, he has already paid the price, he has shed his blood. He shed his blood, I say, the only Son of God, for us: O soul, lift yourself up, you are worth so much. He redeems your life from corruption. He has shown by example what he promised as reward. He died for our offenses, and rose again for our justification. Let the members hope for what was demonstrated in the head. Will he not care for his members, whose head he raised to heaven? Therefore he redeems your life from corruption.

7. Who crowns you in compassion and mercy. For perhaps you had now begun to be as it were arrogant, when you heard, he crowns you. So I am great, so I have wrestled. By whose strength? Yours, but supplied by him. For that you wrestle is manifest; and therefore you will be crowned, because you will conquer: but see who conquered first, see who makes you a conqueror in the second place too. I, he says, have conquered the world, rejoice (See John 16:33). And whence do we rejoice, if he conquered the world? as if we had conquered? Yes, plainly let us rejoice, because we conquered. We who were conquered in ourselves, conquered in him. So he crowns you, because he crowns his own gifts, not your merits. I labored more than all of them, says the Apostle: but see what he adds: yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10). And after all his labors he awaits the crown itself, and says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: for the rest there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render to me on that day, the just judge (2 Tim 4:7-8). Why? Because I have fought the fight. Why? Because I have finished the course. Why? Because I have kept the faith. Whence did you fight? whence did you keep the faith? Yet not I, but the grace of God with me. So that even that you are crowned, you are crowned by his mercy. Be proud nowhere; always praise the Lord, do not forget all his recompenses. It is a recompense, when you, a sinner and impious, were called, that you might be justified. It is a recompense, when you were raised up and steered lest you fall. It is a recompense, when strength was supplied to you, that you might persevere to the end. It is a recompense, that even this flesh of yours, by which you were weighed down, should rise again, and not even a hair of your head perish. It is a recompense, that after the resurrection you be crowned. It is a recompense, that you praise God himself forever without failing. Do not forget all his recompenses, if you wish your soul to bless the Lord, who crowns you in compassion and mercy.

8. And what shall I do when crowned? Behold, I was helped while I wrestled, when the contest is finished I will be crowned; now there will be no remaining hostile suggestion or corruption with which I might wrestle. For always in this life we wrestle with this corruption: but what is written? The last enemy, death, will be destroyed. After the destruction of death, you will fear no enemy: thence death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor 15:26, 54). Then, then, there will be victory, then the crown. After the contest, then, I will be crowned; after the crown, what shall I do? Who satisfies your desire in good things. For now you hear "good," and you pant; you hear "good," and you sigh: and this very thing that you perhaps sin in, you are deceived by an eagerness for choosing good things; and you are held guilty in this, that you do not hear the good counsel of God, what is to be scorned and what to be chosen; which perhaps you neglect to learn, if you were deceived in choosing the good. Wherever you sin, you seek as it were a good, you desire as it were a refreshment. These things you seek are good; but they will be evil to you, if you have deserted him by whom the good things were made. Seek your own good, O soul. For one thing is good for one, another for another, and all creatures have a certain good of their own, of their wholeness, and of the perfection of their nature: it matters what is necessary for each imperfect thing, that it may be perfected; seek your own good. No one is good but the one God (Mark 10:18). The highest good, this is your good. What, then, is lacking to one for whom the highest good is good? For there are also lower goods, which are good for one and another. What is good for a beast, brothers, except to fill its belly, to lack want, to sleep, to frolic, to live, to be healthy, to beget? It is good for it, and up to a certain measure it has the measure of its good allotted, and granted by God the creator of all things. Do you seek such a good? God gives this too; but do not seek it alone. Coheir of Christ, why do you rejoice that you are a partner of the beast? Lift up your hope to the good of all goods. He himself will be your good, by whom you were made good in your own kind, and all things were made good in their own kind. For God made all things very good. So if we say of that good which God is that it is very good, this has already been said of the creation too: God made all things very good (Gen 1:31). What, then, of that good of which it is said, No one is good but the one God? do we say that it is very good? The recollection of all creatures recurs to us, because it was said, God made all things very good. What, then, shall we say? We fail in voice, but not in feeling. Let that recent discussion of the Psalm come to mind: we cannot unfold it, let us shout for joy. God is good. What sort of good, who can say? Behold, we cannot say it, and we are not permitted to be silent. So if we cannot say it, and for joy we are not permitted to be silent; let us neither speak nor be silent. What, then, shall we do, neither speaking nor being silent? Let us shout for joy. Shout for joy to God our salvation: shout for joy to God, all the earth. What is it, Shout for joy? Bring forth the ineffable voice of your joys, and belch out to him your gladness. And what will that belching be after the feasting, if now after these little refreshments our soul is so affected? what will it be, when it happens after the redemption from all corruption, what is said in this psalm, Who satisfies your desire in good things?

9. And as if you were to ask: When does he satisfy? for now I am not satisfied; to whatever I turn myself, what I have attained becomes cheap to me, although it had kindled me while desired: since all the things which I love while I do not have them, when I have them I scorn—what good will satisfy me? The praise of God. And even that, when the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind thinking of many things, my soul is not filled, is not perfected: other delights of needs, from corruption, twist me away from it. When will my desire be satisfied in good things? when, you ask? Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's. You ask, then, when your soul will be satisfied in good things? When your youth will have been renewed. And he added, like the eagle's. Surely something lies hidden here: yet what is wont to be said of the eagle we do not pass over in silence, because it is not beside the point to understand this. Let only this be impressed on our hearts, that it was not without cause said by the Holy Spirit, Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's. For he signified to us a certain resurrection. And indeed the youth of the eagle too is renewed, but not unto immortality. For the likeness was given, as far as it could be drawn from a mortal thing to signify in some way an immortal thing, not to demonstrate it. It is said that the eagle, when it is pressed by the old age of its body, cannot take food because of the overgrowth of its beak. For the upper part of its beak, which curves over the lower part, when through old age it has grown too much, the length of its growth does not allow it to open its mouth, so that there be some interval between the lower part and the upper hook. For unless some interval lies open, the bite does not have, as it were, pincers, by which it may as it were clip what it passes into its throat. So when the upper part grows, and is curved too much, it cannot open its mouth and take anything. This old age does to it. It is weighed down by the weakness of old age, and grows too weak from the lack of eating; both things befalling it, both of age and of want. And so, in a certain natural manner, in the measure of as it were renewing its youth, the eagle is said to dash and strike against a rock its as it were upper lip, by whose excessive growth the way of eating is closed: and so by grinding it against the rock it knocks it off, and is rid of the burden of the former beak, by which its food was impeded. It comes to its food, and all things are restored: after old age it will be as a young eagle; the vigor of all its members returns, the brightness of its feathers, the rudders of its wings, it flies on high as before, there comes about in it a certain resurrection. For to this end this likeness is set forth: as it is taken of the moon, that the moon, diminished and as it were intercepted, is born again and filled; and it signifies to us the resurrection; but when filled it does not remain; again it is diminished, that it may always signify. So, then, also this that is said of the eagle: the eagle is not restored unto immortality, but we unto eternal life; yet for this reason the likeness was drawn from it, that what impedes us, the rock may take from us. Do not, then, presume on your own strength; the firmness of the rock knocks off your old age: but the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). In Christ our youth will be renewed like the eagle's. For we have grown old among our enemies, as the voice of the psalm is known: I have grown old, it says, among all my enemies (Ps 6:7 (6:8)). Whence have we grown old? By mortal flesh, by this hay-like flesh: and therefore, I am struck like hay, and my heart has withered, because I forgot to eat my bread (Ps 102:4 (101:5)). I forgot, he says, to eat my bread. The old age grew, it closed the mouth, let it be worn down on the rock.

10. So too, then, in this psalm we are dealing with, when he had set down, Who satisfies your desire in good things; as if the soul answered: I will not be satisfied with mortal things, I will not be satisfied with temporal things; let him give something eternal, let him grant something eternal: let him give me his Wisdom, let him give me his Word, God with God, and himself God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A beggar, I stand before his door, he whom I call upon does not sleep, let him give me three loaves. Recall the Gospel: behold what it is to know the Scriptures of God; those who have read are moved. For recall that a certain needy man came to the house of his friend, and asked for three loaves. And he, it says, answering him as he slept, said, I am now at rest, and my children are within sleeping with me (See Luke 11:5-8). The man, persevering in asking, extorted by his persistence what he could not by merit. But God wishes to give; but he does not give except to one who asks, lest he give to one who cannot receive. He does not wish to be roused by your persistence. For when you pray, you are not troublesome as if to one sleeping: He who keeps Israel will not sleep, nor slumber (Ps 121:4 (120:4)). Once Christ slept, that from his side a spouse might be made: he slept on the cross, it is manifest. For he died, that he might say, I have slept, and taken sleep. But shall not he who sleeps add that he rise again? Therefore there follows there: And I rose up, for the Lord will receive me (See Ps 3:5 (3:6)). But what now does the Apostle say? Christ, he says, rising from the dead, now dies no more, and death will no longer have dominion over him (Rom 6:9). He himself, then, does not sleep; see that your faith does not sleep. Let the soul say, then, now desiring to be satisfied with a certain lofty, unspeakable good, over which one shouts for joy rather than unfolds anything; for now it wills, now it perceives something of it: it sees itself impeded by the weighing-down of the body, that it cannot be satisfied in this life; and as if it answers, and says: Why do you say to me: Your desire will be satisfied in good things? I know the good of him that I desire, I know what suffices me, I see this in Philip: Show us, he says, the Father, and it is enough for us. He desired only the Father, as it were: the Lord showed three loaves to be desired; he showed that there is one bread, and said, Have I been with you so long a time, and do you not know the Father? Philip, he who sees me, sees the Father too (John 14:8-9). He promised the Spirit too: Whom the Father will send, he says, in my name; and likewise he says, Whom I will send to you from the Father (See John 14:26; 15:26): his gift, equal to himself. I know what I desire; but when will I be satisfied with it? Behold, now I think of the Trinity, in whatever way of the Trinity, scarcely in a riddle through a mirror, in part I dare to perceive something; when will I be satisfied? Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's. You are not satisfied now, because your soul is not fit for that solid and great food; but with its beak closed, it is not fit. Old age closed your mouth, therefore the rock was given, where, your old age ground away, your youth may be renewed like the eagle's; that you may be able to eat your bread, the one who says, I am the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51). Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's: then you will be satisfied in good things.

11. [v. 6.] The Lord doing mercies, and judgment for those who receive injury. He does them now, brothers, before we come to the renewal like the eagle's, before we are satisfied in good things. For what here, what in this pilgrimage, what in this life? are we deserted? No. The Lord doing mercies. And see how he does mercies, not leaving us in the desert, not leaving us in the wilderness, until we reach the homeland: doing mercies; but for whom? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt 5:7). You heard just now, brothers, when the Gospel was read. Let no one, then, suppose that the mercy of God will be in him, if he is himself merciless. But hear what the measure of mercy is, lest it be as it were toward a friend, and not toward an enemy. It is said, Love your enemies (Matt 5:44). You wish to be satisfied with the good things of God; let mercy be satisfied in you. Full mercy is itself perfect mercy; it is the one that loves, that loves even the one who holds it in hatred. For what shall I do, you say? If I begin to love my enemy, I will receive injuries, and bear injuries, and not avenge myself, though there are laws at hand? It is just that you avenge yourself; it is granted, because it is just: see whether you do not have something for which you may be avenged, and avenge. For you say thus: Shall I then not avenge myself? as if God represses the justice of vengeance, and does not extinguish the pride of the avenger. Or indeed was that adulteress not to be stoned? or if she were stoned, would something unjust be done? If it would be done unjustly, it was commanded unjustly; but the Law commanded it, God commanded it: but, O you avengers, see whether you are not sinners. The adulterous woman was brought to be stoned according to the Law, but she was brought to the giver of the Law. You who brought her rage: see who you rage at, and against whom you rage; if a sinner against a woman sinner, cease to rage, first confess: if as a sinner you rage against a woman sinner, leave her; he knows what to think of her, what to judge, how to spare, how to heal. Do you rage from the Law? The giver of the Law, from which you rage, knows better what to do. Now the Lord, at the time when she was brought before him, with bowed head was writing on the ground. Then he wrote on the ground, when he bent down to the ground: before he bent down to the ground, he did not write on the ground, but on stone. The earth was now going to bring forth something fruitful from the Lord's writing. On stone he had written the Law, signifying the hardness of the Jews: on the earth he wrote, signifying the fruit of the Christians. So they came bringing the adulteress, like raging waves against a rock: but they were broken by his answer. For he said to them, He who among you is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her (John 8:7). And again with bowed head, he wrote on the ground. And each one, now questioning his own conscience, they did not appear. Not the weak adulterous woman repelled them, but their adulterated conscience. They wished to avenge, they desired to judge: they came to the rock, their judges were swallowed up beside the rock.

12. The Lord doing mercies: but for whom? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Do mercy to all. What mercy will you do to the just man? Only in bodily needs; and if the supplies for these are lacking from you, they will not be lacking from God. What you do, then, profits you more. You give to a beggar passing by and asking: seek also a just man to give to, through whom you may be received into the eternal dwellings; because he who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive the reward of a just man (Matt 10:41). The beggar seeks you, you seek a just man. For of one it is said, Give to everyone who asks you (Luke 6:30): and of another it is said, Let alms sweat in your hand, until you find a just man to give it to. And if for a long time he is not found; seek for a long time, you will find him. But what will you bestow? Is not more bestowed on you? If we, he says, have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? (1 Cor 9:11) Thence too is that which we expounded a while ago, at the Lord's prompting, that the earth brings forth hay for the cattle, that is, carnal things for those who thresh; because, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the threshing ox (1 Cor 9:9; Deut 25:4). Whence we exhorted you to be diligent, careful, sober in this matter; to reckon your works your treasures. But do we, brothers, say these things, that they may so be done toward us? I think that, in the name of the Lord, this voice, though of weak men, can yet be apostolic, but it profits you, as the Apostle himself says, Not because I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit (Phil 4:17). What alms, then, will you do to the just man? The widow did not feed Elijah, the raven fed him; because the one who made the raven fed him: I mean Elijah. There is not, then, lacking whence God may give to his own: you, see what you buy, when you buy, at what price you buy. For you are buying the kingdom of heaven; and there is no time for buying except in this life. And at how cheap a price you buy, attend. It is worth to you as much as you have been able to have.

13. Do mercy to the wicked man, not as to a wicked man. For do not receive the wicked man himself insofar as he is wicked: that is, do not receive him as if with the intention and love of his wickedness. For it is both forbidden to give to a sinner, and to receive sinners. And how, Give to everyone who asks you? and how, If your enemy hungers, feed him (Rom 12:20)? They seem as it were contrary, but they are opened in the name of Christ to those who knock, and will be manifest to those who seek. Do not hand over to a sinner, and Do not receive a sinner (See Sir 12:4-5); and yet, Give to everyone who asks you. But he who asks me is a sinner. Give, not as to a sinner. When do you give as to a sinner? When it pleases you to give because of that in which he is a sinner. Let your Charity attend a little, until the matter is unrolled with examples too, very useful for understanding. He said this: When someone or other hungers, if you have something to give, give; if you see that it must be given to relieve him, give. Let not the bowels of mercy grow lazy in this, because a sinner has met you: for it is a man, a sinner, who has met you. When I say, A sinful man has met you, I have said two names; these two names are not superfluous: two names, one because man, the other because sinner; because man, it is the work of God; because sinner, it is the work of man: give to the work of God, do not give to the work of man. And how, you say, do you forbid me to give to the work of man? What is it to give to the work of man? To give to a sinner because of sin, to one who pleases you because of sin. And who will do this, you say? Who will do this? Would that no one, would that few, would that not publicly. Those who give to hunters, why do they give, let them tell me? Why does he give to a hunter? He loves in him that in which he is most worthless; he feeds this in him, he clothes this in him, that very public worthlessness, for the spectacles of all. He who gives to actors, who gives to charioteers, who gives to prostitutes, why does he give? Do not they too give to men? Yet there they attend not to the nature of the work of God, but to the worthlessness of the human work. Do you wish to see what you honor in the hunter, when you clothe him? Let it be said to you: Be such: you love him, you delight in him, you wish in a way to strip yourself and clothe him; do not take it as an injury, if it is said to you: Let your sons be such. It is an injury, you say. Why is it an injury, except because that is iniquity? why an injury, except because that is baseness? You do not, then, when you give, give to bravery, but to baseness. So, just as he who gives to a hunter does not give to a man, but to a most worthless craft (for if he were only a man, and not a hunter, you would not give; you honor in him the vice, not the nature): so, on the contrary, if you give to a just man, if you give to a prophet, if you give to a disciple of Christ something he needs, and do not consider there that he is a disciple of Christ, that he is a minister of God, that he is a steward of God; but consider there some temporal advantage, that perhaps when he is needed for your case, he may be for sale to you, because you have offered him something; you have so failed to give to the just man, if you give thus, as that man failed to give to the man, when he gave to the hunter. The matter, then, dearest ones, is set in plain view, and I think that even if it was obscure, it is now manifest. To this the Lord bound you, when he said, He who receives a just man: it would suffice. But because a just man can be received with another intention, when he is thought to be able to be of use for something temporal, perhaps to supply cupidity, perhaps to help in circumventing or oppressing a man; because you seek such service from him, perhaps for that reason you receive him: he denied you the reward of a just man, except with an addition. For he said, He who receives a just man in the name of a just man; that is, receiving him because he is just: and, He who receives a prophet; not only receives a prophet, but, in the name of a prophet, honoring in him that he is a prophet: finally, He who gives a cup of cold water to one of these least ones, only in the name of a disciple, that is, for this reason because he is a disciple of Christ, for this reason because he is a steward of the sacrament; amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (See Matt 10:41-42). As, then, you understand, He who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive the reward of a just man; so understand: He who receives a sinner in the name of a sinner will lose the reward.

14. Therefore, brothers, exercise mercy. There is no other bond of love, there is no other vehicle by which we are carried over from this life to that homeland; extend your love even to enemies: be secure. For this Christ came, to whom it was so long before said, Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings you have perfected praise, that you may destroy the enemy and the avenger (Ps 8:2 (8:3)): which some manuscripts have as defender; but more truly, avenger. The Lord wished to destroy the avenger, that is, the one who wished to avenge himself, so that his sins should not be forgiven him. What then, you say? will discipline sleep? will all rebuke be taken away? It will not be taken away. For what will you do with a dissolute son? will you not chastise him, will you not beat him? And your very slave, if you see him living badly, will you not restrain him by some punishment, by beatings? Let this be done, let it be done: God permits it, indeed he reproves you if it is not done; but do it with the mind of love, not with the mind of vengeance. But where you have suffered injuries from some more powerful people, where it is not lawful for you to correct by discipline, nor perhaps even to admonish or command; endure, endure securely: hear the Gospel that was just read: You will be blessed, when men will have persecuted you, and said against you every evil, lying, for my name's sake (See Matt 5:11). And there he added for what reason, lest you receive curses by your own desert, not for the cause of the justifications of God. For he who is cursed is not just: but he who is just, and is unjustly cursed; and if he is unjustly cursed, a reward is rendered to him. Therefore, then, be securely merciful, extend your love even to enemies: those who perhaps pertain to your governance, avenge, restrain with love, with charity, attending to eternal salvation; lest, while you spare the flesh, the soul perish. Do this: and you will suffer from many on whom you cannot exercise discipline, because they do not pertain to the rights of your governance; bear the injuries, be secure. For the Lord will do mercies, and judgment for all who receive injury. So he will do mercy in you, if you have shown mercy: so will you be merciful, that the injury you suffer not be unpunished: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay (Rom 12:19; Deut 32:35), says the Lord.

15. [v. 7.] He made his ways known to Moses. What ways of his did he make known to Moses? Why did he choose Moses? From Moses, understand all the just, all the saints: he set down one, let all come to mind. Yet through Moses the Law was given, and the very handing down of the Law has something obscure. For the Law was given for this purpose, that the sick one might be convicted, and implore the physician. This is the hidden way of God. You had heard a while ago, Who heals all your weaknesses. Weaknesses lay hidden in the sick, the five books of Moses were given: the pool was surrounded by five porticoes; it brought forth the sick, that they might lie there, that they might be exposed, not that they might be healed. The five porticoes exposed the sick, they did not cure; the pool cured when one went down, and this when the pool was stirred: the stirring of the pool is in the passion of the Lord. For coming and made unknown, when it is said by some, He is the Christ; by others, He is not the Christ; he is just, he is a sinner; he is a teacher, he is a seducer: he stirred the water, that is, he stirred the people; and in all that disturbance of the water one was healed, because in the passion of the Lord unity is healed. Whoever is outside unity, even if he lies in the porticoes, cannot be healed: even if he holds the Law, he does not reach salvation. So because this mystery is there, therefore he teaches that the Law was given, that sinners might be convicted, and, to receive grace, might call upon the physician. Whence that man was convicted whom the apostle Paul transfigures into himself, saying, Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24) For through the commandment a certain strife had been shown to him within himself, whence he says, I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive under the law of sin, which is in my members. He knew himself to be in misery, in groaning, in strife and contention; himself not at one with himself, dissonant from himself, springing back from himself: and what does he say, longing for peace, true peace, supernal peace? Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For where sin abounded, grace superabounded. But whence did sin abound? But the Law entered in, that sin might abound (Rom 7:23-25; 5:20). Why, the Law entering in, did sin abound? Because men were unwilling to confess themselves sinners, with the Law added they became transgressors too. For no one is a transgressor, except when he has transgressed a law. The Apostle himself says this: For where there is no law, there is no transgression (Rom 4:15). Sin abounded, then, that grace might superabound. Therefore, as I had begun to say, because this is the great mystery in the Law, therefore it was given, that, sin increasing, the proud might be humbled, the humbled might confess, the confessing might be healed: these are the hidden ways which he made known to Moses, through whom he gave the Law, by which sin might abound, that grace might superabound. God did not do this cruelly, but with the counsel of medicine. For sometimes a man seems healthy to himself, and is sick; and in that he is sick and does not feel it, he does not seek the physician: the disease grows, the trouble increases, the physician is sought, and the whole is healed. He made his ways known to Moses; his wishes to the sons of Israel. To all the sons of Israel? But to the true sons of Israel; or rather to all the sons of Israel. For those who are deceitful, who are treacherous, who are hypocrites, are not sons of Israel. And who are sons of Israel? Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile (John 1:47). His wishes to the sons of Israel.

16. [v. 8.] The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy. What is so long-suffering? what so abounding in mercy? One sins, and lives; sins are added, life is increased: he is blasphemed daily, and he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad (Matt 5:45). He calls from every quarter to correction, he calls from every quarter to repentance, he calls by the benefits of creation, he calls by imparting time for living, he calls through the reader, he calls through the expositor, he calls through inward thought, he calls through the scourge of rebuke, he calls through the mercy of consolation: long-suffering and abounding in mercy. But beware lest, by ill use of the length of God's mercy, you store up for yourself, as the Apostle says, wrath on the day of wrath. For this the Apostle says: Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience of God leads you to repentance? Because he spares you, do you suppose that you please him? These things you did, he says, and I was silent; you suspected iniquity, that I would be like you. Sins do not please me, but by long-suffering I seek right deeds. If I punished sinners, I would not find confessors. Therefore God, by his long-suffering, in sparing leads you to repentance: but you, when you say daily, "Today is ending, and so I will be tomorrow too, for tomorrow will not be the last"; and on the third day: and suddenly his wrath comes. Brother, do not delay to be converted to the Lord. For there are those who prepare their conversion, and put it off, and there becomes in them the crow's voice, "Tomorrow, tomorrow." The crow sent from the ark did not return. God does not seek delay in the crow's voice, but confession in the dove's groaning. The dove sent returned. How long: Tomorrow, tomorrow? Watch for the last tomorrow: because you do not know which is the last tomorrow, let it suffice that you have lived as a sinner up to today. You have heard, you are often wont to hear, you have heard today too: as daily as you hear it, so daily you are not corrected. For you, according to your hardness of heart and impenitent heart, are storing up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works (Rom 2:4-6; Ps 50:21 (49:21)). Let God not seem to you so merciful as not to seem just. The Lord is merciful and compassionate. I hear, and I rejoice: so you say. Hear, and rejoice; he has added still: long-suffering and very merciful: and at the end: And truthful. You rejoice at the earlier words, at the last tremble. He is merciful and long-suffering in such a way that he is also truthful. When you have stored up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath, will you not experience as just the one you scorned when kindly?

17. [v. 9.] He will not be angry to the end, nor be indignant forever. For even that we live amid scourges and the corruption of mortality is from his indignation: as punishment we have this from the first sin. My brothers, we ought to think not only how to escape his future threats, but his present wrath too; because this wrath is also his, of whom the Apostle says that both he and we were sons: for he says, For we too were once by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3). So it is from his wrath that man here is a pilgrim, that he labors. Is it not from his wrath, my brothers: In sweat and in labor you will eat your bread, and the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles for you (See Gen 3:17-19)? This was said to our author. Or if our life is something else; if you can, turn to some pleasure where you do not feel thorns. Choose what you will, the greedy man, the dissolute man, to mention only these two; add a third too, the ambitious man: in the desire of honors how many thorns? in the luxury of lusts how many thorns? in the burning of greed how many thorns? How many troubles have base loves? how many anxieties here in this life? I omit the Gehennas. See lest you are already a Gehenna to yourself. All this, then, my brothers, is from his wrath: and when you have been converted, so as to act justly, you will only be able to labor on the earth; and the labor is not finished, except when the way is finished. We must labor on the way, that we may rejoice in the homeland. Therefore he consoles your labor, your sweat, your troubles by his promise, and says to you: He will not be angry to the end, nor be indignant forever.

18. [vv. 10, 11.] He has not done to us according to our sins. Thanks be to God, that he willed this. We did not receive what we deserved: He has not done to us according to our sins, nor recompensed us according to our iniquities. For according to the height of heaven from the earth, the Lord has confirmed his mercy upon those who fear him. The Lord has confirmed his mercy upon those who fear him: according to what? According to the height of heaven from the earth. What did he say? If at some time the sky can withdraw from the protection of the earth, at some time God will be able not to protect those who fear him. Attend to the sky too: everywhere, on every side it protects the earth, and there is no part of the earth that is not protected by the sky. Men sin under the sky, they do all evils under the sky; yet they are protected by the sky. Thence light to the eyes, thence air, thence breath, thence rain to the earth for the fruits, thence all mercy from the sky. Take away the help of the sky from the earth, it will immediately fail. As, then, the protection of the sky remains over the earth, so the protection of the Lord remains over those who fear him. You fear God, above you is his protection. But perhaps you are scourged, and you suppose that God has deserted you. As if the protection of the sky had deserted the earth: For according to the height of heaven from the earth, the Lord has confirmed his mercy upon those who fear him.

19. [v. 12.] And what did he do? Because he did not recompense us according to our sins. As far as the east is distant from the west, he has put our sins far from us. According to the height of heaven from the earth, the Lord has confirmed his mercy upon us. I have said why: because of the protection. Whence? As far as the east is distant from the west, he has made our sins to be far from us. Those who know the sacraments know; yet I say what all can hear. When sin is remitted, your sins set, your grace rises: your sins are as it were in their setting; the grace by which you are freed is in its rising. Truth has arisen from the earth (Ps 85:11 (84:12)). What is it, Truth has arisen from the earth? Your grace is born, your sins set, you are in a way made new. You ought to attend to the rising, you ought to turn away from the setting. Turn away from your sins, be converted to the grace of God; as they set, you rise and make progress. But the part of the sky that rises goes again to its setting. Likenesses cannot be drawn to perfection from every side; the things themselves can be lined up with the things to which they are applied: as he said of the eagle, as of the moon, so here too. One part of the sky sets, another rises: but the part that rises now will set after twelve hours. Not so is the grace that rises for us: both the sins set forever, and the grace abides forever.

20. [v. 13.] But why As far as the east is distant from the west, so far he has made our sins to be from us, that they may set, and grace rise? why do you suppose? As a father has compassion on his sons, so the Lord has had compassion on those who fear him. Now let him rage as much as he wishes, he is a father. But he has scourged us, and afflicted us, and crushed us: he is a father. Son, if you weep, weep under a father; do not weep with indignation, do not weep with the pride of arrogance. What you suffer, what you lament, is medicine, not punishment; it is chastisement, not condemnation. Do not push back the scourge, if you do not wish to be pushed back from the inheritance: do not attend to what punishment you have in the scourge, but what place in the testament. As a father has compassion on his sons, so the Lord has had compassion on those who fear him.

21. [v. 14.] For he himself knew our formation: that is, our weakness. He knew what he had made, how it had fallen, how it must be restored, how it must be adopted, how it must be enriched. Behold, we were made of mud: The first man from the earth, earthly; the second man from heaven, heavenly (1 Cor 15:47). He sent his Son too, who became the second man, who before all is God. Second in coming, first in returning: he died after many, he rose before all. He himself knew our formation: what formation? Us. Whence do you say that he knew? Because he had compassion. Remember that we are dust. Turned to God himself, he says, Remember, as if God forgets: he so knows, he so is aware, that he does not forget. But what is it, Remember? Let your mercy persevere toward us. You knew our formation in a certain way; do not forget our formation, that we may not forget your grace. Remember that we are dust.

22. [v. 15.] Man, his days are like hay. Let him consider what man is; let man not be proud: his days are like hay. Why is the hay proud, now flowering, after a little while withering? why is the hay proud, green for a time, and this for a short time, until the sun grows hot? It is good for us, then, that his mercy be upon us, and that he make gold out of the hay. For man, his days are like hay; like the flower of the field, so will he flower forth. The whole splendor of the human race; honors, powers, riches, pride, threats, are the flower of the hay. That house flowers, and that great house, that family flowers; and how many flower, or for how many years do they live? Many years to you; a short time to God. God does not count as you count. In comparison with the long and long-living ages, every flower of any house is as the flower of the field. The whole beauty of the year scarcely lasts a year. Whatever there flourishes, whatever there gleams, whatever there is beautiful, does not last the year; rather it cannot be carried through the whole year. In how short a time the flowers pass, and this is the beautiful thing in the plants. That which is very beautiful, this quickly falls. All flesh is hay, and the glory of man as the flower of hay. The hay has withered, and the flower has fallen: but the Word of the Lord abides forever (Isa 40:6-8; 1 Pet 1:24-25). Because, then, just as the Father knew our formation, that we are hay, and can flower for a time; he sent us his Word, and his Word which abides forever he made a brother to the hay which does not abide forever: by nature the Only-begotten, the only one born of his substance, he made a brother to so many adopted brothers. Do not wonder that you will be a partaker of his eternity; he himself first became a partaker of your hay. Will he deny you what is lofty from you, who took up from you what was lowly? Therefore man, as far as concerns man, his days are like hay; like the flower of the field, so will he flower.

23. [v. 16.] For the spirit will pass through in him, and he will not be, and he will no longer know his place. As if a certain perdition, as if a certain ruin. Behold the one who inflates himself, behold the one who swells, behold the one who exalts himself: The spirit will pass through in him, and he will not be, and he will no longer know his place. See men dying daily; and this will be the whole, this will be the end. For he does not address the hay, but that for which the Word too became hay. For you are man; but for your sake the Word too became man: you are flesh, and for your sake the Word became flesh. All flesh is hay, and the Word became flesh. How great, then, is the hope of the hay, when the Word became flesh? That which abides forever did not disdain to take up the hay, lest the hay despair of itself.

24. [v. 17.] Therefore as for what you attend to in yourself, think of your lowliness, think of your dust; do not be exalted: whatever better you will be, you will be it by his grace, you will be it by his mercy. For hear what follows: But the mercy of the Lord is from age and unto the age, upon those who fear him. You who do not fear him, you are hay, and you will be in the hay, and in torment with the hay: for the flesh will rise again to torment. Let those rejoice who fear him, because upon them is his mercy.

25. [v. 18.] And his righteousness upon the sons of sons. He means the recompense, upon the sons of sons. How many are the servants of God who have no sons, much less sons of sons? But by our sons he means our works; by sons of sons, the reward of our works. His righteousness upon the sons of sons, for those who keep his covenant. Let them see lest all suppose that what is said pertains to them: let them choose, while it is permitted. For those who keep, he says, his covenant, and retain in memory his commandments, to do them. You were now arranging to exalt yourself, and perhaps to recite to me the Psalter, which I do not hold by heart, or to pronounce the whole Law from memory. Plainly you are better than I in memory, better than any just man, if the just man does not hold the Law word for word: but see that you keep the precepts. But how should you keep them? Not by memory, but by life. For those who retain in memory his commandments: not that they may recite them; but, that they may do them. Now perhaps each one's soul is disturbed. Who holds all the commandments of God? who holds all the Scriptures of God? Behold, I wish not only to hold them in memory, but to do them by my works: but who holds all in memory? Do not fear; it does not burden you. On two precepts the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets (Matt 22:40). But I wish to hold the whole Law. Hold it, if you can, when you can, how you can. Whatever page you question, this will answer you: What you hold, hold; hold love: The end of the precept is love (1 Tim 1:5). Do not think of the multitude of branches; hold the root, and the whole tree is in you. And for those who retain in memory his commandments to do them.

26. [v. 19.] The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven. Who, except Christ, has prepared his throne in heaven? He who descended and ascended, who died and rose again, who lifted the manhood he assumed into heaven, he himself has prepared his throne in heaven. A throne is the seat of a judge: observe, then, you who hear, that he has prepared his throne in heaven. Let each one do what he wishes on earth, sin will not be unpunished, righteousness will not be unfruitful; because the Lord, who before the throne of a human judge was mocked, has prepared his throne in heaven. The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven; and his kingdom will have dominion over all. The kingdom is the Lord's, and he will have dominion over the nations. And his kingdom will have dominion over all.

27. [v. 20.] Bless the Lord, all his angels, mighty in strength, doing his word. So you are not yet just or faithful by the word of God, except when you do it. Mighty in strength, doing his word, to hear the voice of his words.

28. [v. 21.] Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, doing his will. All the angels, all the mighty in strength, doing his word, all his hosts, all his ministers, doing his will, you, you bless the Lord. For all who live badly, even if they are silent with the tongue, curse the Lord by their life. What does it profit that your tongue sings a hymn, if your life breathes out sacrilege? By living badly you have sent many tongues into blasphemy. Your tongue is free for the hymn, and the tongues of others who look at you are free for blasphemies. If, then, you wish to bless the Lord, do his word, do his will. Build on rock, do not build on sand. To hear and not to do is to build on sand: to hear and to do is to build on rock: neither to hear nor to do is to build nothing. If you build on sand, you build a ruin: if you build nothing, exposed to the rain, the rivers, the winds, you will be snatched away before you stand. Therefore one must not cease, but build: nor build in such a way that a ruin is built; but build on rock, that temptation may not overthrow it. If it is so, bless the Lord: if it is not so, do not flatter your tongue; question your life, let it answer you. You find what evil you are; groan, confess: your confession can bless the Lord; but let your change persevere in the blessing.

29. [v. 22.] Bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion. Therefore in every place. Let him not be blessed there where he does not have dominion: In every place of his dominion. Lest perhaps someone say: I cannot bless the Lord in the east, because he has set out to the west; or, "I cannot in the west, because he is in the east." Not from the east and from the west, not from the desert mountains; for God is judge (Ps 75:6-7 (74:7-8)). He is everywhere in such a way that he is blessed everywhere: he is on every side in such a way that he is shouted to with joy on every side: he is blessed on every side in such a way that one lives well on every side. Bless the Lord, all his works. Because when you have begun, in a good life, to bless the Lord, his works bless him, not your merits. For he works the good through you and in you, as the Apostle says, With fear and trembling work out your own salvation; for it is God who works in you (Phil 2:12-13). Therefore, lest you exalt yourself, because you do his word, because you do his will, he willed you to be humbled, by looking back to his grace, whence you obtained this. In every place of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This last verse is the same as the first: blessing at the head, blessing at the end; from blessing we set out, to blessing let us return, in blessing let us reign.

Exposition of Psalm 103

1. The day before yesterday, as far as you deign to remember, you were abundantly refreshed: but because, even after a long sermon, you let us go most eagerly, we did not think your Holiness should be defrauded of today's due; so that this may be from the debt, that from the gain. The psalm that was read is woven almost entirely of figures of things and mysteries, and needs not only our attention, but yours too, no small attention; although all the things that were said can be taken to the letter religiously as well. For there are enumerated, even if not all, yet many works of God, which are known to all who behold them, who know how, from the things that have been made and are seen, to perceive his invisible things by the understanding. For we see a certain vast fabric of the world, made of heaven and earth, and of all that is in them; and from the greatness and beauty of this fabric, we already love, even if we do not yet see, the inestimable greatness and beauty of the fabricator himself. For he who cannot yet be beheld by the purity of our heart has not ceased to set his works before our eyes, so that, seeing what we can, we may love the one we cannot see, that by the merit of that very love we may at some time be able to see him. Yet in all the things that were said, a spiritual understanding too is to be sought, in scrutinizing which your desires will help us in the name of Christ; with which, as with invisible hands, you knock at the invisible door, that it may be opened to you invisibly, and you may enter invisibly, and be healed invisibly.

2. [v. 1.] Let us all, then, say: Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let us all address our soul: because the soul of us all, through one faith, is one soul; and all of us, whoever believe in Christ, because of the unity of his body, are one man. Let our soul bless the Lord, for his so great benefits, for his so many and great gifts of grace: which gifts we find when we are intent upon this psalm, and the cloud of carnal thinking shaken off, with our mind raised up as much as we can, and our gaze directed as much as we can, and with as pure an eye of our heart as we can, as far as the present life does not impede, as far as the desires of present things do not occupy, as far as the cupidity of the world does not blind. Raised up, then, we are about to hear his great, glad, and beautiful gifts, desirable and full of gladness and joys; which he who had conceived this psalm already saw in his mind, and, in the exultation of that very vision, belched out, saying, Bless the Lord, O my soul.

3. O Lord my God, you have been magnified exceedingly. See the magnificent things he is about to say; in which magnificent things surely no one is to be praised but he, the author of all magnificent things. You have put on confession and comeliness. O Lord my God, who have been magnified exceedingly, whence have you been magnified exceedingly? Are you not always great? are you not always magnificent? Are you not perfect, so that you should grow? do you fail, so that at some time you should be diminished? But because you are what you are, and truly are, surely you told your name to your servant Moses: I am who I am (Exod 3:14): surely you are great, and your greatness is eternal, and neither begins nor ends; neither does it begin from the beginning of time, nor run out to the end of time, nor suffer anything in the middle: for it is unchangeable greatness. How, then, have you been magnified exceedingly? Another psalm admonishes us; for it says, Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me (Ps 139:6 (138:6)). If it is rightly said, Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me; it is rightly said, You have been magnified exceedingly, O Lord my God, from me. But this too must still be inquired into. Is my God magnified from me? Then he is made great from me. The daily prayer of our salvation too teaches us something. Hallowed be your name (Matt 6:9): daily we ask, daily we beg that it may be done. If anyone asks us: What is it that you ask, that the name of God may be hallowed? is it not sometimes holy, that it may now be hallowed? And yet, unless we wished it to be done, we would not ask that it be done. For thanksgiving is one thing, prayer another: we give thanks for what is; we pray that there may be what is not yet. What, then, is it, Hallowed be your name? And we understand what was here said: O Lord my God, you have been magnified exceedingly. This is, Hallowed be your name, let your name be holy among men. For your name is always holy, but to certain unclean ones your name is not yet holy. For the Apostle says, All things are clean to the clean, but to the unclean and unbelieving nothing is clean (Titus 1:15). If to the unclean and unbelieving nothing is clean, I ask the cause: But their mind and conscience, he says, are polluted. If nothing is clean to them, not even God; unless perhaps you suppose that God seems clean to those who daily blaspheme him. If he is clean, let him please; if he pleases, let him be praised: but if he is blasphemed, he displeases; and if he displeases, how can the one who displeases be clean to you? What, then, do we ask: Hallowed be your name? That to those men who through unbelief do not yet have it, the name of God may be holy, to whom he is not yet holy who through himself, and in himself, and in his holy ones is holy. We ask for the human race, we ask for the world, for all the nations that daily sit and dispute that God is not righteous, and that God does not judge rightly; that at some time they may correct themselves, and bring a straight heart to his rightness; and, cleaving to him, set straight unto the straight, may no longer find fault, but the straight one may please the straight: because How good is the God of Israel, but to the upright of heart (Ps 73:1 (72:1)). So when this one who sings—this very one being we ourselves, that is, the body of Christ, the members of Christ—when he saw how many things God had bestowed on the human race, to which before either no God, or a false God, or not so great a God seemed to be, seeing him in his works; O Lord my God, he says, you have been magnified exceedingly: that is, I, who did not yet understand you, understand you to be great. Always great, even hidden; but to me great when you appeared. You have been magnified, then, from me: just as Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me; for it was made wonderful from me. I marvel at it, turned toward it; but it, even if I do not turn toward it, even if after my conversion I turn away, remains whole. But I, now made great in it, and from diminished made whole in it, marvel at what I did not know; not that what is now made great is something that began when I learned, but that I have been made great since I learned. Hear now too where God is seen magnified exceedingly, always great; for he is magnified exceedingly in his works toward us.

4. You have put on confession and comeliness. Before comeliness he set confession; comeliness is in beauty. You seek beauty; you seek a good thing. But why do you seek beauty, O soul? That your bridegroom may love you; for, foul, you displease him. For what is he like? Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. You wish, foul, to kiss the beautiful one; but you do not attend that you are full of iniquities. But grace is poured out on your lips. For so it is said of him: Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, grace is poured out on your lips; therefore the maidens have loved you (Ps 45:2 (44:3)). There is, then, a certain shapely one, a certain one beautiful beyond the sons of men; though a son of man, yet beyond the sons of men. Do you wish to please him, O human soul, O one in many? Let us hear the Church; because they had one soul and one heart toward God: the Psalm addresses her. Do you wish to please him? You cannot, as long as you are deformed: what will you do, that you may be beautiful? First let your deformity displease you, and then from that very one whom you wish to please, beautiful, you will deserve beauty. For he himself will be your re-former, who was your former. First, then, attend to what you are, lest you dare to go, foul, to the kisses of the beautiful one. And looking at what, you say, shall I see myself? He has set before you a mirror, his Scripture; it is read to you: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8). The mirror is set before you in this reading: see whether you are what it said; if you are not yet, groan that you may be. The mirror will report your face to you: as you will not find the mirror a flatterer, so do not flatter yourself either. That brightness shows you what you are: see what you are; and if it displeases you, seek not to be it. For if, while you are foul, you still displease yourself, you already please the beautiful one. What then? Since your foulness displeases you, you begin to him in confession; as it is said elsewhere, Begin to the Lord in confession (Ps 147:7 (146:7)). First accuse your foulness: for the foulness of the soul is from sins, from iniquities. By accusing your foulness, begin to confess; from confession you begin to be adorned: by whose adorning, except by the one beautiful in form beyond the sons of men?

5. But that he might also make her comely, I dare to say, he loved her even when foul. What is it, he loved her even foul? For Christ died for the impious (Rom 5:6). What life does he keep for you, justified, who gave his own death even to the impious? Behold, that beautiful one, and beautiful in form beyond the sons of men, because most just beyond the sons of men, since he was coming to the foul one, to make her beautiful (I will say this too, because I find it in the Scriptures), became foul. Do not hear me in this, lest in this word I have rashly slipped. For as I had said, "He loved even the foul one"; but I would not have said it as if fittingly, with certain ones loving him, unless a witness came forth for me; and I said what the Apostle said: do you wish to know that he loved even the foul one? Christ died for the impious: so too now what I said: That he might come to the foul one, he became foul, he became deformed, how shall I prove it; when divine eloquence has already foretold to me, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men? But in the very divine eloquence I have again: We saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness (Isa 53:2). Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men: We saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness. He did not say: "We did not see him, and therefore we did not know whether he had form or comeliness": behold, we saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness. Where, then, did the one see him who said, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men? and where did the one see him who said, He had neither form nor comeliness? Hear where the one saw him who said, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. Though he was in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal to God (Phil 2:6). Rightly beyond the sons of men, because equal to God: behold, I have received and recognized where the one saw him who said, Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. For he answered us: Where I saw him, you ask? In the form of God. And whence did you see him in the form of God? how did you see him in the form of God? Because his invisible things are perceived, understood through the things that have been made (Rom 1:20). Good, excellent; I have received, I have recognized both whom you saw, and what kind you saw, and where you saw, and whence you saw. Whom did you see? Our bridegroom. What kind did you see? Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. Where did you see? When he was in the form of God. Whence did you see? They are perceived, understood through the things that have been made. Let us see also what another prophet says of this one, but not another spirit; for they do not disagree among themselves. The one set before us the one beautiful in form beyond the sons of men; let this one too set before us what he says: We saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness. The one apostle Paul joins both prophets together; one chapter of Paul bears witness to both prophets. There I have the one beautiful in form beyond the sons of men: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God. There he said, what the other too saw, that he had neither form nor comeliness: because he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man; he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:6-8). Rightly they saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness. Rightly before the cross they wagged their heads: Is this the whole Son of God? If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross (See Matt 27:40). But he had neither form nor comeliness. Even so, O you to whom it displeases that he had neither form nor comeliness! O you who wag your head before the cross, and do not fix your head on the head that hung on the cross! Rightly the head of the insulters nods, until that very one whom they insulted be their head. Behold, he resumes his comeliness, and a great comeliness. Behold, what you say is less than what he did. You say: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross: behold, he did not come down from the cross, but he rose from the tomb.

6. Therefore, O soul, you cannot be comely unless you have confessed your foulness to him who is always beautiful, and for your sake for a time not beautiful; and so for a time not beautiful in the form of a servant, that he never failed from the beauty which is in the form of God. Therefore you, O Church, have comeliness: it is said to you too in the Song of Songs, O comely among women (Song 1:8). It is said of you, Who is this who ascends made white? (Song 8:5) What is it, made white? Illumined: not made white, as if painted, in the way women whiten themselves who wish to seem what they are not: not whitewashed, as a whitewashed wall; for it will be destroyed, as the Apostle says, the whitewashed wall, hypocrisy and pretense. A whitewashed wall, outside plaster, inside mud. Not, then, made white in that way; but made white, illumined, because not white through herself. I was formerly, he says, a blasphemer (1 Tim 1:13); and again: For we too were once by nature children of wrath, like the rest (Eph 2:3). Grace approaches, illuminating and whitening: first you were black, but you have been made white by his grace. For you were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). It is said of you, then: Who is this who ascends made white? Now wonderful, now scarcely to be contemplated. For it is the language of one marveling to say: Who is this who ascends made white, so beautiful, so luminous, so without spot or wrinkle? Is not this she who lay in the mire of iniquities? is not this she who lay in the fornication of idols? is not this she who was unclean in every cupidity and carnal desire? Who, then, is this who ascends made white? Attend to who he is who for her sake was made having neither form nor comeliness, and you understand the honor of this brightness. If you marvel at his lowliness because of her, do not now marvel at her loftiness because of him. Of how great happiness is this woman made white, that even while she was black, the beautiful one laid himself down for her, dying for the impious? Therefore the Lord our God put on confession and comeliness, he put on the Church: for the Church herself is confession and comeliness. First confession, afterward comeliness; confession of sins, comeliness of right deeds: You have put on confession and comeliness.

7. [v. 2.] Wrapped around with light, as with a garment. This is his garment, of which I have already spoken: Having neither spot nor wrinkle (Eph 5:27). It is called light; and this too I have said: You were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord. Not, then, in yourselves; for the darkness is in you, but the light is in the Lord. Therefore: Wrapped around with light, as with a garment. He stretched out the heaven like a skin. How he did this, that he should put on as a garment the light, the Church, he wishes to enumerate in certain figured sacraments: how the Church was made light, how she was made without spot or wrinkle, how she was made shining, made white, gleaming in the garment of her bridegroom, clinging to him, how she was made, let us hear. He stretched out the heaven like a skin. And this indeed I see. For who stretched out this heaven, which we behold with our carnal eyes, except God? And: He stretched it out like a skin, he reduced it to easiness, if you take it to the letter. For when you see this great fabric, because whoever of men stretches out one even small vault, does it with great effort, great labor and difficulty and long work; lest human weakness suspect labor of this kind in the works of God, he brought in a certain easiness for your capacity, that so you might somehow begin to believe that God works easily, and not suppose that he stretched out the heaven as you do the roof of your house; but that, as easy as it is for you to stretch out one skin, so easy it was for him to stretch out so great a heaven. A wonderful easiness, and yet still the Spirit speaks to you, slow. To you, I say, still slow the Spirit speaks. For God did not stretch out the heaven even as you do a skin. For if he stretched it out so, behold, a skin, either wrinkled or folded, is set before you; say that it be stretched out, by your word stretch out the skin. I cannot, you say. Then even in stretching out a skin you are very far from the easiness of God. For he spoke, and they were made (Ps 33:9 (32:9)). He said, Let there be a firmament between water and water; and so it was made (Gen 1:6-7). Yet for the sake of signifying easiness, you may take something for the meanwhile to the letter, according to your understanding.

8. But figuratively, if we wish to uncover something covered, and to knock at what is closed, we find that God stretched out the heaven like a skin, so that we may understand the heaven to be holy Scripture. This authority God first set in his Church; thence he began to carry out the rest: for he set the heaven, and stretched it out like a skin, and not in vain like a skin. First he stretched out this fame of the preachers like a skin: the skin signifies mortality: for which reason too those two first men, our parents, the authors of the sin of the human race, Adam and Eve, when in paradise, having scorned God's precept, at the suggestion and persuasion of the serpent they had transgressed what God had commanded, made mortal, were sent out of paradise; and that their mortality itself might be signified, they were clothed with garments of skins; for they received garments made of skins: but skins are not wont to be stripped off except from dead animals: therefore by the name of skins that mortality was figured. What then, if here divine Scripture is signified by the name of skin, how did God make heaven of skin, and stretch out the heaven like a skin? Because those through whom Scripture was preached to us were mortal. That Word of God indeed is always the same, always unchangeable and unfailing. Behold: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Was it, and now is not? It both is, and always will be. If, then, the Word of God is God with God, read it if you can. But what do you say? that it is above, and therefore you cannot read it? The Word of God is everywhere; it reaches mightily from end to end, and touches all things because of its purity. It was in this world, and the world was made through it (John 1:10): and when it came, it was here. For it came in the flesh, never absent in divinity. Why, then, could you not read it? Because in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, being set there in the wisdom of God; for all things are there, and, that withdrawn, are nothing; set there, you could not know God through wisdom: therefore what follows was necessary: It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe (1 Cor 1:21). If through the foolishness of preaching those who believe were to be saved, God chose certain mortal things, he chose mortal men who would die; using a mortal tongue he produced mortal sounds, using the ministry of mortals he used mortal instruments, and in that a heaven was made for you, that in a mortal thing you might know the immortal Word, and you too might become immortal by participation in the same Word. Moses lived, and died: for God said to him, Ascend the mountain, and die (See Deut 32:49-50). Jeremiah died, and so many Prophets died; and the sayings of the dead, because they were not theirs, but through them his who stretched out the heaven like a skin, remain even to our posterity. Behold the Apostle, released from this life, who said that to be dissolved and be with Christ was by far the best, now lives with Christ, as all those Prophets live with Christ: but through what did he dispense to us what we read? Through that which was to die, through the mouth, through the tongue, the teeth, the hands. All these things by which the Apostle worked all that we read are the offices of the body, but at the bidding of the soul which God bade: therefore the heaven was stretched out like a skin. We, under the heaven, as under the skin of the divine Scriptures, read now, while it is stretched out. For afterward the heaven will be folded up like a book (Isa 34:4). Not in vain, brothers, here like a skin, there like a book; something is figured for us there. As far as concerns divine Scripture, the discourse of the dead is stretched out: therefore it is stretched out like a skin; and it is stretched out the more, because they are dead. For after death the Prophets and Apostles became more known; they were not so known while they lived: Judea alone had the living Prophets, all the nations have the dead. For while they lived, the skin was not yet stretched out, the heaven was not yet stretched out, to cover the world. He stretched out, then, the heaven like a skin.

9. [v. 3.] Who covers its higher parts with waters. This too we read, and it is well understood to the letter. For when he commanded that a firmament be made between the waters and the waters, it was done, so that there are lower waters which flood the earth, and there are higher waters removed from sight, yet commended to faith. And the waters, he says, that are above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord: for he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created (Ps 148:4-5). The sense, then, has been unfolded to the letter; for he covers its higher parts with waters. What of the figure? Since in figure we took the skin to be holy Scripture, and the authority of the divine word dispensed to us through mortals, at whose death the fame of the same dispensation is stretched out; according to this, how does he cover its higher parts with waters? The higher parts of what? Of the heaven. And what is the heaven? Holy Scripture. What are the higher parts of holy Scripture? what do we find in the holy Scriptures that is higher? Ask Paul: I show you, he says, a more excellent way (1 Cor 12:31). What more excellent way does he mean? If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding bronze, or a clanging cymbal (1 Cor 13:1). If, then, nothing more excellent can be found in holy Scripture than love; how are the higher parts of the heaven covered with waters, if the higher parts of Scripture are the precepts of love? Hear how: The love, he says, of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Now by the name of pouring out understand the waters in the love of the Holy Spirit. These are the waters of which it is said in a certain Scripture: And in your streets let your waters run; let no stranger share with you (Prov 5:16-17). For all who are strangers to the way of truth, whether pagans, or Jews, or heretics, and any bad Christians, can have many gifts, but cannot have love. This very thing, why is it a gift? Not to speak of other gifts outside, which gifts all men have, because he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad (Matt 5:45): they are gifts of God, and not only common to the good and the bad, but even to beasts and cattle. To be itself, to live, to see, to perceive, to hear, and to use the other endowments of the senses, are gifts of God: but see with what sort and how many they are common, and with those whom you would not wish to imitate. The very keen mind even the worst men have, the skilled industry of arts even the basest stage-players have, riches even robbers have, marriages, children, many bad men have. All beautiful gifts of God, no one denies; but see with whom they are common. Look back to the gifts of the Church herself. The gift of the Sacraments in Baptism, in the Eucharist, in the other holy Sacraments, what sort of gift is it? This gift Simon Magus too obtained. What sort of gift is prophecy? Saul too, a bad king, prophesied, and prophesied then, when he was persecuting holy David. Attend: I did not say, when he had persecuted. For perhaps, having persecuted, he did penance, and was worthy of the spirit of prophesying. Not having persecuted, nor about to persecute, but in the act of persecuting he prophesied. He sent his ministers to seize David: but David at that time was among the prophets, where holy Samuel too was; those who were sent were filled with the spirit of prophecy, and they prophesied. But perhaps they had come with a good mind, either out of the necessity of their office, or not about to do what was commanded. He sent others too: this happened in them too; and let us interpret their mind in this way. When they delayed, he himself came raging, panting for slaughter, thirsting for the blood of the innocent holy one, to whom he was even ungrateful; and he himself was filled with the spirit of prophesying, and prophesied. Let them not, then, boast who perhaps without love have had this holy gift of God, like holy baptism; but let them see what account they will have to render to God, who use holy things unholily. From these will be those who are going to say, In your name we prophesied. It will not be said to them, "You lie"; but it will be said: I do not know you; depart from me, you who work iniquity (See Matt 7:22-23). Because if I have all prophecy, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). Saul too prophesied, but he worked iniquity. And who works iniquity, except one who has not had love? For the fullness of the Law is love. Therefore he covers its higher parts with waters: what did he say? In all the Scriptures love holds the most excellent way, the most excellent place; only the good aspire to it, the bad do not share it with us: they can share Baptism, they can share the other Sacraments, they can share prayer, they can share these walls, and this assembly; they do not share love with us. For it is the proper fountain of the good, the proper fountain of the saints, of which it is said, Let no stranger share with you. Who are the strangers? All who hear: I do not know you. For if they are not known, surely they are strangers, to whom it is said, I do not know you. The excellent way of love, then, holds those who properly pertain to the kingdom of heaven. Therefore the precept of love is above the heavens, above all the books: for the books are subject to it, every tongue of the saints serves it, and every motion of God's stewards, of both soul and body. It is, then, the excellent way, and rightly it covers the higher parts of the heaven with waters; because you find nothing more eminent than love in the divine Books.

10. But hear still more evidently what the water is. For we said that the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us: we said also, In the streets let your waters run. And someone says to me: It was not there expressly said whether I ought to understand love: what if another understands something else? Only remember what the Apostle says: The love of God is poured out in our hearts. Whence? Through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Hear now the Lord, the master of the Apostles: If anyone thirsts, let him come, and drink. Let him say still: He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. What is this? Let the Evangelist explain: But this he said, he says, of the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:37-39). Therefore, brothers, if for this reason the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified; when he was glorified and ascending into heaven, the Holy Spirit was sent, and the Apostles were filled with love, poured out in their hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to them; because the higher parts of the heaven are covered with waters. And well, because the Lord ascended into heaven, that he might be higher than the heavens, and thence send love. For God does not so protect as if he were sustained by the one whom he protects: he lifts up the one he protects, he does not burden him. So, then, he so covers the heaven with waters that it is rather lifted up by the divine Spirit. What lifts up is above; what is lifted up is below: that one suspends, this one hangs. If, then, that one suspends, this one hangs; hear that this heaven of the Scriptures hangs from love. There are, namely, those two best-known precepts of love: On these two precepts the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets (Matt 22:40). Who covers its higher parts with waters.

11. Who makes the clouds his ascent. This too is well taken to the letter. The Lord ascended visibly into heaven. How are the clouds made the ascent of heaven? When he had said these things, a cloud received him (Acts 1:9). You have likewise foretold about our resurrection: And the dead, he says, in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16-17). You have the clouds the ascent of heaven: I will show too the clouds the ascent of this heaven, that is, of the divine Scriptures. What is this, brothers? Would that the Lord my God deign to number me among those clouds, such as they are; let him see how nebulous a cloud I am: yet take all the preachers of the word of truth to be clouds. Whoever, then, are weak, and cannot ascend into this heaven, that is, to the understanding of the Scriptures, let them ascend by the clouds. For perhaps it is happening to you even now; if we accomplish anything, if our labor and sweat is not unfruitful, you ascend into the heaven of the divine Scriptures, that is, into the understanding of them, through our preaching. How lofty was the heaven in this psalm! For none of you saw what was in the figure: He stretched out the heaven like a skin, who covers its higher parts with waters. This very thing that was said, Who makes the clouds his ascent; behold, it is now understood, as far as the Lord has granted, by our preaching; for the clouds do not rain of their own gift. Ascend you by understanding, bear fruit in the understanding itself; lest you be such as that vineyard, of which it is said in the prophet, I will command my clouds not to rain upon it (Isa 5:6). For a certain vineyard was accused, that instead of the grape it had given thorns, that it had not rendered worthy thanks for the sweet rain. For he who hears good things and works evil things is rained upon with sweet rain, and brings forth thorns. We must not suppose, brothers, that the Lord spoke of some earthly and visible vineyard. For there, lest under the obscurity of the discourse an excuse for iniquity should hide, the Lord himself through the same prophet set forth to which vineyard he was speaking, and of which vineyard he was saying these things: The vineyard, he says, of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel (Isa 5:7). Why do your hearts wander, O wicked ones, through the mountains and hills of the vinedressers? I know, he says, of which vineyard I speak, I know where I sought the grape, and found thorns; without cause you suspect and opine one thing and another, unwilling to understand so as to act well. For this too is written: He was unwilling to understand so as to act well (Ps 36:3 (35:4)). Remove all your suspicions from the midst: The vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel; and the man of Judah, the beloved new shoot. Beloved, when it was planted; condemned, when it produced thorns. So, brothers, perhaps the house of Israel was a vineyard, and are we not a vineyard? Let us hear with fear what we see was said to the Jews. See how the Apostle frightens the branches grafted in, from the broken branches, and in the broken branches commends a severity to be feared, in the grafted branches commends a goodness to be loved. Do not be unfruitful in goodness, lest, barren, you feel severity. But I am not a vine, you say to me. Where is the Lord's voice: I am the vine, you are the branches; my Father is the husbandman (John 15:5, 1)? Where is the voice of the Apostle: Who plants a vineyard, and does not partake of its fruit? (1 Cor 9:7) A vineyard, then, you are, O Church, and you have God as your husbandman. No human husbandman rains upon his vineyard. Therefore, most beloved brothers, the inward parts of the Church, the pledges of the Church, the sons of the heavenly mother, hear, while there is time. God threatened that vineyard with a most dreadful threat: I will command my clouds, he says, not to rain upon it. And it was done: the Apostles came to the Jews, they rejected them; and they said to them, To you we were sent, but because you have rejected the word of God, we go to the gentiles (See Acts 13:46). You see how, in the same Spirit of God, with him bidding within who dwells in the hearts of his own, it was commanded to the clouds of God not to rain upon the vineyard, which, when it was expected to make the grape, made thorns. Therefore he both made the clouds its ascent, and stretched out the heaven like a skin. There is no reason for you to complain: the authority of the Scriptures is stretched out over the world, the clouds are not lacking, the word of truth is preached, all things that are obscure are expounded, that your hearts may ascend by the clouds. See how you believe, see what you take up: after the preacher will come the judge, after the steward will come the exactor. Who makes the clouds his ascent.

12. Who walks upon the wings of the winds. This is now dangerous to take to the letter. Or what are the wings of the winds? or indeed how, as in a picture, are we going to make for ourselves winds flying and having wings? The wind, brothers, is nothing but what we feel, a certain motion and as it were wave of the air, driving what it can according to its strength. What are the wings of the winds? But also, what are the wings of God? And yet it is said, Under the shadow of your wings they will hope (Ps 36:7 (35:8)). Let us try, then, to take this too to the letter, as if properly done in this creation. Perhaps Scripture commends the swiftness of the word; of which swiftness we spoke a while ago in another psalm, where it is written, His word runs swiftly (Ps 147:15 (147:4)). Because men know nothing swifter than the winds. As that easiness was commended in the skin; for nothing is more easily stretched out by a man than a skin: so here too, hinting that God or his Word, present everywhere, deserts nothing by the swiftness of its motion, because you knew nothing swifter than the wind: He walks, he says, upon the wings of the winds, that is, his swiftness surpasses the swiftness of the winds: so that by the wings of the winds you understand the swiftness of the winds, and understand the word of God to be swifter than all winds. And so on the first face of consideration: let us knock for something more inward, and let these letters indicate something to us figuratively.

13. We understand the winds in figure, not absurdly, to be souls: not because the soul is wind, but because the wind is invisible, although a corporeal thing, driving bodies, yet because it flees the gaze of the human eye; but the soul is invisible, therefore we rightly understand souls to be winds. Hence it is that God is said to have breathed the spirit of life into the man formed; and the man was made into a living soul (Gen 2:7). Therefore winds are not absurdly taken in allegory to be souls. But see that you do not suppose, the word "allegory" being named, that I have said something of the pantomime. For certain words, since they are words, and proceed from the tongue, are common to us even with playful and not honorable things: yet these words have their own place in the Church, and their own place on the stage. For I have not said what the Apostle did not say, when of the two sons of Abraham he said, Which things are, he says, in allegory (Gal 4:24). It is called allegory when something seems to sound one thing in the words, and to signify another in the understanding. As Christ is called a lamb: is he then a beast? Christ a lion: is he then a wild animal? Christ a rock: is he then a hardness? Christ a mountain: is he then a swelling of the earth? And so many things seem to sound one thing, to signify another; and it is called allegory. For he who supposes that I spoke of allegory from the theater, let him suppose that the Lord too spoke of parable from the amphitheater. You see what a city does where spectacles abound: in the country I would speak more securely; for what allegory is, perhaps men would not have learned there, except in the Scriptures of God. Therefore, what we call allegory is a figure, an allegory is a figured sacrament. And what do we take here: He ascended upon the wings of the winds? We have said that the winds are well taken figuratively to be souls. What are the wings of the winds, the wings of souls, except those by which they are lifted up? The wings, then, of souls are virtues, good works, right deeds. In two wings all have their feathers; for all the precepts are in two precepts. Whoever loves God and neighbor has a winged soul, flying to the Lord with free wings, with holy love. Whoever is entangled in carnal love has birdlime on his wings. For if the soul does not have wings and feathers, whence does that one, groaning in tribulations, say, Who will give me wings, like a dove's? And there follows: And I will fly, and rest (Ps 55:6 (54:7)). Likewise in another place: Where shall I go from your spirit, and where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I descend into hell, you are present; if I take my wings like a dove, and fly to the ends of the sea. As though he were saying: So I can flee from the face of your wrath, if I take wings like a dove, and fly to the ends of the sea. To fly to the ends of the sea is now to extend hope to the end of the age, like that one who says, This is the labor before me, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand in the last things (Ps 73:16-17 (72:16-17)). And how does he come to the ends of the sea, even with wings taken? For even there, he says, your hand will lead me, and your right hand will bring me through (Ps 139:7-10 (138:7-10)). For even with my wings I will fall, unless you lead me. Therefore the souls that work well the precepts of God have good and free wings, bound by no birdlime, having love from a pure conscience and faith unfeigned. But however much they are endowed with the virtues of love, what is that compared to that love of God by which they were loved, even when they were entangled with birdlime? Greater, then, is the love of God toward us than ours toward him. Our love is our wings, but he walks even upon the wings of the winds.

14. The Apostle was already saying to certain ones: I bend my knees for you to the Father, that he may grant you according to the inner man that Christ dwell through faith in your hearts, that, rooted and founded in love. Now he gives them love, now he gives them wings and feathers. That you may be able, he says, to comprehend what is the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth (Eph 3:14-18). Perhaps it signifies the cross of the Lord. For there was the breadth, in which the hands were stretched out; the length rising from the earth, on which the body was fixed; the height, from that crossbeam upward which projects; the depth, where the cross was fixed, and there all the hope of our life. For the breadth is in good works, the length in persevering to the end, the height because of the Heart-aloft, that all our good works, in which we persevere to the end, having the breadth by which we work well, and the length by which we persevere to the end, we may do only in the hope of heavenly rewards. For that is the height, not to seek the reward here, but above; lest it be said to us, Amen I say to you, they have received their reward (See Matt 6:2). But the depth which I mentioned, where the part of the cross was fixed, and was not seen; thence rose the things that were seen. What is it that is hidden, and not public in the Church? The sacrament of Baptism, the sacrament of the Eucharist. For our good works even the pagans see, but the Sacraments are hidden from them: but from the things they do not see, those rise which they see; just as from the depth of the cross which is fixed in the earth, the whole cross rises that appears and is discerned. And what afterward? When the Apostle had said this, he added: To know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ; when it had already been said, Rooted and founded in love. For you love Christ, and therefore you work on the cross. But do you love as much as he loved you? But, loving however much you love, you fly to him, that you may know how he himself loved you; that is, that you may know the surpassingness of the love of Christ. For you love as much as you can, and you fly as much as you can: but he walks even upon the wings of the winds. Who walks upon the wings of the winds.

15. [v. 4.] Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a blazing fire. And this, although we do not see the appearance of the angels; for it is hidden from our eyes, and is in a certain great commonwealth of the emperor God, yet we know that there are angels by faith, and we read it written that they appeared to many, and we hold it, nor is it lawful for us to doubt of it. The angels are spirits; and when they are spirits, they are not angels; when they are sent, they become angels. For angel is a name of office, not of nature. Do you ask the name of this nature? it is spirit; do you ask the office? it is angel: from what it is, it is spirit; from what it does, it is angel. See that in man. The name of nature is man, of office soldier; the name of nature is man, of office herald; for a man becomes a herald, that is, he who was a man becomes a herald; not he who was a herald becomes a man. So, then, those who were already spirits created by God the creator, he makes them angels, by sending them to announce what he commands; and he makes a blazing fire his ministers. We read that fire appeared in the bush, we read also that fire was sent down from above, and fulfilled what was commanded. It ministered, then, when it fulfilled: when it was, it was in its own nature; when it did what was commanded, it fulfilled the ministry. So according to the letter in the creation.

16. But what is it figuratively in the Church? How do we take, Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a blazing fire? By spirits he means the spiritual. He well makes spiritual men his angels, that is, the messengers of his word. For the spiritual man judges all things; but he himself is judged by no one (1 Cor 2:15). See a spiritual man made an angel of God. I could not, he says, speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal (1 Cor 3:1). From a certain spiritual disposition he was sent to carnal men, as an angel from heaven to the earth. How does he say, and his ministers a blazing fire, except as he says, fervent in spirit? (Rom 12:11) For one fervent in spirit, every minister of God, is a burning fire. Did not Stephen burn? With what fire did he burn? and what was that fire, when he was being stoned, and prayed for those by whom he was being stoned? When you hear: The minister of God is fire; do you suppose that he is going to set on fire? Let him set on fire, but your hay; that is, let the minister of God, preaching the word of God, burn all your carnal desires. Hear him: So let a man regard us, as ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1). But how did he burn, when he said, Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians; our heart is enlarged? (2 Cor 6:11) He burned and blazed with love, and went into them, to set them on fire. This fire the Lord said he would send into the earth, when he said, I came to send fire into the earth (Luke 12:49). As the sword, so the fire. The sword divides carnal affection, the fire consumes it. Understand the whole in the word of God, recognize the whole in the spirit of God. Begin to be fervent with love through the word you hear, and see what the fire, the minister of God, has done in you. Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a blazing fire.

17. [v. 5.] He founded the earth upon its firmness; it will not be inclined unto the age of the age. To take this of this earth, I do not know whether it has any way out, whether it is rightly said, It will not be inclined unto the age of the age; of which it is said, Heaven and earth will pass away (Matt 24:35). There is labor here, if you seek to take it to the letter. For what he says, He founded the earth upon its firmness; perhaps there is a certain firmness hidden from us, which holds the earth, and this he said: He founded. Upon what? Upon the firmness of the earth itself, which he set beneath it, that it might be held, which perhaps lies hidden from your eyes. Let these things be hidden in the creation; the Creator will not lie hidden from the obscurity of the creation: let us see what we can, from the things we see let us praise and love him. Let us turn ourselves to seek something here set in figure. He founded the earth, I understand the Church. The earth is the Lord's, and its fullness (Ps 24:1 (23:1)); I understand the earth to be the Church. It is the thirsting earth, it is she who says in the Psalms; for one says out of all: My soul is as earth without water to you (Ps 143:6 (142:6)). What is it, without water? Thirsting. So my soul thirsts for you, as earth without water: for unless it thirsts, it will not be rightly watered. To a drunken soul rain is a flood; it must thirst: for blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt 5:6): and let it say, My soul is as earth without water to you; because it says elsewhere, My soul thirsted for the living God (Ps 42:2 (41:3)). The earth, then, I understand to be the Church. What is its firmness upon which it is founded, except its foundation? or do we incongruously understand the firmness upon which the earth is founded to be the foundation where the Church is established? What is that foundation? A foundation, he says, no one can lay except that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:11). There, then, we have been made firm. Rightly, because there made firm, we will not be inclined unto the age of the age; for nothing is firmer than that foundation. You were infirm, but a firm foundation bears you. In yourself you could not be firm; you will be firm always, if you do not withdraw from that firm foundation. It will not be inclined unto the age of the age. It is the predestined pillar and ground of truth.

18. [vv. 6-17.] The deep is as a garment, his wrap: the waters will stand upon the mountains. At your rebuke they will flee, at the voice of your thunder they will fear. The mountains ascend, and the plains descend, into the place which you founded for them. You set a boundary which they will not transgress, nor will they return to cover the earth. Who send forth springs in the valleys; through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass. All the beasts of the field will drink, the wild asses will take up into their thirst. Above them the birds of heaven will dwell, from the midst of the rocks they will give their voice. Watering the mountains from your higher places: from the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied. Bringing forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. That he may bring forth bread from the earth; and wine gladdens the heart of man. That he may make the face glad with oil; and bread strengthens the heart of man. The trees of the field will be satisfied, and the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. There the sparrows will nest; the house of the coot is their leader. You notice the heaven stretched out, you wish to ascend by understanding, and I see it. Yet how lofty it is I think your Charity considers with me. For I wished to pronounce many verses, that you might see how loftily the sacraments of God are set; lest we disdain what is offered, lest things readily available become cheap, that, always sought, even if with difficulty, they may be found with the greater joy. Yet among the other things, brothers, which can be taken to the letter; can this too which was said, There the sparrows will nest; the house of the coot is their leader? Is the house of the coot the leader of the sparrows? or is the house of the coot the leader of the cedars? For this too is there: And the cedars of Lebanon which he planted: there the sparrows will nest; the house of the coot is their leader. And indeed in Latin idiom we cannot understand their as referring to the cedars; for the cedars are of feminine gender. So how is the house of the coot the leader of the sparrows? For this can in no way be understood in this creation that lies before our eyes. For we know that coots are sea or marsh birds. Let the house of the coot be the nest of the coot: how, then, is the house of the coot the leader of the sparrows? Why does the Holy Spirit mingle in visible things certain as it were absurd things, except that, from what we cannot take to the letter, he may compel us so to seek spiritually?

19. Therefore, if, as I said, you wish to ascend by understanding to the heaven, to the stretched-out skin, and the clouds made his ascent; this cloud which speaks to you is too weak today to expound all these things. Pardon, if not your weakness, certainly mine. I see your eagerness so great that you are always ready to hear: but there are two things whose reckoning is not to be scorned. For both the weakness of our body must be considered, and the memory of the very things that are expounded. Meanwhile think of what you have heard. What did I say? Ruminate what you have eaten. For so you will be clean animals, and fit for the feasts of God. But notice your fruit in your works. For he digests very badly who hears well, and does not work well: because the Lord our God does not fail to feed us. It is known to all that of the bread we have received, and which we dispense, we will render an account. Your Charity knows very well; for the divine Page is not silent to us, nor does God flatter us. How free we are toward you from this place, you can notice: and if perhaps I am less free, or all who speak to you in this place, if we are less free, certainly the very word of God fears no one. But whether we fear, or are free, we are compelled to announce the one who fears no one: this not men, but God has bestowed on you, that even through the swollen you may hear freely. You will have no excuse in the judgment of God, unless you have exercised yourselves in good works, and have given a fitting fruit of the things you have heard, as of rain. The fitting fruit is good works; the fitting fruit is sincere love, not only of a brother, but even of an enemy. Spurn no suppliant, and the one to whom you cannot give what he asked, do not spurn him: if you can give, give; if you cannot, show yourself affable. God crowns within the will, where he does not find the means. Let no one say: I do not have it. Love is not dispensed from a purse: because whatever we say, and whatever we have said, and whatever we may be able to say, whether we, or those after us, or those before us, have no end but love: because the end of the precept is love, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. Question, when you ask of God, your hearts; see how you let this verse pass: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). You will not be praying, unless you say this: if you say another, he does not hear you; because the Lawyer whom he sent did not dictate it to you. It is necessary, then, both that, when we say our words in prayer, we say them according to it; and that, when we say those very words, we understand well what we say, because God willed it to be manifest. If, then, you do not pray, you will have no hope: if you pray otherwise than the Master taught, you will not be heard; or if in prayer you have lied, you will not obtain. Therefore, both we must pray, and tell the truth, and so pray as he taught. Willing or unwilling, you will daily say: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors. Do you wish to say it securely? Do what you say.

On the Same Psalm 103

1. I know that you hold us as debtors, not by necessity, but, what is more forceful, by love. But we owe this first to the Lord our God, who, dwelling even in you, demands these things of us: then to my lord and father, present and bidding and praying for me: then to your violence, by which you extort it even from our weak strength. Yet, as far as the Lord grants—who may deign to grant the very strength too at your prayers—since we treated the first parts of this psalm on the day now recently past; the following parts too must be taken up, and, with his help, in whose name we began, must be finished. We had commended to your Charity, you who were present, that this whole psalm is woven of figured mysteries. Whence what is sought with more difficulty is wont to be found more sweetly. And do not suppose that these things are withdrawn from you by obscurity, but seasoned by difficulty; for this purpose, as we have often already said, that it may be given to those who ask, found by those who seek, entered by those who knock. But we need somewhat greater both silence on your part, and patience on your part, that the few things we are about to say may not, through noise, occupy more time. For the narrowness of time compels us to say few things, since your Charity too knows that we owe a solemn service to the obsequies of a faithful body. Behold, that we may not be compelled to repeat what has been said, and expound it again: if any were absent who did not hear, let them not be absent; but it profits them perhaps that they do not now hear what those who were present heard, that they too may learn to be present. Let us read, then, in a running way.

2. [vv. 1, 2.] Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let the soul of us all say it, made one in Christ. O Lord my God, you have been magnified exceedingly. Whence have you been magnified? You have put on confession and comeliness. Confess, that you may be adorned, that he may clothe you. Wrapped around with light as with a garment. Wrapped around with his Church; because she was made light in him, who before was darkness in herself, as the Apostle says, You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). Stretching out the heaven like a skin: either as easily as you a skin, if it is so easy, as you would take it to the letter: or let us understand the authority of the Scriptures stretched out through the whole world by the name of skin; because mortality is signified in the skin, but all the authority of the divine Scriptures has been dispensed to us through mortal men, whose fame, now that they are dead, is stretched out.

3. [v. 3.] Who covers its higher parts with waters. The higher parts of what? Of the heaven. What is the heaven? Figuratively at least we said it is divine Scripture. What are the higher parts of divine Scripture? The precept, than which nothing is more eminent, of love. But why is love compared to waters? Because the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). Whence is the Spirit himself water? Because Jesus stood, and cried: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. Whence do we prove that it was said of the Spirit? Let the Evangelist himself say, who follows and says, But this he said of the Spirit, whom those who would believe in him were to receive (John 7:37-39). Who walks upon the wings of the winds: that is, upon the virtues of souls. What is the virtue of the soul? Love itself. But how does he walk upon it? Because the love of God toward us is greater than ours toward God.

4. [v. 4.] Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a blazing fire: that is, those who are already spirits, who are spiritual, not carnal, he makes his angels, by sending them to preach his Gospel. And his ministers a blazing fire. For unless the minister who preaches burns, he does not set on fire the one to whom he preaches.

5. [vv. 5, 6.] He founded the earth upon its firmament. He made firm the Church upon the firmament of the Church. What is the firmament of the Church, except the foundation of the Church? What is the foundation of the Church, except that of which the Apostle says, A foundation no one can lay except that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus? (1 Cor 3:11) And therefore, propped up by such a foundation, what did she deserve to hear? It will not be inclined unto the age of the age. He founded the earth upon its firmness, that is, he made firm the Church upon the foundation Christ. The Church will totter if the foundation totters: but whence will Christ totter, who before he came to us and took up flesh, all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made (John 1:3); who contains all things by his majesty, and us by his goodness? Christ not tottering, it will not be inclined unto the age of the age. Where are those who say that the Church has perished from the world, when it cannot even be inclined?

6. But whence did the Lord begin to assert this Church, to reveal, to begin, to show, to spread it? whence did he begin this? what was it first? Because he founded the earth upon its firmament, it will not be inclined unto the age of the age. The deep is as a garment, his wrap. Whose? is it perhaps God's? But he had already said of his wrap: Wrapped around with light, as with a garment. I hear that God is clothed with light, and the light itself, if we will, is we. What is it, if we will? If we are not now darkness. So if God is clothed with light, whose wrap, again, is the deep? For the deep is called an immense abundance of waters: all water, all moist nature and substance diffused round about through the seas, and rivers, and hidden caverns, is together by one name called the deep. The earth, then, we understand, of which he said, He founded the earth upon its firmament; it will not be inclined unto the age of the age; of that, I believe, it was said, The deep is as a garment, his wrap. For the water is as it were the garment of the earth, surrounding it and covering it. But at one time, in the flood, this garment of the earth so grew that it covered absolutely everything, and surmounted the highest mountains, as Scripture testifies, by about fifteen cubits. Perhaps this psalm signified that very time, when it said, The deep is as a garment, his wrap.

7. The waters will stand upon the mountains: that is, the garment of the earth, which is the deep, so grew that the waters stood even upon the mountains. We read, as I said, that this happened in the flood. Was the Prophet speaking from there? was he narrating to us past things, or foretelling things to come? But if he were narrating past things, he would not say to us, The waters will stand upon the mountains; but, The waters stood upon the mountains. For we are wont to read that past time is set for future in the Scriptures, the Spirit so foreseeing the things that are to come, as if they were already done. Hence it is that we all know that passage in another psalm, where as it were the Gospel is recited: They dug my hands and feet, they numbered all my bones; over my garment they cast lots (Ps 22:16-18 (21:17-19)). All things are commemorated as if already done, which surely were still discerned to be future. But how much can our diligence do? and how much can such occupation do? or when is there such leisure that we can say for certain: It is so? We notice that the Prophets often say in the past tense of verbs the things that are future; but to say past things by a figure of the future does not easily occur to the reader. I do not dare to say: There is none; but certainly I would have enjoined upon the students of those Scriptures what they should seek. If they find it, and bring it to us, we, busy old men, will rejoice in the studies of the young who are at leisure, and from their service we too will learn something. For we do not disdain it; since Christ teaches concerning all things. This, then, he says: The waters will stand upon the mountains. The Prophet, caring to foretell future things, not to narrate past, therefore said it, because he wished the Church to be understood as being in the flood of persecutions. For there was a time at some point when the waters of the persecutors had covered the earth of God, the Church of God; and they had so covered it that not even the great ones, who are the mountains, appeared. For when they fled everywhere, how did they not appear less? And perhaps from those waters is that voice: Save me, O God, for the waters have entered even to my soul (Ps 69:1 (68:2)). Especially the waters that make the sea, stormy, unfruitful. For sea-water, whatever earth it covers, will not make it fruitful, but rather lead it to barrenness. For there were mountains too under the waters; because the waters stood upon the mountains: the resisting peoples had overcome the authority of all who everywhere strongly evangelized the word of God, the waters had covered them, and the waters stood upon them, saying: Press, press; and they pressed: Extinguish, let them not appear. They said these things, and prevailed over the martyrs, and the Christians fled everywhere, and the Apostles were hidden in a kind of flight. Whence were the Apostles hidden in flight? Because the waters stood upon the mountains. The power of the waters was great. But how long? Hear what follows.

8. [v. 7.] At your rebuke they will flee. And this happened, brothers; at the rebuke of God the waters fled: that is, they withdrew from the pressure of the mountains. Now the mountains themselves stand forth, Peter and Paul: how do they stand out? Those who before were pressed by the persecutors are now venerated by the emperors. For the waters fled at the rebuke of God: because the heart of kings is in the hand of God; he turned it where he willed, he commanded through them that peace be given to the Christians; the apostolic authority shone forth and stood out. Had the greatness of the mountains failed even when the waters were above? But yet, my brothers, that all might see the eminence of the mountains, through which mountains salvation might be to the human race, because I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help will come to me (Ps 121:1 (120:1)); at the rebuke of God the waters fled. At the voice of your thunder they will fear. Now who is not terrified at the voice of God through the Apostles, the voice of God through the Scriptures, through his clouds? The sea grew calm, the waters feared, the mountains were laid bare, the emperor commanded. But who would have commanded, unless God had thundered? Because God willed it, they commanded, and it was done. Therefore let no man arrogate anything to himself; the waters feared, but at the voice of your thunder. For behold, when God willed, the waters fled, lest they press the mountains; before that was done, the mountains were firm even under the waters.

9. [vv. 8-10.] The mountains ascend, and the plains descend, into the place which you founded for them. He is still speaking of the waters. Let us not here take the mountains as if earthly; nor the plains as if earthly: but waves so great that they are compared to mountains. The sea once surged, and its waves were like mountains, which would cover those mountains the Apostles. But how long do the mountains ascend, and the plains descend? They raged, and were appeased. When they raged, they were mountains: when they were appeased, they became plains; for he founded a place for them. There is a certain channel, as it were a deep place, into which were received in a way all the raging hearts of mortals. How many now are both salt, and bitter, and yet quiet? How many are there who are unwilling to grow sweet? Who are those who are unwilling to grow sweet? Those who are still unwilling to believe in Christ. And although there are many who have not yet believed, what do they do to the Church? They were once mountains, now they are plains: yet, my brothers, calm too is sea. For why do they not now rage? why do they not go mad? why do they not take pains? If they cannot overthrow our earth, certainly to cover it. Why not? Hear: You set a boundary which they will not transgress, nor will they return to cover the earth.

10. What then, since now the most bitter waves have received a measure, so that we may even freely preach such things; since they have received their due boundary, since they cannot transgress the imposed limit, nor will they return to cover the earth; what happens on the earth itself? what operations are done there, which the sea has now laid bare? Even if at its shore the thin waves roar, even if the pagans still murmur, I hear the sound of the shores, I do not shudder at a flood. What, then, what happens on the earth? You who send forth springs in the valleys. You send forth, he says, springs in the valleys. You know what valleys are, the low places of the earth. For the opposite figure is set against the hills and mountains, valleys or vales. Hills and mountains are swellings of the earth; but valleys or vales are the lowlinesses of the earth. Do not scorn the lowlinesses; thence flow springs: You send forth springs in the valleys. Hear a mountain: the Apostle says, I labored more than all of them. A certain greatness is commended; yet immediately, that the waters may flow forth, he made himself a valley: Yet not I, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10). It is not contradictory that those who are mountains should also be valleys; for as they are called mountains because of spiritual greatness, so also valleys because of the lowliness of their spirit. Not I, he says, but the grace of God with me. Not I, that is a valley; and the grace of God with me, that is a spring. You who send forth springs in the valleys. Of the Spirit was said what I just recalled: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and drink. He who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his belly. But this he said of the Spirit, whom those who would believe in him were to receive (John 7:37-39). Let us see whether they are valleys, that springs may be sent forth in the valleys. Hear the prophet: Upon whom will my Spirit rest, except upon the humble, and the quiet, and the one who trembles at my words? (Isa 66:2) What is it, Upon whom will my Spirit rest, upon the humble and quiet? Who will have my spring? The valley.

11. Through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass. Up to here the Psalm was read by the Reader, up to here let it suffice your Charity. This we will say, and in the name of God we will end the sermon. What is it, Through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass? We have heard who the mountains are, the great preachers of the word, the lofty angels of God, although still in mortal flesh: lofty not by their own virtue, but by his grace; but as far as concerns themselves, they are valleys, humbly they send forth springs. And through the midst of the mountains, he says, the waters will pass. Let us suppose this was said thus: Through the midst of the Apostles the preachings of the word of truth will pass. What is it, Through the midst of the Apostles? What is called the midst is common. A common thing, from which all live equally, is in the midst, and does not belong to me; but neither to you, nor to me. Therefore we speak thus too of certain men: They have peace among themselves, they have faith among themselves, they have love among themselves; so certainly we say. What is it, among themselves? In the midst of themselves. What is it, in the midst of themselves? It is common to them. Hear the waters through the midst of the mountains. Because faith was common to them, nor did anyone have the waters as it were proper and his own. For if they are not in the midst, they are as it were private, they do not flow publicly; and I have mine, and he has his, there is nothing in the midst that both I and he have; but such preaching is not peaceable. But truly, that through the midst of the mountains the waters may flow, hear the voice of a mountain: The God, he says, of peace give you to be of the same mind toward one another (Rom 15:5). And again: That you all be of the same mind, and that there be no schisms among you (1 Cor 1:10). What I think, you think; in the midst flows the water: I do not have it as it were my own private thing, nor you your private thing. Let the truth be the proper thing neither of mine nor of yours, that it may be both yours and mine: Through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass. Hear the mountain himself, as I said, that through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass. But whether I, or they, so we preach, and so you have believed (1 Cor 15:11). Securely he said: Whether I, or they, so we preach, and so you have believed: for through the midst of the mountains the waters flowed; no discord of the mountains over the waters, but the peace of agreement, and the fellowship of love: but if anyone wished to preach something else, he would now preach of his own, not of the midst. And hear what is said of him by the very one who sent forth springs in the valleys: He who speaks a lie, speaks of his own (John 8:44). And so, lest some mountain be taken as flowing not from the midst, but from its own, the Apostle says: Whoever evangelizes to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema (See Gal 1:9). And see how he was unwilling for presumption to be made of a mountain: lest perhaps a mountain withdraw from the waters running through the midst, and wish to pour in something of its own. Even if we (And how great a mountain said this! how abundantly the water flowed from his valley! Yet he wished it to run through the midst of the mountains, and that there should be the sure faith of the peoples, which the Apostles retained as the midst and common thing among themselves). Even if we, he says. And you, Paul, can you preach something otherwise? It is a question about Paul; hear what follows: Even if we, or an angel from heaven announce to you anything other than what you have received; let him be anathema (Gal 1:8). If a mountain come evangelizing something else, let him be anathema; if an angel come evangelizing something else, let him be anathema. Whence this? Because he wishes to flow from his private store, not from the midst. And perhaps a man, impeded by the carnal cloud, and reduced from the common fountain to his own falsehood, can do this; can an angel too? truly, can an angel too? If an angel flowing from his own had not been heard in paradise, we would not have been cast headlong into death. Water was set in the midst for men, the precept of God: water in the midst, water as it were public, prevailed without fraud, what we have said to your Charity, without stain, it flowed without mire. If that water had always been drunk, one would always have lived. There came an angel fallen from heaven, made a serpent, because he already desired treacherously to scatter poisons: he sent forth poison, he spoke of his own, of his private store; because he who speaks a lie, speaks of his own (John 8:44): and the wretched, by hearing, let go what was common, whence they were blessed; and reduced to their own private store, when they wished perversely to be like God (for this he had said to them: Taste, and you will be like gods (See Gen 3:5)), desiring what they were not, they lost what they had received. Therefore, brothers, let what we have said to your Charity avail for this, on account of the springs: that they may flow from you, be valleys, and share with all what you have from God. Let the waters flow through the midst, envy no one; drink, be satisfied; flow when satisfied. Everywhere let the common water of God have glory, not the private lies of men.

On the Same Psalm 103

1. Your Charity remembers that we are debtors for treating the remaining parts of this psalm. There is no need, then, that I move your attention by any preface. For I see you suspended with all eagerness to understand the prophetic sacraments; nor is there need that my sermon make attentive those whom the Spirit of God has already made so. Let us rather do what presses. Of the springs sent forth in the valleys, and of the waters passing through the midst of the mountains, it has already been said: but said thus far; from here let us begin afterward.

2. [v. 11.] For there follows: All the beasts of the forest will drink. What will they drink? The waters passing through the midst of the mountains. What will they drink? The springs sent forth in the valleys. And who will drink? The beasts of the forest. We see this indeed in this creation too, the beasts of the forest drinking from the springs and from the streams running among the mountains: but since now it has pleased God to hide his wisdom in figures of such things, not to take it away from the studious, but to shut it off from the negligent, to open it to those who knock; it has pleased the Lord our God himself to exhort you through us to this, that in all these things, which are said as it were of bodily and visible creation, we seek something spiritually hidden, in finding which we may rejoice. The beasts of the forest we understand to be the gentiles; and Scripture testifies this in many places. But yet two most evident proofs especially occur, that in Noah's ark, by which none of us doubts that the Church was prefigured, all kinds of animals would not be enclosed, unless in that unity of structure all the nations were signified: unless perhaps we suppose that, if all such things were utterly destroyed by the flood, God would have lacked the power to command that the earth bring them forth, as by his first word it had brought them forth. Not in vain, then, not rashly, not from any need of God or lack of power, were those animals commanded to be enclosed in the ark. For after the time came (for now we must add the other most evident testimony too): when, then, the time came that what was prefigured in the ark should now be fulfilled in the Church, the apostle Peter, doubting to give the evangelical sacrament to the uncircumcised gentiles—or rather not doubting, but thinking that it ought not at all to be given—on a certain day, being hungry, when he wished to dine, went up to pray. This is known in the Acts of the Apostles to all who read well and hear well. So while he was praying, there came upon him an alienation of mind, which the Greeks call ecstasy: that is, his mind was turned away from bodily custom to contemplate a certain vision, alienated from present things. Then he saw a certain vessel like a sheet let down from heaven by four corners, where there were all animals, beasts of every kind; and a voice sounded to him: Peter, kill, and eat (Acts 10:13). But he, who had been instructed in the Law, and had grown up in Jewish custom, and retained the precept of God through Moses his servant, and had faithfully kept his whole life, answered: Far be it from me, Lord; never has anything common entered my mouth (Acts 10:14). That "common" is called unclean by the Jews and by the Law, those who have learned the ecclesiastical writings well know. And a voice to him: What God has cleansed, do not call unclean (Acts 10:15). And this was done three times, and that dish was taken away which was shown to be let down three times from heaven. The dish which was held by four corners was the world in its four parts. These four parts Scripture often commemorates, east and west, north and south. For this reason, because the whole world was being called through the Gospel, four Gospels were written. But the vessel let down three times from heaven signifies this, because it was said to the Apostles, Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). From this is gathered too, as you already know, the number twelve of the disciples. For not in vain did he wish to have twelve; and so that number was hallowed, that in the place of one who had fallen, none but another could be ordained. Why twelve Apostles? Because, since there are four parts of the world, and the whole world was being called in the Gospel, whence four Gospels were written, and the whole world is called in the name of the Trinity, that the Church may be gathered: four taken three times make twelve. Therefore let us not wonder if, of those waters passing through the midst of the mountains, in that apostolic doctrine flowing in the midst on account of the concord of communion, all the beasts of the forest drink. For all were in the ark, all in the dish, all Peter kills and eats; because Peter is the rock, the rock is the Church. What is it to kill and eat? To slay in them what they were, and to take them up into one's own bowels. You dissuaded the pagan from sacrileges, you slew what he was; having given the sacrament of Christ, you incorporated him into the Church, you ate.

3. These beasts, then, drink these waters, but passing: not abiding, but passing. For all doctrine that is dispensed throughout this whole time passes away. Hence the Apostle says: And knowledge will be destroyed, and prophecy will be made void. Why will these be made void? For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be made void (1 Cor 13:8-10). Unless perhaps your Charity supposes that in that city to which it is said, Praise the Lord, Jerusalem, praise your God, Zion; for he has strengthened the bars of your gates (Ps 147:12-13 (147:1-2)), when the bars are now strengthened and the city shut, whence, as we said a while ago, no friend goes out, and into which no enemy enters; a manuscript is to be read to us there, or a sermon treated, in the way it is now treated for you. For this reason it is treated now, that there it may be held; for this reason it is now divided through syllables, that there it may be contemplated whole and entire. The word of God will not be lacking there; but yet not through letters, not through sounds, not through manuscripts, not through a reader, not through an expositor. How, then? As in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. For it did not so come to us that it departed from there; because it was in this world, and the world was made through it (John 1:1, 10). Such a Word we are going to contemplate. For the God of gods will appear in Zion (Ps 84:7 (83:8)). But when this? After the pilgrimage, the way finished; if, indeed, after the way is finished we are not handed over to the judge, that the judge send us into prison. But if, the way finished, as we hope, and desire, and strive, we come to the homeland, there we will contemplate what we will always praise: nor will that fail which is available to us, nor we who enjoy it; nor will the one who eats grow weary, nor will what he eats fail. Great and wonderful will that contemplation be. And who speaks worthily of it at this time, when the waters flow among the mountains? Meanwhile, then, let the waters flow among the mountains, and pass: when the waters pass, there is drinking in the pilgrimage, lest we fail of thirst on the way. All the beasts of the forest will drink. Thence you came, you were gathered from the forest. And what sort of forest? No man passed there, because no prophet had been sent there. But for building the ark, trees were cut from the forests: thence the wood, thence the beasts, thence you came. Therefore drink. All the beasts of the forest will drink.

4. The wild asses will take up into their thirst. By wild asses he means certain great beasts. For who does not know that wild asses are called untamed donkeys? He means, then, certain great untamed ones. For the gentiles had no yoke of the Law; many nations lived by their own ways, wandering in proud boastfulness, as if in a desert. And all the beasts indeed are thus, but the wild asses are set to signify greatness. They too will drink into their thirst; for waters flow for them too. From there the hare drinks, from there the wild ass: the hare small, and the wild ass great; the hare timid, and the wild ass fierce; each drinks from there, but each into his own thirst. The water does not say: I suffice for the hare, and drive away the wild ass; nor does it say this: Let the wild ass approach, but if the hare approaches, it will be snatched away. So faithfully and temperately it flows, that it so satisfies the wild ass as not to frighten the hare. The din of Tully's voice sounds, Cicero is read, there is some book, his dialogue, whether his own, or Plato's, or any of such men: the unlearned hear, the weak of lesser heart; who dares to aspire there? A din of water, and perhaps troubled; certainly yet flowing so rapaciously that a timid animal does not dare to approach and drink. To whom did it sound, In the beginning God made heaven and earth (Gen 1:1), and he did not dare to drink? To whom does the Psalm sound, and let him say: It is too much for me? Behold, now what the Psalm sounds, certainly the mysteries are hidden; yet it sounds in such a way that it delights even boys to hear, and the unlearned approach to drink, and, satisfied, belch in singing psalms. So the lesser beasts and the greater drink; but the greater more capaciously, because the wild asses will take up into their thirst. Let the lesser drink what was said: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church. Wives, be subject to your husbands (Eph 5:25, 22). Let the lesser drink. But it was said to the Lord: Is it lawful to dismiss a wife for any cause? The Lord forbade it, and said it was not lawful. Do you not know, he says, that God from the beginning made male and female? What God has joined, let not man separate. Then he added: Whoever dismisses his wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her commit adultery; and if he marries another, he commits adultery (See Matt 19:3-9). He confirmed the fetter: this is expedient for the bound; let him first take care not to be bound. Are you bound to a wife? do not seek release. Are you loosed from a wife? do not seek a wife (1 Cor 7:27). If you are not yet a wild ass, and are loosed from a wife, you have there what you may drink even as a hare: and if you have taken a wife, you have not sinned. But the disciples, when they heard the Lord say that marriages cannot by any means be sundered except for the cause of fornication: If such is the case, they said, with a wife, it is not expedient to marry. And the Lord: Not all grasp this word (Matt 19:10-11). For you speak truly, that if such is the case with a wife, it is not expedient to marry; but will the wild asses alone drink? Not all grasp this word, many do not grasp it. And who are those who grasp it? The wild asses will take up into their thirst. What is it, The wild asses will take up into their thirst? He who can grasp it, let him grasp it (Matt 19:12).

5. [v. 12.] Then the Psalm follows in its sequence: Above them the birds of heaven will dwell. Above whom? above the wild asses, or rather above the mountains? For from there this sense is directed: Through the midst of the mountains the waters will pass; all the beasts of the forest will drink; the wild asses will take up into their thirst: above them the birds of heaven will dwell. We more fittingly understand above the mountains, because this too is similar in this creation. Above the mountains the birds can dwell, above the wild asses they cannot: we would understand this, if necessity compelled. Above the mountains, then, the birds of heaven will dwell. We see these birds dwell above the mountains: but many of them dwell in the plains, many in the valleys, many in the groves, many in the gardens, not all above the mountains. There are certain birds which dwell only above the mountains. This name signifies certain spiritual souls: the birds are spiritual hearts, which enjoy the free air. These birds rejoice in the serenity of the sky: but yet their feeding is in the mountains; there they will dwell. You know the mountains; they have already been treated. The mountains are the Prophets, the mountains the Apostles, the mountains all the preachers of truth. Whoever wishes to be spiritual, let him dwell there: let him not stray in his own heart; let him dwell, let him persevere by vowing. We have birds signifying something spiritual. Not in vain was it said, Your youth will be renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:5 (102:5)). Not in vain was it said of Abraham, But the birds he did not divide (Gen 15:10). Abraham in that sufficiently mystical sacrifice took three animals; a three-year-old ram, a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old she-goat, and a turtledove, and a dove. The ram was divided, and the parts set against one another; the she-goat divided, the parts likewise set against one another; the cow divided, so it was done with its flesh too: and Scripture added: But the birds he did not divide. Then a three-year-old ram is mentioned, a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old she-goat: of the age of the birds it is silent. Whence, I ask you, except that in the birds are signified certain spiritual men, whose temporal age is for this reason passed over in silence, because they meditate on eternal things, and by desire and understanding transcend all temporal things? Spiritual men who judge all things, and are judged by no one: and so they alone are not divided into heresies and schisms. By the ram are understood the superiors; for they lead the flocks: by the cow is understood the people of the Jews; for it had the yoke of the Law, under which it labored: by the she-goat is understood the Church of the gentiles; for it leaped in certain free pastures, and fed on the bitter wild olive. These animals are called three-year-old, because grace was revealed in the third time. For the first was before the Law; the second, from when the Law was given; the third, which is now, from when the kingdom of heaven is preached. What then do we say, that the ram is not divided? Were not bishops the authors of schisms and heresies? But further, if the peoples themselves were not divided, that is, if the cow were not divided, if the she-goat were not divided; perhaps those would have blushed in their divisions, and returned to the union. The leaders are divided, the peoples too are divided, so that the blind follows the blind, and they fall together into the pit: they are set against one another. But the birds he did not divide. The spiritual have no division, they do not contemplate schisms: peace is in them, they keep it in others as far as they can; where they fail in others, they hold it in themselves. If there will be there, he says, a son of peace, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return to you (Luke 10:6). He is not a son of peace, he wished to be divided, your peace will return to you; because the birds he did not divide. The furnace will come too: for Abraham sat there until evening, and a great terror of the day of judgment came. For that evening is the end of the age; and that furnace, the coming day of judgment. The furnace too divided between those things in the midst which had been divided. If the furnace passed through the midst, it separated some to the right, some to the left. There are, then, certain carnal men, and yet contained in the bosom of the Church, living according to a certain way of their own, for whom we fear lest they be seduced by heretics: for as long as they are carnal, they are divisible. The birds indeed he did not divide; the carnal are divided. I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal (1 Cor 3:1). And how is it proved that the carnal are divided? He adds: For when each of you says: I am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas; are you not carnal, and walking according to man? (1 Cor 3:4; 1:12) I ask you, brothers, hear, and make progress; shake yourselves out of the carnal place, pass over into the turtledove and the dove: for the birds he did not divide. But whoever remains such, and according to a certain way of life apt for the carnal, and does not withdraw from the bosom of the Church, and is not seduced by heretics, so as to be divided to the opposite side; the furnace will come, and he cannot be set to the right without the furnace. But if he does not wish to suffer the furnace, let him pass over into the turtledove and the dove. He who can grasp it, let him grasp it. But if it will not be so, and he has built upon the foundation wood, hay, stubble, that is, has built worldly loves upon the foundation of his faith; yet if Christ be in the foundation, so that he himself hold the first place in the heart, and nothing at all be set before him; such men too are carried, such too are put up with: the furnace will come, it will burn the wood, hay, stubble: but he himself, he says, will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Cor 3:12-15). This the furnace will do; some it will separate to the left, others it will in a way refine to the right. But the birds he did not divide. But let the birds see, if they are such birds as dwell above those mountains; they ought not to follow the loftiness of their own heart, of such as it is said, They set their mouth in heaven (Ps 73:9 (72:9)). Lest they be carried off by the winds, let them rest in the mountains. They have the authority of the saints, let them rest in the mountains, in the Apostles, in the Prophets: there let such birds dwell, because in the mountains they find rocks, certain firmaments of precepts. For just as that one rock is Christ, the Word of God; so the many words of God are many rocks, and these rocks are in the mountains. See the birds dwelling there: Above them the birds of heaven will dwell.

6. But do not suppose that these birds of heaven follow their own authority; see what the Psalm says: From the midst of the rocks they will give their voice. Now if I say to you: Believe, for Cicero said this, Plato said this, Pythagoras said this; who of you will not laugh at me? For I would be a bird who do not utter my voice from the rock. What ought each of you to say to me? what ought he to say who is so instructed? If anyone evangelizes to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema (Gal 1:9). Why do you tell me of Plato, and of Cicero, and of Virgil? You have before you the rocks of the mountains, from the midst of the rocks give me your voice. From the midst of the rocks they will give their voice. Let those be heard who hear from the rock: let them be heard, because in those many rocks too the rock is heard: for the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). Let them, then, be heard gladly, giving their voice from the midst of the rocks: nothing is sweeter than such a voice of the winged ones. They sound, and the rocks resound: they sound, the spiritual men dispute; the rocks resound, the testimonies of Scripture answer. Behold, thence the birds from the midst of the rocks give their voice; for they dwell in the mountains.

7. [v. 13.] Whence do the mountains themselves and those rocks have a voice? For, that we may be watered by the Scriptures, we flee for refuge to the apostle Paul. Whence does he have it? We flee for refuge to Isaiah. Isaiah, whence? Hear whence: Watering the mountains from his higher places. Now if a gentile man, uncircumcised, comes to us, about to believe in Christ, we give him Baptism, nor do we call him back to those works of the Law. And if a Jew asks us why we do so, we sound from the rock, we say: This Peter did, this Paul did: from the midst of the rocks we give our voice. But that rock, Peter himself, the great mountain, when he was praying and seeing that vision, was watered from the higher places. The apostle Paul says to the gentiles: If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing (Gal 5:2). Paul says this, as a mountain: thence we say it, sounding from the rock. Let the Lord water the rock itself from his higher places. For when this rock was still rough in unbelief, wishing to water it from his higher places that water might flow in the valley, he cried out: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) He did not read him a prophet, he did not read him another apostle; for a great mountain would scorn all these things: he watered him from his higher places; and immediately, watered and now wishing to flow: Lord, he says, what do you bid me do? (See Acts 9:6) Take that mountain or rock, whence you may give your voice; take it, and see it watered from the higher places, and flow out in the lower places. Hear this in one place too: Whether, he says, we are beside ourselves to God, or whether we are sober for you (2 Cor 5:13). What he says, we are beside ourselves; you cannot grasp: for we go beyond all these carnal things, you are still carnal. To God, then, we are beside ourselves; and what we see when we go beyond, we cannot speak: for there he heard ineffable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak (2 Cor 12:4). What then, those carnal men, those hares, say, shall we not be watered? will nothing reach us? And how does he send forth springs in the valleys? and how through the midst of the mountains will the waters pass? To this, then, pertains: Or whether we are sober for you. Whence this? whom do we imitate? The love, he says, of Christ compels us (2 Cor 5:14). You, partaker of the Word, though today spiritual, yesterday carnal, do you disdain to descend to the carnal, when the Word himself was made flesh, that he might dwell in you?

8. Let us, then, bless the Lord, and praise him who waters the mountains from his higher places. Thence will come the watering to the earth, thence the lowly too will be satisfied: for there follows, From the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied. What is it, From the fruit of your works? Let no one glory in his own works; but he who glories, let him glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). By your grace it is satisfied, when it is satisfied: let it not say that grace was given for its own merits. If it is called grace, it is given freely: if it is rendered for works, a wage is rendered. Receive it freely, then, because, impious, you are justified. From the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied.

9. [v. 14.] Bringing forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. It is true, I see, I recognize the creation: the earth brings forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. But I see other cattle of the Lord too, which are signified when it is said, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the threshing ox: for he says of this very ox, Is it about the oxen that God is concerned? For our sake, then, Scripture says it. How, then, does the earth bring forth hay for the cattle? Because the Lord ordained that those who announce the Gospel should live from the Gospel (1 Cor 9:9-14). He sent preachers, and said to them: Eat all the things that are set before you by them; for the laborer is worthy of his wage (See Luke 10:7-8). For when he had said, Eat the things that are set before you; lest they should say: We will be shameless toward others' tables when we are in need, do you wish us to be so brazen? No, he says, that is not their gift, but your wage. The wage of what? What do they give? what do they receive? They give spiritual things, they receive carnal; they give gold, they receive hay. For all flesh is hay, and the glory of the flesh as the flower of hay (Isa 40:6; 1 Pet 1:24). All temporal things that overflow and abound for you are the hay of the cattle. Why? Because they are carnal. Hear of which cattle it is the hay. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? (1 Cor 9:11) This the Apostle said, such an announcer, so laborious, so untiring, so practiced, that he gave the hay itself to the earth. I, he says, have used none of these things (1 Cor 9:15). He showed that it was owed to him, and did not take it; nor did he condemn those who took what was owed. For those were to be condemned who demanded what was not owed, not those receiving their wage: yet he gave even his own wage. Not because another has given to you, do you not owe to another; otherwise you will not be the watered earth that brings forth hay for the cattle. From the fruit of your works, he says, the earth will be satisfied: bringing forth hay for the cattle. Do not be barren, bring forth hay for the cattle: if the cattle do not want your hay, let them yet not find you barren. You receive spiritual things, render carnal: they are owed to the soldier, you render them to the soldier; you are a provincial of Christ. Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? who feeds a flock, and does not partake of its milk? (1 Cor 9:7) I do not say this so that these things may be done toward me. There was a certain soldier who even gave the provincial his ration: but yet let the provincial render the ration. But that I may rather say it from this; they are cattle: You shall not muzzle the mouth of the threshing ox. Bringing forth, he says, hay for the cattle; and as if expounding this he added, and grass for the service of men: lest you should not understand what was said, Bringing forth hay for the cattle, by repetition he expounded what he set down before. For what he called hay above, he afterward named grass; but what he had said for the cattle, this he said for the service of men. Therefore for service, and not for liberty. Where, then, is, You were called to liberty? But hear the same man himself: For though I am free from all, I have made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more (1 Cor 9:19). And to whom did he say, You were called to liberty? and what did he add? Only do not give your liberty as an occasion for the flesh, but through love serve one another (Gal 5:13). Those he had made free, he made servants; not by condition, but yet by the redemption of Christ; not by necessity, but by love: Through love, he says, serve one another. But we serve one another in Christ, he says; not the peoples, not the carnal, not the weak. You serve Christ well, if you serve those whom Christ served. Was it not said of him, Serving many well? The prophet is read: it is wont to be taken of no one but Christ. Yet let us hear his voice properly in the Gospel too: Whoever, he says, among you wishes to be greater, will be your servant (See Matt 20:26). He made you his servant, who made you free by his blood. Tell us this, for you speak truly. Hear him in another place: But ourselves your servants through Jesus (2 Cor 4:5). Love your servants well, but in your Lord. Let him grant us to serve well. For, willing or unwilling, we are servants: and yet if we are willing, we serve not by necessity, but by love. For in a way the pride of the servants seemed to be annoyed, when the Lord said: He will be your servant who wishes to be greater among you. For now the sons of Zebedee were seeking the highest seats: one wished to sit at the right, the other at the left, asking through their mother what they themselves desired. The Lord did not envy them the seats, but first showed them the valley of weeping, as if he said: Do you wish to come there, where I am? come the way I come. What is it, come the way I come? Through humility. I descended from on high, and humbled, I ascend: you I found on earth, and you wish to fly before you are fed; first be nourished, be raised, bear the nest. For what does he say? how did he call them back to humility, now seeking loftiness? Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink? And they, proud even in this: We can. As Peter: With you even unto death. A brave man, until a woman said, This man too was with them (See Luke 22:33, 56). So these too: We can. Can you? We can. And he: My cup indeed you will drink, though now you cannot, you will drink: as to Peter, You cannot follow me now; you will follow me afterward (John 13:36). My cup indeed you will drink; but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to give you (See Matt 20:22-23). What is it, It is not mine to give you? It is not mine to give to the proud. Now, those to whom I speak, you are proud; therefore I said, It is not mine to give you. But perhaps they would say: We will be humble. Then it will not be you: I said, to you. I did not say: I will not give to the humble: but, I will not give to the proud. And the king who from proud becomes humble will not be what he was.

10. Therefore the preachers of the word are both cattle and servants. Let the earth, if it is watered, bring forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. For this is the fruit, that what was said in the Gospel may come to be: That they too may receive you into the eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9). See what you do with the hay, see what you buy with a cheap thing. That they may receive you, he says, into the eternal dwellings: where they will be, there let them receive you. Why this? Because he who receives a just man in the name of a just man will receive the reward of a just man: and he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive the reward of a prophet: and he who gives a cup of cold water to one of these least ones, only in the name of a disciple; amen I say to you, he will not lose his reward (Matt 10:41-42). What reward will he not lose? They will receive you into the eternal dwellings. Who will not hasten? who will not run more eagerly? If you are earth, be watered from the fruit of the works of God: do not say: There are none with whom we may do it; our preachers, the threshing cattle, the serving men do not need us. Yet seek, lest anyone be in need: in short, even the one who is not in need, let him find in you what he is unwilling to take. For he takes the good will, when you take peace: for though he does not seek the gift, he seeks the fruit. Yet seek, lest anyone be in need; and do not say: If he asks, I will give. Do you wait, then, until he asks? Do you so feed the ox of God, as a passing beggar? To that one asking you give, because it is written, Give to everyone who asks you (Luke 6:30). Of this one, what is written? Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and poor (Ps 41:1 (40:2)). Seek the one to whom you may give: for blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and poor, who anticipates the voice of the one about to ask. If the soldiers of Christ are so in need among you that they even ask; see lest they judge you, before they ask. How, you say, do I seek? Be curious, be provident; look ahead, attend whence each one lives, whence he supports himself, whence he has. This curiosity of yours will not be reproved; you will be earth bringing forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. Be curious, and understand concerning the needy and poor. One comes to you, to ask; another anticipate, lest he ask. For as of the one who seeks you it was said, Give to everyone who asks you; so of the one whom you ought to seek it was said: Let alms sweat in your hand, until you find a just man to whom to give it. For though it must be given to these poor who ask—for God did not forbid alms to them, since Christ says of them, When you make a feast, call the blind, the lame, the weak, who have not the means to repay you; but it will be repaid to you in the resurrection of the just (See Luke 14:13-14): call them too, feed them too; feast, when they feast; delight, when they are fattened; for they on your bread, you on the righteousness of God. Let no one say to you: It was commanded by Christ that it be given to a servant of God, not to a beggar. Far from it; an utterly impious man says this. Give to him, but much more to that one. For that one asks, and in the voice of the one asking you recognize to whom you give: but that other, the less he asks, the more you must be watchful to anticipate the one about to ask; or perhaps the one not now about to ask, and at some time about to condemn. So be curious about these things, my brothers; you will find the need of many servants of God, only if you wish to find it. But because the excuse delights you by which you wish to say: We did not know; for this reason you do not find it.

11. The Lord himself had purses, into which necessaries were put, and money was possessed for the uses of those who were with him and his: for when it is said, He hungered (Matt 4:2), the evangelist does not lie. He willed to hunger for your sake, lest you hunger in him, who became poor, though he was rich, that by his poverty we might be enriched. For he had purses; and it is said of certain religious women that they walked where his feet went, evangelizing, and ministered to him from their substance. Those women are named in the Gospel, where there was a certain wife too of a certain Chuza, Herod's steward. See what was done. Paul was to be one who would at some time seek no such thing, and give all to the provincials. But because many weak men were going to seek these things, Christ rather took up the person of the weak. Was Paul more sublime? surely not more than Christ! Christ more sublime, because more merciful. For when he saw that Paul would not seek these things, he provided that he might not condemn the one who would seek, and gave an example to the weak: just as, when he saw that many would go ready and rejoicing to the martyrdom of passion, about to exult in the very passion, brave, hundredfold, ripe for the barn; yet, lest certain weak ones, whom he saw able to be disturbed by the coming passion, should fail, but rather join the human will to the will of the Creator, Christ willed to take up their person in the passion, saying, My soul is sorrowful unto death; and again: Father, if it can be, let this cup pass from me (Matt 26:38-39). He taught what the weak one would say, but going on he showed what the weak one ought to do: Yet not what I will, but what you will, Father (Matt 26:39). So as in the passion he sustained the person of the weak, that being prefigured in his body, because they too are his members; for not in vain was it said, Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book all will be written (Ps 139:16 (138:16)): so too in having purses, and in as it were demanding a ration—not asking, but providing—he took up neediness. Zacchaeus received him, and rejoices. To whom was this a good? to Christ, or to Zacchaeus? Truly, if Zacchaeus had not received him, was there nowhere for the fabricator of the world to stay? or if Zacchaeus had not fed him, would he be in need who satisfied so many thousands of men from five loaves? When, then, anyone receives a holy man, it is bestowed not on the one received, but on the receiver. Was not Elijah fed in that famine? did not a raven bring bread and meat, the creature serving a servant of God? Yet he was sent to be fed to a widow; that something might be bestowed, not as on a soldier, but as on a provincial.

12. Therefore, because we were speaking, brothers, also of feeding the poor; though the Lord had purses, yet when he said to Judas who would betray him, What you do, do quickly (John 13:27); the others, not understanding what he had said, supposed that he had said it that he might prepare something to be given to the poor. For he had purses, this is written in the Gospel. Could they have suspected this, unless the Lord had this in his custom? Of these things, then, which were given and put into the purses, it was yet given also to those poor, whom God taught are not to be scorned. But if you do not scorn that one, how much more the ox by which this threshing floor is threshed? how much more your servant? He does not need food, perhaps he needs clothing. He does not need clothing, perhaps he needs a roof, perhaps he is building a church, perhaps he is laboring at something useful in the house of God; he waits for you to attend, he waits for you to understand concerning the needy and poor. You, on the contrary, hard earth, stony, not watered, or watered in vain, keep yourself ready to say: I did not know, I was not aware, no one told me. No one told you! Christ does not cease to say it, the prophet does not cease to say it: Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and poor (Ps 41:1 (40:2)). You do not see the empty chest of your superior: you certainly see at least the rising building, which you are going to enter and pray in. Is it not brought before your eyes? Unless perhaps you suppose, brothers, that your superiors lay up treasure: and we know many who lay up no treasure, and are in need of daily things, of whom it is not at all believed; whom you too would find, if you wished, if you looked around, if you were watchful for this, to give fruit. I have said what I could, as much as I could. But I think we are manifest to you, as the Apostle says, that we do not say these things that you may do them toward us. May God grant that I have not said these things in vain: may God grant that you be watered earth, not stony, like that of the Jews, whence they deserved to receive stone tablets; but fruitful earth, earth which, watered, repays the husbandman. Those very men of a stony heart, which was signified by the stone tablets, gave tithes. You even groan, and nothing yet comes out. If you groan, give birth; if you are in labor, bring forth. Why an empty groaning? why a barren groaning? Are the bowels twisted, or is there nothing within to be brought forth? Watering the mountains from his higher places: from the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied. Blessed are those who do it, blessed are those who hear these things fruitfully, blessed are those who do not cry out in vain. From the fruit of your works the earth will be satisfied: bringing forth hay for the cattle, and grass for the service of men. Why this? That he may bring forth bread from the earth. What bread? Christ. From what earth? From Peter, from Paul, from the other stewards of truth. Hear that it is from the earth: We have, he says, this treasure in earthen vessels, that the eminence may be of the power of God (2 Cor 4:7). He is the bread that came down from heaven, that he may be brought forth from the earth, when he is preached through the flesh of his servants. The earth brings forth hay, that it may bring forth bread from the earth. What earth brings forth hay? The pious peoples, the holy peoples. From what earth that bread may be brought forth? The word of God from the Apostles, from the stewards of the Sacraments of God, still walking on the earth, still carrying an earthly body.

13. [v. 15.] And wine gladdens the heart of man. Let no one prepare himself for drunkenness; rather let every man prepare himself for drunkenness. How splendid is your inebriating cup! (Ps 23:5 (22:5)) We do not wish to say: Let no one be inebriated. Be inebriated, but see by what. If the splendid cup of the Lord inebriates you, this inebriation will be seen in your works, it will be seen in the holy love of righteousness, it will be seen finally in the alienation of your mind, but from earthly things to heaven. That he may make his face glad with oil. I see how much fruit the earth brings forth, if it produces hay for the cattle. These servants do not sell what they give; for they are not sellers of the Gospel: they give freely, because they received freely. They rejoice in your good works; for this profits you: for they do not seek the gift, but they seek the fruit. What is the gladdening of the face with oil? The grace of God, a certain brightness unto manifestation; as the Apostle says, But to each is given the Spirit unto manifestation (1 Cor 12:7). A certain grace which is perspicuous in men toward men, to win holy love, is called oil, in divine brightness; and since it appeared most excellently in Christ, the whole world loves him: who, though he was scorned here, is now adored by every nation: For his is the kingdom, and he will have dominion over the nations (Ps 22:28 (21:29)). For his grace is so great that many who do not believe in him praise him, and therefore say that they are unwilling to believe in him, because no one can fulfill what he commands. By praising they are impeded, who used to rage against him by faultfinding. Yet he is loved by all, preached by all; because excellently anointed, therefore Christ. For Christ means anointed, called Christ from the chrism. In Hebrew Messiah, in Greek Christ, in Latin Anointed: but he anoints all over his whole body. All who come, then, receive grace, that the face may be made glad with oil.

14. And bread strengthens the heart of man. What is this, brothers? He as it were compelled us to understand of what bread he was speaking. For this visible bread strengthens the stomach, strengthens the belly: there is another bread which strengthens the heart, because it is the bread of the heart. For he had already said of bread above, That he may bring forth bread from the earth, but he had not said what sort of bread that is. And wine gladdens the heart of man. He seems now to speak of spiritual wine; for that gladdens the heart of man. But still it might be supposed to be said of that wine, because the drunken seem as it were to appear glad of heart. Would that they were glad, and did not quarrel. You say to me: What is gladder than a drunk man? On the contrary, what is madder than a drunk man? what is for the most part more irascible? There is, then, a wine that truly gladdens the heart, and knows nothing but to gladden the heart. But lest you suppose that this indeed ought to be taken of spiritual wine, but not that bread of spiritual bread; that it too is spiritual, he expounded it too: And bread, he says, strengthens the heart of man. Take it of the bread, then, as you take it of the wine; hunger within, thirst within: for blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6). That bread is righteousness, that wine is righteousness: it is truth, the truth is Christ. I am, he says, the living bread, who came down from heaven (John 6:51); and: I am the vine, you the branches (John 15:5). And bread strengthens the heart of man.

15. [v. 16.] The trees of the field will be satisfied: but with this grace brought forth from the earth. The trees of the field, the peoples of the nations. And the cedars of Lebanon which he planted. The cedars of Lebanon, the powerful in the world, they too will be satisfied. The bread, and wine, and oil of Christ reached the senators, the nobles, the kings; the trees of the field were satisfied. First the humble were satisfied, then the cedars of Lebanon too, but those which he himself planted: pious cedars, religious faithful; for such he planted. For there are impious cedars of Lebanon too, because The Lord will break the cedars of Lebanon (Ps 29:5 (28:5)). For Lebanon is a mountain; there those trees, even according to the letter, are most aged and most excellent. But Lebanon is interpreted, as we read in those who wrote on these things, "whitening." Lebanon is called whitening: but the whitening of this world seems to be that which now shines and gleams in its pomps. There are there cedars of Lebanon which the Lord planted; those very ones will be satisfied which the Lord planted. For a tree, he says, which my Father has not planted, will be rooted up (Matt 15:13). And the cedars of Lebanon which he planted.

16. [v. 17.] There the sparrows will nest. The house of the coot is their leader. Where will the sparrows nest? In the cedars of Lebanon. We have already heard who the cedars of Lebanon are, the nobles of the world, lofty in birth, wealth, honors: and those cedars too are satisfied, yet those which he himself planted. In these cedars the sparrows nest. Who are the sparrows? Sparrows are indeed birds and birds of heaven, but small birds are usually called sparrows. There are, then, certain spiritual men nesting in the cedars of Lebanon: that is, there are certain servants of God hearing in the Gospel, Leave all your things, or, sell all your things, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me (See Matt 19:21). And not only the great heard this, but the small heard it too, and the small too wished to do this, and to be spiritual; not to be joined to wives, not to be worn down by the care of children, not to have their own dwellings to which they would be bound, but to go into a certain common life. But what did these sparrows leave? For they seem the small sparrows of this world. What did they leave? what great thing did they leave? One was converted, left his father's needy cell, scarcely one bed and one chest. Yet he was converted, he became a sparrow, he sought spiritual things. Good, excellent; let us not insult him, let us not say: You left nothing. Let not the one who left much be proud. Peter, that he might follow the Lord, we know was a fisherman, what could he leave? Or his brother Andrew, or the sons of Zebedee, John and James, themselves too fishermen; and yet what did they say? Behold, we have left all, and followed you (Matt 19:27). The Lord did not say to him: You have forgotten your poverty; what did you leave, that you should receive the whole world? He left much, my brothers, he left much, who left not only whatever he had, but even whatever he desired to have. For what poor man does not swell with hope of this world? who does not daily desire to increase what he has? This cupidity was cut off: it was going on to immensity, it received a measure, and was nothing left? Surely Peter left the whole world, and Peter received the whole world. As having nothing, and possessing all things. Many do this: those do these things who have little, and come, and become useful sparrows. They seem small, because they do not have the loftiness of secular dignity: they nest in the cedars of Lebanon. For the cedars of Lebanon too, the nobles and rich and lofty of this world, since they hear with fear, Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and poor (Ps 41:1 (40:2)); attend to their goods, their estates, and all their superfluous abundance, by which they seem lofty, and offer them to the servants of God; they give fields, they give gardens, they build churches, monasteries, they gather sparrows, that the sparrows may nest in the cedars of Lebanon. Therefore the cedars of Lebanon which the Lord planted are satisfied, and there the sparrows will nest. Attend to the whole earth, whether it is not so. That I might say these things, I not only believed, but also saw; experience itself gave me the understanding. Ask the broadest lands, you who know them, and see in how many cedars of Lebanon those sparrows, of whom I spoke, nest.

17. But yet, my brothers, the sparrows themselves, if they are spiritual, although they nest in the cedars of Lebanon, ought not to hold the cedars of Lebanon for a great thing, and suppose those to be superior, by whom their necessities are supplied. For they are sparrows; but those are cedars of Lebanon. Therefore the house of the coot is the leader of the sparrows. Although the sparrows nest in the cedars of Lebanon, yet the cedars of Lebanon are not the leaders of the sparrows. Behold, the trees of the field will be satisfied, all the peoples; and the cedars of Lebanon will be satisfied, which the Lord planted, all the noble and lofty faithful. There, that is in the cedars of Lebanon, the sparrows will nest; they will offer the branches of their resources for gathering the small spiritual ones. These things the cedars of Lebanon which the Lord planted offer, do; they do it, and gladly do it; they know what they do, they know what they receive. But the sparrows, although they will nest in the cedars of Lebanon: The house of the coot is their leader. What is the house of the coot? The coot, as we all know, is a sea bird; it is either in marshes, or in the sea. It has a certain house not easily on the shore of the land, or never; but in those things that are in the midst of the water: usually, then, in the rocks which the water surrounds. We understand, then, that the rock is the fit house of the coot; nowhere does it dwell more strongly and firmly than in the rock. In what sort of rock? One set in the sea. Even if it is beaten by the waves, yet it breaks the waves, it is not broken: this is what the rock set in the sea has great. How many waves have beaten our rock, the Lord Christ? The Jews were dashed against him; they were broken, he remained whole. And let each one, imitating Christ, be so in this world, that is, in this sea, where he can feel only storms and tempests, as to yield to no wind, to no wave, but to receive all things, and remain whole. Therefore the house of the coot is both strong and humble. The coot does not have a house in lofty places; nothing is firmer than that house, and nothing humbler. In the cedars indeed the sparrows nest, because of present necessity: but they have that rock as their leader, which is beaten by the waves, and not broken; for they imitate the passions of Christ. And if perhaps the cedars of Lebanon are angry, and stir up some trouble or scandal to the servants of God in their branches, the sparrows will indeed fly from there; but woe to the cedar remaining without the nests of sparrows. For the sparrows will not be shipwrecked, will not perish; because the house of the coot is their leader.

18. [v. 18.] What then follows? The highest mountains for the stags. The stags, the great, the spiritual, surpassing in their course all the thorny things of brambles and forests. Who perfects, he says, my feet like a stag's, and will set me upon high places (Ps 18:33 (17:34)). Let them hold the high mountains, the high precepts of God; let them think on lofty things, let them hold those things that stand out greatly in the Scriptures, let them be justified in the highest things: for those highest mountains are for the stags. What of the lowly beasts? what of the hare? what of the hedgehog? The hare is a small and weak animal, the hedgehog also thorny: the one a timid animal, the other an animal covered with thorns. What do the thorns signify, except sinners? He who sins daily, even if not great sins, is covered with the tiniest thorns. In that he fears, he is a hare; in that he is covered with the tiniest sins, he is a hedgehog: and he cannot hold those lofty and perfect precepts. For those highest mountains are for the stags. What then? do these perish? No. For the highest mountains are for the stags in such a way that you may see for these too what follows: The rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs and the hares. Because the Lord was made a refuge for the poor. Set that rock on the land, it is a refuge for the hedgehogs and hares: set it in the sea, it is the house of the coot. Everywhere the rock is useful. And in the mountains it itself is useful: the mountains without the foundation of the rock would fall into the deep. Was it not said a while ago of the mountains, There the birds of heaven will dwell; from the midst of the rocks they will give their voices? Everywhere, then, the rock is our refuge: whether it be lofty in the mountains, or be beaten by the waves in the sea and not broken, or be made solid on the land; to it the stags, to it the coot, to it the hare and the hedgehog. Let the hares beat their breasts, and let the hedgehogs confess their sins: though they be covered with small and daily sins; yet the rock is not lacking to them, which taught them to say, Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). The rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs and the hares.

19. [v. 19.] He made the moon for the seasons. We understand spiritually the Church growing from the least, and in this mortality of life as it were growing old; but in order to draw near to the sun. I do not mean this moon visible to the eyes, but that which is signified by this name. When the Church was obscure, when it did not yet appear, did not yet stand out, men were seduced, and it was said: This is the Church, here is Christ; that they might shoot in the dark moon at the upright of heart (See Ps 11:2 (10:3)). Now how blind is one who errs at the full moon? He made the moon for the seasons. For here the Church passes temporally; for this mortality will not always be here: this being increased and diminished will at some time pass away; it was made for the seasons. The sun knew its setting. And here, what sun, except that sun of righteousness, whose not rising for them the impious will lament on the day of judgment? Who are going to say on that day: So we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness did not shine for us, and the sun did not rise for us (Wis 5:6). That sun rises for the one who understands Christ. But Christ withdraws from the understanding of one who has so been angry with his brother as to hold a hatred. And so, be angry, and do not sin (Ps 4:4 (4:5); Eph 4:26). Love, even if it is angry sometimes, in order to correct, is not held guilty; because the anger has not grown old, so as to turn into hatred. But if anger has turned into hatred, the sun sets upon your wrath. Let not, therefore, the sun set upon your wrath (Eph 4:26).

20. Nor suppose, brothers, that for this reason the sun is to be adored by some, because the sun in the Scriptures sometimes signifies Christ. For such is the madness of men; as though something were said to be adorable, when it is said: The sun signifies Christ. Adore the rock, then, because it signifies Christ. As a sheep he was led to the victim (Isa 53:7); adore the sheep too, because it signifies Christ. The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev 5:5); adore the lion too, because it signifies Christ. See how many things signify Christ; all these are Christ in likeness, not in property. Do you seek the property of Christ? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (John 1:1). Behold the property of Christ, through which you were made. Do you wish to hear too the property by which you were restored? And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The rest are likenesses. Understand, be capable of Scripture, that you may see one thing set before your eyes, another hinted to your heart.

21. That sun, then—now we say it securely—that sun of righteousness, not without cause does not rise for the impious, even if they wish it: for Wisdom herself says, The wicked will seek me, and will not find me. They will seek, and will not find. And why? Because they hate wisdom. Wisdom herself speaks, and says, The wicked will seek me, and will not find me; for they have hated wisdom (See Prov 1:28; 8:36). If, then, they hate it, why do they seek it? They seek it, not to enjoy it, but to be puffed up; they seek it in words, they hate it in their ways. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful, and will take himself away from thoughts that are without understanding (Wis 1:5). That sun, then, does not rise for the impious, does not rise for the bad. But truly of this sun what is said? Who makes his sun rise on the good and the bad, and rains on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45). Therefore of that sun of righteousness this psalm signifies something or other according to the mystery; for we see these things happen in the creation also according to the appearance of visible things: The sun knew its setting. What is it, The sun knew its setting? Christ knew his passion: the setting of Christ is the passion of Christ. But does the sun so set that it does not rise? Shall not he who sleeps add that he rise again? did not he himself say, I slept, troubled? and of him is it said, Be exalted above the heavens, O God? (Ps 57:5 (56:6)) Therefore: The sun knew its setting: what is it, knew? He approved it, it pleased him. And whence do we show that he knew it, that is, that it pleased him? For what does God not know? what does Christ not know? And yet he is going to say to some at the end: I do not know you (Matt 7:23). As, then, there, I do not know you, is not as it were: You are unknown to me, but, You do not please me; so here too, he knew his setting, his setting pleased him. For if it had displeased him, how would he suffer it? For to a man, because he is not that sun, even if his passion displeases him, he suffers even what he does not wish. But he would not suffer, unless it pleased him: that is, unless he knew his setting, he would not set; because he himself says, I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I myself lay it down of myself (John 10:18). Therefore, he knew his setting.

22. [vv. 20, 21.] And what, when the sun set, when the Lord suffered? A certain darkness came upon the Apostles, their hope failed, to whom he first seemed great and the redeemer of all. Why? You set the darkness, and night was made: in it all the beasts of the forest will pass through. The young lions roaring, to seize, seeking from God their food. What shall I understand spiritually by the young lions, except the spiritual forces of wickedness? what shall I understand except the evil demons, which demons are fed on the errors of men? For there are princes of demons, and there are certain contemptible demons. These demons seek to seduce souls, but where the sun has not risen; for it is dark. And when it is dark, the young lions seek whom they may devour. The greater lion himself, the prince of all such lions, what is said of him? Do you not know that your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about, seeking whom he may devour? (1 Pet 5:8) Therefore seeking from God their food; because no one can even be tempted by the devil, except with God permitting. Holy Job was before the devil, and yet far from him: before him in sight, removed from him in power. When would he dare to tempt even the flesh, or the resources which Job possessed, unless he had received power? But why is power given? Either to condemn the impious, or to prove the pious. Justly does the Lord do all this; and the devil has power over no one, or over anything of his, unless he grant it whose power is highest and most sublime. So to the devil, so to man there is no power over a man, unless it be given from above. The judge of the living and the dead stood before a human judge, and the human judge puffed himself up, seeing Christ before him, and said, Do you not know that I have power to kill you and to release you? But he who had come even to teach him, by whom he was being judged, said, You would have no power over me, unless it were given you from above (John 19:10-11). Both man and devil and any demons harm only with power received: but they do not harm those who make progress. To the bad they are as fire to hay; to the good they are as fire to gold. Judas was eaten as hay; Job was proved as gold. You set the darkness, and night was made: in it all the beasts of the forest will pass through. Now the beasts of the forest in another way: for these things are always understood in one way and another; as the Lord himself is a lamb, himself a lion. What is so diverse as a lamb and a lion? But what sort of lamb? One that would conquer the wolf, conquer the lion. Himself the rock, himself the shepherd, himself the door. The shepherd enters through the door: and he says, I am the good shepherd; and he says, I am the door (John 10:11, 9). The name of the lion itself signifies the Lord; because The lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered (Rev 5:5), and the devil too; because He trampled on the lion and the dragon (Ps 91:13 (90:13)). Learn to understand thus, when these things are said figuratively; lest perhaps where you have read that the rock signifies Christ, you suppose everywhere that the rock is Christ. It signifies one thing and another, just as with a letter, see in what place it is set, and there you understand its force. If you hear the first letter in the name of God, and suppose it must always be set there, you will delete it from the name of the devil. For from the same letter the name of God begins, from which the name of the devil begins; and nothing is so disjoined as God and the devil. See, then, how absurd, in things both human and divine, would be one who said of the single letter D: It ought not to be at the head of the name of the devil, and when you ask, why? he answers: I read this letter in the name of God. Such a man is laughed at; for he is not even such a one to whom you would deign to render a reason. Do not, then, so childishly understand even these divine things, that perhaps some one of you, because I said above that the beasts of the forest signify the gentiles, but now I say that the beasts of the forest signify demons and angels of transgression, should suppose that I am saying something contrary to himself. For they are likenesses, and in whatever place they are, they are expounded by their context. In it all the beasts of the forest will pass through. Where? In the night which the Lord set, because the sun knew its setting. The young lions roaring, to seize, seeking from God their food. Rightly the Lord, about to come to his setting, himself the sun of righteousness knowing his setting, said to his disciples, as to a coming darkness, with the lion going about to seek whom he might devour, because that lion would devour no one unless he asked: This night, he says, Satan asked to sift you like wheat; and I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith might not fail (See Luke 22:31-32). Was not Peter, when he denied three times, already among the teeth of the lion? The young lions roaring, to seize, and to seek from God their food.

23. [v. 22.] The sun rose. He who said, I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again; knew his setting, and laid it down; the sun rose, and he took it up again. The sun rose, because the sun set, but the sun was not extinguished. Still to those who do not understand Christ, it is night; still for them the sun has not risen: let them press on, that they may understand, lest they be seized by the roaring lion. For behold, those for whom it has risen, the young lions do not dare to invade. For there follows: The sun rose, and they were gathered together, and they will lie down in their dens. More and more, where this sun rises, that it may be understood by the world, and Christ glorified in the whole world, the young lions are gathered together; those demons withdraw from the persecution of the Church, which were instigating the persecution of the house of God, by working in the sons of distrust. For it is said: According to the prince of the power of the air, who now works in the sons of unbelief (Eph 2:2). Now, then, because none of them dares to persecute the Church, the sun rose, and they were gathered together. And where are they? And they will lie down in their dens. Their dens are the hearts of the unbelievers. How many carry lions lying down in their hearts? They do not burst out thence, they do not make an attack on this pilgrim Jerusalem. Why do they not do it? Because now the sun rose, and shines in the whole world.

24. [v. 23.] Therefore see what follows, that the sun rose, and they were gathered together, and they will lie down in their dens. What of you, O man of God? what of you, O Church of God? what of you, O body of Christ, whose head is in heaven? what do you do, O man, his unity? Man will go out, he says, to his work. Let this man, then, work good works in the security of the peace of the Church, let him work to the end. For at some time there will be a certain darkening, and there will be a certain attack, but in the evening, that is, at the end of the world: but now in peace and tranquillity the Church works; because man will go out to his work, and to his labor until evening.

25. [v. 24.] How magnified are your works, O Lord! Rightly great, rightly lofty. Where were these works so great made? what was that standing-place of God where he stood, or what that sitting-place where he sat, and worked these things? what place where he worked these things? whence did these so beautiful things first proceed? If you take it to the letter, all the ordered creation, running in order, beautiful in order, rising in order, setting in order, carrying out all the seasons in order, whence did it proceed? But the Church herself, how did she receive increases, successions, perfection? How is she destined to a certain end of immortality? By what proclamations is she preached? by what mysteries is she commended? by what sacraments is she hidden? by what preaching is she revealed? Where did God do these things? I see great works: How magnified are your works, O Lord! I seek where he did them, I find no place; but I see what follows: You made all things in wisdom. Therefore you made all things in Christ. He scorned, he slapped, he spat upon, he crowned with thorns, he crucified, all things you made in him. I hear, I hear what you announce to men of that soldier of yours; what you preach to the nations of that holy herald, Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. Let the Jews mock Christ crucified, because he is a scandal to them; let the pagans mock Christ crucified, because he is foolishness to them: But we, he says, preach Christ crucified, to the Jews indeed a scandal, but to the gentiles foolishness; but to those called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:23-24). You made all things in wisdom.

26. The earth is filled with your creation. The earth is filled with the creation of Christ. And how? As we see: for what was not created by the Father through the Son? Whatever walks and creeps on the earth, whatever swims in the waters, whatever flies in the air, whatever is carried around in the sky, how much more the earth, the whole world is the creation of God. But something or other here signifies a certain new creation, of which the Apostle says: If anyone is a new creation in Christ, the old things have passed away; behold, all things have been made new: but all things are from God (2 Cor 5:17-18). The new creation that was made is all who believe in Christ, putting off the old man, and putting on the new. The earth is filled with your creation. In one place of the earth he was crucified, in one small place that grain fell into the earth, and was put to death; but it brought forth great fruit. You were solitary, Lord Jesus, until you should pass over; I recognize in another psalm your voice, by which you said, I am solitary, until I pass over (Ps 141:10 (140:10)). Solitary, then, you were, until you should pass over; solitary you were, when you knew your setting: but from setting to rising you passed over. You rose, you shone, you were glorified, when you ascended into heaven, and the earth is filled with your creation. The Psalm, brothers, we have not yet finished; but let us defer something of it too, in the name of Christ, to the Lord's Day.

On the Same Psalm 103

1. Your Charity remembers, since there is one word of God spread out in all the Scriptures, and through the many mouths of the saints one Word sounds, which, since it is in the beginning God with God, there has no syllables, because it has no times; nor should we wonder that, on account of our weakness, it descended to the particles of our sounds, since it descended to take up the weakness of our body: yet this psalm has already made for us many sermons, and the very mysteries which are here held shut, that they might be opened to those who knock, have brought us no small delays of time over several days, when they are pronounced, when they are commended, when they are shown to be shut, when they are opened, when they are dug out, when they are shown; and through this your Charity remembers, as I said, that on the past day too we could not reach the end of this psalm, and deferred it to this day. The Lord willed both to grant us a time of repayment, and that I, a debtor, satisfy the debt, and that he make the exactors more secure: let him, then, himself give the good that we may render, who did not render whatever evil we had done.

2. [vv. 24, 25.] They cried out, as you know, as with piety and joy you recall, the inward parts of our heart cried out with the Psalm, and said: How magnified are your works, O Lord! You made all things in wisdom: the earth is filled with your creation. Whatever was made by God was made in wisdom, and was made through wisdom. Whatever knows wisdom, and whatever does not know wisdom, and yet is in the creation of God, was made in wisdom, and was made through wisdom. Those who know wisdom have wisdom as their light; those who do not know it have wisdom yet as their maker, while they themselves are held by unwisdom: and those who have that light, have the maker too; not all who have the maker have the light too. And indeed among men there are many who become partakers of it, and are called wise; many who are without it, and are named foolish. For this reason they are called fools by a name of fault, because, if they were to be eager for wisdom, if they asked, if they sought, if they knocked, they could come to a participation in it: for it is denied not to nature, but to negligence. But there are other creatures which cannot become partakers of wisdom; as all the beasts, all the cattle, all the trees, which have no perception at all. Because they cannot be partakers of wisdom, were they therefore not made in wisdom and through wisdom? God, then, does not demand understanding of the horse and the mule: but he says to men, Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding (Ps 32:9 (31:9)). What for the horse is nature, for man is a fault. This, then, God says: I do not demand a participation in my wisdom from those things which I did not make to my image; but where I made it, from there I demand, and I require the use of that thing which I gave. Men, then, rendering to God the things that are God's, if they render to Caesar what is Caesar's; that is, rendering to Caesar his image, and rendering to God his image, raise their very mind, not to themselves, but to their maker, and to the light whence they are, and to a certain spiritual warmth from which they grow fervent, and removed from which they grow cold, and withdrawing from which they are darkened, and returning to which they are illumined: and because they piously said to him, You will light my lamp, O Lord; my God, you will lighten my darkness (Ps 18:28 (17:29)); the darkness of earthly folly being shaken off, opening their mouth and drawing in the spirit, they raise, as I said, the trusting eye of the heart; and they look around with the mind on the whole world, the earth, the sea and the sky, and seeing all things beautifully arranged, running in order, divided into kinds, supported by seeds, changed by successions, running in seasons, the maker pleases them in these things, that they too may please the maker in his workmanship; and they cry out for great joy, because truly to this gladness nothing can be compared: How magnified are your works, O Lord! You made all things in wisdom. Where is that very wisdom in which you made all things? by what perception is it reached? by what eye is it seen? by what zeal is it sought? by what merit is it possessed? By what, do you suppose, except by its grace? He who granted that we should be, grants that we should be good. He grants it to the converted, who, before they were converted, and when, turned away, they were going after their own ways, did he not seek them? did he not descend? did not the Word become flesh, and dwell among us? did he not light the lamp of his flesh, while he hung on the cross, and seek the lost coin? He sought and found it, the neighbors rejoicing together, that is, all the spiritual creation that touches God most nearly. With the neighbors rejoicing the coin was found; with the angels rejoicing the human soul was found. It was found, therefore let it rejoice, and say: How magnified are your works, O Lord! You made all things in wisdom.

3. The earth is filled with your creation. With what creation of yours is the earth filled? With all trees and shrubs, with all animals and cattle; and with the whole human race itself, the earth is filled with the creation of God. We see it, we know it, we read it, we recognize it, we praise it, and in these things we preach; and in these things we cannot praise as much as our heart overflows from the good beholding. But we ought rather to attend to that creation, of which the Apostle says: If, then, anyone is a new creation in Christ, the old things have passed away; behold, all things have been made new (2 Cor 5:17). What old things have passed away? Among the gentiles all idolatry, among the Jews themselves all that bondage of the Law, all those sacrifices foretelling the present sacrifice. The oldness of man then abounded; he came to renew his work, he came to recast his silver, who would form his coin, and we behold the earth full of Christians believing in God, turning away from their former uncleannesses and idolatry, from past hope to the hope of the new age: and behold, it is not yet in fact, and is already held in hope, and through that very hope we already sing and say: The earth is filled with your creation. For not yet do we sing this in the homeland, not yet in that rest which is promised, not yet with the bars of the gates of Jerusalem strengthened; but still in pilgrimage gazing on this whole world, and men everywhere running to the faith, fearing the Gehennas, scorning death, loving eternal life, spurning the present, and, filled with joy at such a spectacle, we say: The earth is filled with your creation.

4. [v. 25.] But this age is still shaken by the waves of temptations, still disturbed by the tempests and storms of tribulations and swellings: yet by this way one goes. Let the sea threaten, and swell with waves, and give birth to storms; by this way one goes, wood has been given us in which to sail: The earth is filled with your creation. But we are not yet in the land of the living, this is still the land of the dying; but we cry out, and say: You are my hope, my portion in the land of the living (Ps 142:5 (141:6)). In the land of the dying my hope, in the land of the living my portion. Behold this earth which is filled with the creation of God. He who is still in this land of the dying, not yet in the land of the living, by what does he pass over? Hear what follows: This sea great and spacious, there things creeping of which there is no number; animals small and great. It signifies a terrible sea: there are things creeping of which there is no number. Treacheries creep in this age, and suddenly seize the incautious: but who counts the creeping temptations? They creep, but beware lest they steal upon you. Let there be watching in the wood; even in the waters, even in the waves we are safe: let not Christ sleep, let not faith sleep; and if it has slept, let it be roused; he will command the winds, he will calm the sea; the way will be finished, there will be rejoicing in the homeland. There things creeping of which there is no number; animals small and great. For I see still in this fearful sea those who do not yet believe: for they are tossed in the bitter and barren waters; but they are both small and great. We know this; many of the small of the world have not yet believed, many of the chief men of the world have not yet believed: animals small and great are in this sea. They hate the Church, they are pressed by the name of Christ; they do not rage, because they are not permitted: not bursting out into the hands, the savagery is shut up in the heart. For all, whether small or great, animals small and great, who now grieve that the temples are shut, the altars overthrown, the images broken, laws passed that to sacrifice to idols is a capital crime; all who grieve at these things are still in the sea. What, then, of us? by what shall we go to the homeland? Through the sea itself, but in the wood. Do not fear the danger; the wood carries you which contains the world. Therefore attend: This sea great and spacious, there things creeping of which there is no number; animals small and great. Do not fear, do not be terrified; desire the homeland, understand the pilgrimage.

5. [v. 26.] There the ships will pass to and fro. Behold, in that which terrified, the ships swim, and are not submerged. We understand the ships to be the Churches; they pass to and fro amid tempests, amid the storms of temptations, amid the waves of the world, amid the animals small and great. The pilot is Christ on the wood of his cross. There the ships will pass to and fro. Let not the ships fear, let them not greatly attend to where they swim, but by whom they are steered. There the ships will pass to and fro. What passage do they find sad, when they perceive Christ as pilot? They will pass securely, let them pass perseveringly, they will come to the due end, they will be led through to the land of rest.

6. There is in this sea also something that surpasses all the animals small and great. What is this? Let us hear the Psalm: This dragon which you formed to make sport of him. There things creeping of which there is no number, there animals small and great; there the ships will pass to and fro, and will not fear, not only the things creeping of which there is no number, and the animals small and great, but not even the dragon who is there: Whom you formed, he says to God, to make sport of him. A great secret, and yet I will say what you know. You know a certain dragon, the enemy of the Church: you have not seen him with the eyes of the flesh, but you see him with the eyes of faith. He is the one who is also called a lion: of him Scripture says, You will trample on the lion and the dragon (Ps 91:13 (90:13)). He is subject to your head, he will be subject to his body too; only let the members cling to their head, so as to be his members. It was said of the first woman, whom this dragon seduced; namely Eve, to whom he gave the counsel of death, and crept into the feminine heart by cunning persuasion in the manner of a serpent. There happened what we know, what we too did there, what we grieve over. For in those two men is the whole human race: thence the propagation of death, thence the debts, the offenses, even in little ones. For who is clean, says Scripture, in your sight? not even the infant whose life is of one day on the earth (See Job 14:4-5). A transmission of sin, a transmission of death from the first sin. For you know too what was said to the woman, or rather to the serpent, when God heard the sin of the first man: She will watch your head, and you will watch her heel (See Gen 3:15). Said in a great mystery, said in figure of the future Church, made from the side of her husband, and this while he slept. For Adam was a figure of the one to come. This the Apostle says: Who is a figure of the one to come (Rom 5:14). It was prefigured what was to be, the Church was made from the side of the Lord sleeping on the cross. For from the pierced side of the crucified, the Sacraments of the Church flowed forth. What, then, was said to the Church? Now hear, understand, beware: She will watch your head, and you her heel. O Church, watch the head of the serpent. What is the head of the serpent? The first suggestion of sin. There comes into your mind something or other unlawful; do not hold your mind there, do not consent. This that comes into the mind is the head of the serpent; tread on the head, and you will escape the other motions. What is it, tread on the head? Scorn the suggestion itself. But it suggested gain: there is great gain there, there is much gold there; if you do this fraud, you will be rich. It is the head of the serpent, tread on it. What is it, tread on it? Scorn what it suggested. But it suggested much gold. And what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but suffer the loss of his soul? Let the gain of the world perish, lest there be loss of the soul. Saying these things, you watched the head of the serpent, and trod on it. But the devil watches your heel. What is it, he watches your heel? When you slip from the way of God. You watch the first suggestion, he watches your fall. For if you have slipped, you will fall; if you fall, he will possess you. But that you may not fall, do not go out of the way. God paved a narrow path for you; whatever is outside it, is slippery. Therefore Christ is the light, and Christ is the way: It was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9); and: I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Through me you go, to me you go. If, then, he himself is the light, and he himself is the way; if you withdraw from him, you will be neither in the light, nor in the way. And what follows you? What a certain psalm says of the impious: Let their way become darkness and slipperiness (Ps 35:6 (34:6)).

7. This dragon, then, our ancient enemy, fervent with anger, cunning in treachery, is in the great sea. This dragon which you formed to make sport of him. Now do you make sport of the dragon: for it was for this that the dragon was made here. He, falling by his own sin from the lofty dwelling of the heavens, and from an angel made a devil, received a certain place of his own in this great and spacious sea. What you suppose to be his kingdom is his prison. For many say: Why has the devil received such great power, that he should have dominion in this age, and avail so much, be able to do so much? How much does he avail, or how much can he do? Unless permitted, he can do nothing. Act so that he be not permitted in you; or if he be permitted to tempt, let him depart conquered, and not possess. For he was permitted to tempt certain holy men, servants of God: they overcame him, because they did not withdraw from the way, they did not slip, whose heel he was watching. That holy Job sat on the dunghill, and ran in the way: see how he watched his head, and how the other watched his heel. The one repelled the suggester, the other hoped for the slipping one: he took even his little woman; he withdrew all that he had, he left only his helper, not a consoler of her husband, but rather a temptress; he took even her, not watching his head. For she was still Eve; but he was no longer Adam. All being taken away, Job remained with a wife, through whom he might be tempted; and with God, by whom he might be governed. What was made suddenly poorer than he, if you consider his house? What richer than he, if you think of his heart? See the poverty of the house: all things were taken away. See the riches of the heart: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it was done: blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away: he knew his ruler, and his tempter; he knew the permitter of his tempter. Let the devil, he says, attribute nothing to himself; he has the will to harm, but the power, unless he received it, he would not have; as much power as he received, so much I suffer: I do not suffer, then, from him, but from the one who gave the power; let the pride of my tempter be scorned, let the scourges of my Father be endured. The tempter was repelled, his head was watched, he could not penetrate into the heart. He besieged the walled city from outside, but did not take it by storm. Another temptation came: he was permitted at his body, he struck him with a grievous wound from head to feet; he wasted with rottenness, teemed with worms, his house lost, he sat on the dunghill. There Eve, captured, set by the devil under her husband not for help, but for a fall, suggests that God be blasphemed. First she suggested in paradise that God be scorned, now that God be blasphemed. She prevailed then over the whole man, now she is conquered by the rotting one: in paradise she cast him down, on the dunghill she was overcome. But that dragon was watching whether Job would slip in his tongue. For every man has feet in his act, in what he does; in what he is moved, there he as it were walks. He said many things; for how many things Job said, those who read know: in all those many words the serpent was watching the heel of the slipping one. But he who watched the head of the serpent repelled every suggestion. He answered the woman too, as it was fitting to answer a woman: You have spoken, he said, like one of the foolish women: if we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, will we not endure evils? And in all those things which he said, he nowhere slipped (See Job 2:10). Which many do not understand in those words, and take certain things there as if Job said something hard against God.

8. For among many things he said this too, as if vexed against God, as it seemed to those not understanding: but he bore the great person of a great prophecy: Would that, he says, speaking to God, would that there were for us an arbiter! What is it, Would that there were for us an arbiter? As one who would judge between us, and by whose judging my cause might prevail. So it is taken at the first sound: but examine yourself, lest you slip; for that serpent always attends to your heel. What did Job seem to have said? Would that there were for us an arbiter! would that there were some intermediary who would judge between me and you! This man to God, this man on a dunghill, this even an angel in heaven to God: Would that there were for us an arbiter! But what did he foresee? what did he wish for? Many, says the Lord, just men and prophets wished to see what you see, and did not see it (See Matt 13:17). He desired an arbiter. What is an arbiter? An intermediary to settle a cause. Were we not enemies of God, and did we not have a bad cause against God? Who would end this bad cause, except that intermediary arbiter, who, unless he came, the way of mercy had perished? Of whom the Apostle says: For there is one God and mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). If not man, not mediator; because as God he is equal to the Father. He says in another place: But a mediator is not of one; but God is one (Gal 3:20). A mediator is between two: therefore Christ is mediator between man and God. Not because God, but because man: for because God, equal to the Father; but equal to the Father, not mediator. But that he might be mediator, let him descend from the higher to the lower, from equality with the Father; let him do what the Apostle says: He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man (Phil 2:7). Let him pour out his blood, blot out our bond, settle between us and God; correcting our will toward righteousness, bending his sentence toward mercy. As, then, we have expounded this one thing, as far as the Lord granted, which seems hard, said by Job; so the other things too which seem there as it were harsh and blasphemous, have their understandings. Which we would suppose to be otherwise, unless God bore witness, both before Job spoke, and after he had spoken all. God first bore witness, saying: A man without complaint, a true worshiper of God (See Job 1:8). God said this, said this before his temptation. But lest anyone, perhaps misunderstanding in those words, be scandalized, and suppose that Job was indeed a just man before the temptation, but in the grievous temptation failed, and slipped into sacrilegious blasphemy; when all the sermons were finished, both of Job himself, and of his friends by whom consolation was rendered to him, the Lord gives witness that they did not speak the truth, as his servant Job. For you have not spoken, he says, before me anything true, like my servant Job (Job 42:7). Then he commands that Job offer sacrifices for them, by which their sins may be loosed.

9. Come now, my brothers, whoever wishes to watch the head of the serpent, and to pass over this sea securely; because it is necessary that this serpent dwell here, and, as I had begun to say, the devil fallen from heaven received this place; let him watch its head, against the fear of the world, and against the cupidity of the world. For from this he suggests something, either whence you fear, or whence you desire; either he tempts your love, or your fear. You, if you fear the Gehennas, love the kingdom of God, will watch his head. The head avoided, you will be secure; he will neither hold your slipping, nor rejoice at your ruin. But let no one say, as I said: He has great power. For men see as it were how much power he has received; what he lost, they do not see. But holy Job himself, in his mystical and deeply secret words, speaking of this power which the devil is said to have, and describing him in many ways in figures of likenesses, expounding what he is, or what he avails, said this too: There is nothing made like him on the earth, to be made sport of by my angels. God speaks there in the book of Job: There is nothing made like him on the earth, to be made sport of by my angels. He sees everything high; and he himself is king of all that are in the waters (Job 41:33-34). To which testimony this in the Psalm agrees. For when he had spoken of the sea great and spacious, where the animals small and great, where the things creeping of which there is no number, where the ships sail safe in the wood, he said: This dragon which you formed to make sport of him. But if to make sport of, how does God make sport of him? Or has he handed him over to be made sport of, that is, to be mocked? We would suppose that God made sport of him, unless the Scripture of Job had solved the question; for there it was said: To be made sport of by my angels. Do you wish to make sport of the dragon? Be an angel of God. But you are not yet an angel of God. Until you are, if you hold that course so as to be one, there are angels who make sport of the dragon, lest he harm you. For the angels of the heavens are set over the airy powers, and thence proceeds the word that is done here. For they gaze on the fixed law, the eternal law, commanding without writing, without syllables, without noise, always fixed and standing; the angels gaze on it with a pure heart, and from it they do whatever is done here, and the powers from it are ordered from the highest to the lowest. And if the powers of the highest heavens are ruled by the word of God, how much more the lower and earthly? There remains, then, in the bad only the cupidity of harming. This cupidity of harming a man has in his power, the will to destruction. But if he has been able to harm anyone, let him not glory; he himself did not harm, power was given to him. It was said once, the sentence is firm: There is no power except from God (Rom 13:1). What, then, do you fear? Let the dragon be in the waters, let the dragon be in the sea; you are about to pass over there. He was so formed that he might be made sport of, he was ordered here to this place, he was assigned to these seats. You suppose these seats to be something great for him, because you do not know the seats of the angels whence he fell: what seems to you his glorying is his condemnation.

10. Receive a likeness briefly; for truly it is something great to know and understand this. Suppose this whole administration of creation to be some great house: this great house has a master, has servants, and among the servants themselves it has some near it in better outfits of clothing, treasuries, storehouses, great possessions; it has also servants in the lowest ministries, with powers so subject to it that it has some even for cleaning the sewers: from the highest stewards to these last and lowest ministries, how many degrees there are. If, then, some great steward offends, and by the punishment of his master, for example, becomes a doorkeeper in some last place; if, exercising the power given him, he disturbs those wishing to enter or go out, according to the measure of power he received from the master, but they do not know that he was once a great steward; they suppose his power to be great, because they do not know what he lost. And yet, my brothers, that doorkeeper of whom I spoke, by the likeness of this great earthly house, can do something without his master knowing, and disturb someone without his bidding: but this one is not even set at that door by which we enter to God. For Christ is that door, and through Christ we enter to eternal life. But there is a certain door by which one enters into this age, a certain door of mortality: about these losses and supplies of this weak flesh, at this door he is as it were a certain doorkeeper; here he has power in this sea, by which the ships pass to and fro, but not so much as to do anything without his Lord knowing or willing. Lest perhaps someone say: That one indeed lost the great power of the higher outfits; but I am in these lowest things, here he can have me in his power, I must serve him. Do not be deceived; your Lord knows you, and so knows you that he has your hairs numbered. What, then, do you fear? He is perhaps going to tempt your flesh: it is the scourge of your Lord, not the power of your tempter. He wishes to harm the salvation that is promised; but he is not permitted: but that he may not be permitted, have Christ as your head; repel the head of the dragon, do not consent to his suggestion, do not slip from your way. This dragon which you formed to make sport of him.

11. [vv. 27-29.] For do you wish to see how he does not harm you, unless permitted? All things, he says, wait for you, O Lord, that you may give them food in due time. And this dragon too wishes to eat, but does not eat whom he wishes. All things wait for you, O Lord, that you may give them food in due time. All things: both the things creeping of which there is no number, and the animals small and great, and the dragon himself, and all your creation, with which you have filled the earth; All things wait for you that you may give them food in due time, to each its own food. You have your food, the dragon too has his food. If you live well, you will have Christ as food; if you withdraw from Christ, you will be the food of the dragon. All things wait for you that you may give them food in due time. What was said to the dragon himself? You will eat earth. It was said to the dragon: You will eat earth all the days of your life (Gen 3:14). You have heard the food of the dragon. You do not wish God to give you to be eaten by the dragon; do not be the food of the dragon, that is, do not abandon the word of God. For where it was said to the dragon, You will eat earth; there it had already been said to the transgressor too: You are earth, and into earth you will go (Gen 3:19). You do not wish to be the food of the serpent? do not be earth. How, you say, shall I not be earth? If you do not taste earthly things. Hear the Apostle, that you may not be earth. For the body you carry is earth, but you do not be earth. What is this? If you have risen, he says, with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; taste the things that are above, not the things on earth (Col 3:1-2). If you do not taste earthly things, you are not earth; if you are not earth, you are not eaten by the serpent, to whom earth is given as food. God gives the serpent his food, when he wishes, whom he wishes: but he judges well, he cannot be deceived, he does not give him gold instead of earth. All things wait for you, O Lord, that you may give them food in due time. When you have given to them, they will gather. They are before them; but they will not gather, unless you have given. Job was before the devil; and indeed he did not devour Job, but did not dare even to tempt, except when he had given. They wait for you: when you have given to them, they will gather; if you do not give, they will not gather.

12. And what of us, brothers? what food do we have? There follows about our food too. But when you open your hand, all things will be filled with goodness. What is it, O Lord, that you open your hand? Your hand is Christ. And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Isa 53:1) To whom it is revealed, to him it is opened: for revelation is an opening. But when you open your hand, all things will be filled with goodness. When you reveal your Christ, all things will be filled with goodness. But they do not have goodness from themselves; for sometimes it is proved to them: But when you turn away your face, they will be troubled. Many, filled with goodness, attributed to themselves what they had, and wished to glory as it were in their own justifications, and said to themselves: I am just, I am great; and they became pleasing to themselves. And the Apostle sounded to them: For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) But God, wishing to prove to a man that he has from him whatever he has, that with goodness he may have humility too, sometimes disturbs him; turns his face away from him, and he falls into temptation; and shows him that, in that he was just, and walked rightly, it was done by his governing. But when you turn away your face, they will be troubled. See what he says in another psalm too: I said in my abundance: I shall not be moved forever (Ps 30:6 (29:7)). He presumed on himself; he was filled with goodness, and supposed that all the goodness was to himself from himself, and said in his heart: I shall not be moved forever. But because he had now perceived that he had received the grace of God, for that which he had experienced, he rendered thanksgiving: O Lord, in your will you furnished strength to my beauty; but you turned away your face from me, and I became troubled (Ps 30:7 (29:8)). So here too: When you open your hand; you will open your hand, and all things will be filled with goodness; not by their own hand, but by your hand opened: But when you turn away your face, they will be troubled.

13. But why do you do this? why do you turn away your face, that they be troubled? You will take away their spirit, and they will fail. Their spirit was their pride: they glory, they attribute to themselves, they justify themselves. Turn away your face, then, that they be troubled: take away their spirit, and let them fail; let them cry out to you: Quickly hear me, O Lord; my spirit has failed. Do not turn away your face from me (Ps 143:7 (142:7)). You will take away their spirit, and they will fail, and they will be turned into their dust. The man, repenting of his sin, finds that he did not have strength from himself; and he confesses to God, saying that he is earth and ashes. O proud one, you have been turned into your dust, your spirit has been taken away; now you do not boast, you do not exalt yourself, you do not justify yourself; you see that you were made from dust, and, the Lord turning away his face, you fell back into your dust. Ask, then, confess your dust and your weakness.

14. [v. 30.] And see what follows: You will send forth your spirit, and they will be created. You will take away their spirit, you will send forth yours: you will take away their spirit, they will not have their own spirit. Are they then deserted? Blessed are the poor in spirit: but they are not deserted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:3). They were unwilling to have their own spirit, they will have the Spirit of God. For this he said to the future martyrs: When they take you and lead you, do not think how or what you may speak: for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you (Matt 10:19-20). Do not attribute fortitude to yourselves. If it is yours, he says, and not mine, it is hardness, not fortitude. You will take away their spirit, and they will fail, and they will be turned into their dust: you will send forth your spirit, and they will be created. For we are his formation, the Apostle said, created in good works (Eph 2:10). From his Spirit we received grace, that we might live for righteousness: because he is the one who justifies the impious. You will take away their spirit, and they will fail: you will send forth your spirit, and they will be created; and you will renew the face of the earth: that is, with new men, confessing themselves to be justified, not just from themselves, that the grace of God may be in them. See what sort those are for whom the face of the earth has been renewed. Paul says: I labored more than all of them. What is it, Paul? Attend whether you, whether your spirit. Not I, he says, but the grace of God with me (1 Cor 15:10).

15. [v. 31.] What then? Because, when he has taken away our spirit, we will be turned into our dust, usefully gazing on our weakness, that, having received his Spirit, we may be re-created. See what follows: Let the glory of the Lord be forever. Not yours, not mine, not that man's, or that man's; let the glory of the Lord be, not for a time, but forever. The Lord will rejoice in his works. Not in yours, as if yours: because even your works, if bad, are through your iniquity; if good, through the grace of God. The Lord will rejoice in his works.

16. [v. 32.] Who looks on the earth, and makes it tremble; who touches the mountains, and they will smoke. O earth, you used to exult over your goodness, you attributed to yourself the strength of your wealth; behold, the Lord looks back, and makes you tremble. Let him look on you, and make you tremble: for better is the trembling of humility than the confidence of pride. See how God looks on the earth, and makes it tremble. To the earth as it were presuming on itself and exulting the Apostle speaks: With fear and trembling work out your own salvation. With fear and trembling: for it is God who works in you (Phil 2:12-13). You say, O Paul: Work out; you say that we should work: why with trembling? For it is God, he says, who works in you. Therefore with trembling, because God works. Because he gave it, it is not from yourself that you have it; with fear and trembling you will work: for if you do not tremble at him, he will take away what he gave. Work, then, with trembling. See another psalm: Serve the Lord in fear, and exult to him with trembling (Ps 2:11). If one must exult with trembling, God looks on, an earthquake happens: with God looking on, let our hearts tremble; then will God rest there. Hear him in another place: Upon whom will my spirit rest? Upon the humble, and the quiet, and the one who trembles at my words (Isa 66:2). Who looks on the earth, and makes it tremble; who touches the mountains, and they will smoke. The mountains were proud, they boasted, God had not touched them: he touches them, and they will smoke. What is it for the mountains to smoke? To render prayer to the Lord. Behold great mountains, proud, huge mountains, did not ask God: they wished to be asked, and did not ask the higher one. For who is powerful, and swollen, and proud on earth, who would deign to ask God humbly? I speak of the impious, not of the cedars of Lebanon which the Lord planted. Any impious one, an unhappy soul, does not know how to ask God, and wishes to be asked by men. He is a mountain, it is needful that God touch him, and he smoke: when he has begun to smoke, he will render prayer to God, as it were a sacrifice of the heart. He smokes to God, then he beats his breast: he begins to weep too, because smoke too brings out tears. Who touches the mountains, and they will smoke.

17. [v. 33.] I will sing to the Lord in my life. What will he sing? Whatever there is, he will sing it. Let us sing to the Lord in our life. Our life now is hope; our life afterward will be eternity: the life of mortal life is the hope of immortal life. I will sing to the Lord in my life; I will sing psalms to my God, as long as I am. Since in him I am without end, as long as I am, I will sing psalms to my God. Lest perhaps, when we have begun to sing psalms to God in that city, we suppose we will do something else: our whole life will be to sing psalms to God. If what we praise comes into weariness, our praising too can come into weariness. If he is always loved, he is always praised by us: I will sing psalms to my God, as long as I am.

18. [v. 34.] Let my discourse be sweet to him: but I will rejoice in the Lord. Let my discourse be sweet to him: what is the discourse of man to God, except the confession of sins? Confess to God what you are, and you have disputed with him. Dispute with him, do good works, and dispute. Wash yourselves, be clean, says Isaiah, take away the wickednesses from your souls, from the sight of my eyes; cease from your wickednesses, learn to do good, judge for the orphan, and justify the widow, and come, let us dispute, says the Lord (Isa 1:16-18). What is it to dispute with God? Reveal yourself to him who knows, that he may reveal himself to you who do not know. Let my discourse be sweet to him. Behold, this is sweet to the Lord, your discourse; the sacrifice of your humility, the contrition of your heart, the holocaust of your life, this is sweet to God. But what is sweet to you? But I will rejoice in the Lord. This is the mutual discourse I spoke of: reveal yourself to him who knows, and he will reveal himself to you who do not know. Sweet to him is your confession, sweet to you is his grace. He told you of himself. Whence did he tell you of himself? Through the Word. What Word? Christ. And he told you, and he told of himself. Because he sent Christ, he told of himself. So plainly, let us hear the Word himself: He who has seen me, has seen the Father too (John 14:9). But I will rejoice in the Lord.

19. [v. 35.] Let sinners fail from the earth. He seems to rage. O holy soul, which here sings and groans! Would that our soul were with that soul! would that it were coupled to it, and associated, and joined to it! it would see also the mercy of the one raging. For who grasps this, except one who is filled with love? Let sinners fail from the earth. You shudder, because he curses. And who curses? A holy one. Without doubt he is heard. But it was said to the saints: Bless, and do not curse (Rom 12:14). What, then, is it that he says: Let sinners fail from the earth? Let them plainly fail; let their spirit be taken away, and let them fail, that he may send forth his spirit, and they be re-created. Let sinners fail from the earth, and the unjust, so that they be not. What should not be, except the unjust? Therefore let them be justified, that they be not unjust. He saw this, and was filled with joy, and recalls the first verse of the psalm: Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let our soul bless the Lord, brothers, because he deigned to give us both the means and the speech, and to you the attention and the zeal. Let each one as he can recall what he has heard; in conversation with one another belch out your fattening, ruminate what you have received, let it not go into the bowels of your forgetfulness. Let the desirable treasure rest in your mouth. With great labor it was sought and found, with great labor it was announced and discoursed; let our labor be fruitful for you, and let our soul bless the Lord.

Exposition of Psalm 104

1. [v. 1.] The hundred and fourth psalm is the first among those that are prefaced with Alleluia. The interpretation of which word, or rather of which two words, is "Praise God." And therefore it begins from there: Confess to the Lord, and call upon his name. For this confession is to be understood as praise, as is, I confess to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matt 11:25). For praise being set before, invocation is wont to follow, where the petitioner binds his desires to it: whence the Lord's prayer too has at its head a very brief praise, which is, Our Father who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). Then the things that are asked follow in order. Whence also elsewhere in a psalm it is said: We will confess to you, O God, we will confess, and we will call upon your name (Ps 75:1 (74:2)). Which is plainer elsewhere: Praising I will call upon the Lord, and I will be saved from my enemies (Ps 18:3 (17:4)): so too here: Confess, he says, to the Lord, and call upon his name; which is as if he said: Praise the Lord, and call upon his name. For he hears the one who calls upon him, whom he sees praising: he sees praising, whom he proves loving. And in what did the Lord wish the love of a good servant toward him to be shown most of all, except in that he said to him, Feed my sheep? (John 21:17) Whence here too there follows: Announce among the nations his works; or rather, to express it from the Greek word for word, which other Latin manuscripts have: Evangelize among the nations his works. To whom is this said, except to the Evangelists in prophecy?

2. [vv. 2, 3.] Sing to him, and sing psalms to him. Praise by word and work: for with the mouth one sings; but with the psaltery, that is, with the hands, one sings psalms. Tell all his wonders: be praised in his holy name. These two verses can not absurdly seem to be said from the two earlier words: so that what he says, Tell all his wonders, is referred to what was said, Sing to him; but what follows, Be praised in his holy name, is referred to what was said, And sing psalms to him: the former, namely, to the good word by which one sings to him, and his wonders are told; the latter to the good work by which one sings psalms to him, lest anyone wish to be praised for a good work as if by his own virtue. Therefore, when he had said, Be praised, which indeed those who work well can deservedly be; he added, in his holy name: that he who glories may glory in the Lord. Those, then, who wish to sing psalms not to themselves, but to him, let them beware of doing their righteousness before men, to be seen by them; otherwise they will have no reward with their Father, who is in heaven: but let their works shine before men, not with this end that they themselves be seen by them, but that they may see their good works, and glorify their Father, who is in heaven. This is to be praised in his holy name. Whence also in another psalm it is read: In the Lord my soul will be praised; let the meek hear, and be glad (Ps 34:2 (33:3)). Which here too in a way follows: Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad: for so the meek are glad, who do not with bitter zeal envy those now working well.

3. [v. 4.] Seek the Lord, and be strengthened. For this is more expressly translated from the Greek, although the word seems less Latin: whence other manuscripts have, be confirmed; others, be made strong. And indeed it is said: My strength (Ps 18:1 (17:2)); and: My strength I will keep for you (Ps 59:9 (58:10)): that, by seeking him and drawing near to him, we may be both illumined and strengthened; lest by blindness we not see what is to be done, or by weakness not do even what we see. What, then, is for seeing, Draw near to him, and be enlightened (Ps 34:5 (33:6)); this is for doing, Seek the Lord, and be made strong. Seek, he says, his face always. What is the face of the Lord, except the presence of God? Like the face of the wind, and the face of fire: for it is said, Like stubble before the face of the wind (Ps 83:13 (82:14)); and: As wax flows from the face of fire (Ps 68:2 (67:3)). And Scripture sets down many such things, wishing nothing else to be understood than the presence of those things whose face it names. But what is it, Seek his face always? I know indeed that it is good for me to cling to God; but if he is always sought, when is he found? Or did he say always, in this whole life lived here, from when we have come to know that we ought to do it, when even, once found, he is to be sought? For faith has already found him, but hope still seeks him. But love both finds him through faith, and seeks to have him through sight: where then he will be so found that he suffices us, and is sought no further. For unless faith found him in this life, it would not be said, Seek the Lord; and, when you have found him: Let the impious forsake his ways, and the unjust man his thoughts (Isa 55:6-7). Likewise, if, found by faith, he were not still to be sought out, it would not be said: For if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience (Rom 8:25): and what John says: We know that when he appears, we will be like him; for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2). Or perhaps even when we have seen him face to face as he is, he will still be sought out, and sought without end, because he will be loved without end? For we say even to one present, "I do not seek you"; that is, I do not love you. And through this the one who is loved, even present, is sought, while it is done with perpetual love, that he may not become absent. Accordingly, whomever anyone loves, even when he sees him, he wishes him without weariness to be always present, that is, he always seeks him to be present. And surely this is it: Seek his face always, that finding may not put an end to this seeking, by which love is signified, but, love growing, the seeking of the found one may grow.

4. [v. 5.] Now then this burning praiser tempers himself, and descends to words within our grasp; nourishing weak and suckling love with God's temporal wonders. Remember, he says, his wonders which he did, his prodigies and the judgments of his mouth. Which place seems similar to that place, where, to Moses asking who he was, when he had said, I am who I am, and: You will say to the sons of Israel: He who is sent me to you (Exod 3:14): which only a rare mind grasps from however small a particle: afterward, commemorating his name, he mercifully tempered his grace toward men, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; this is my name forever (Exod 3:15). Where he wished it to be understood both that those whose God he called himself live with him forever, and he said this, which could be grasped even by little ones: so that I am who I am, those might understand according to their capacity, who, with the great strength of love, knew how to seek his face always. If, then, what he himself is, is too much for you even to seek to see: Remember his wonders which he did, his prodigies and the judgments of his mouth.

5. [vv. 6, 7.] And to whom is it said? Seed of Abraham his servants, sons of Jacob his chosen ones. You seed of Abraham, you sons of Jacob, remember his wonders which he did, his prodigies and the judgments of his mouth. But lest anyone attribute this to the one nation of the Israelites according to the flesh, and not rather understand that the sons of the promise are the seed of Abraham more than the sons of the flesh, to whom the Apostle says, when he was speaking to the gentiles, You, then, are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:29); there follows and he says: He is the Lord our God; in all the earth are his judgments. This is said through Isaiah to the free Jerusalem, our mother: And he who rescued you, he your God, will be called the God of all the earth (See Isa 54:5). Is he the God of the Jews only? Far from it. He is the Lord our God; in all the earth are his judgments: because in all the earth is his Church, where his judgments are preached. What, then, does he say in another psalm: Who announces his word to Jacob, his righteous acts and his judgments to Israel; he did not do so to every nation, and his judgments he did not make manifest to them (Ps 147:19-20 (147:8-9))? It was said for this reason, because he wished one nation to be understood as pertaining to the seed of Abraham; which was indeed called out of all the nations, and so in it all the nations are spoken of, that it may be one nation called into adoption. Outside this nation he made his judgments manifest to no nation: since those who did not believe them, even if they were announced, were certainly not made manifest to them; because unless they believe, they will not understand.

6. [vv. 8-11.] He was mindful forever of his covenant. Other manuscripts have, forever (in the sense of eternally); which came from the ambiguous Greek. But if it is to be understood as for this age, not eternally; how, in expounding which covenant he was mindful of, does he add and say, Of the word which he commanded for a thousand generations? Which can still be understood with some end; but then he says: Which he arranged with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac; and he established it for Jacob as a precept, and for Israel as an eternal covenant. Where there is no place for ambiguity: for the Greek has what our translators have nowhere rendered except as "eternal"; but scarcely any anywhere said "everlasting." Unless perhaps, because they more familiarly translate it "of the age," they wish to translate it not "eternal," but "of the age"; which I do not recall that anyone dared to do. But if in this place the Old Testament is to be understood, because of the land of Canaan; for so the discourse is woven: And he established it for that same Jacob as a precept, and for that same Israel as an eternal covenant, saying: To you I will give the land of Canaan, the cord of your inheritance: how is it to be understood as eternal, when that earthly inheritance cannot be eternal? And therefore it is called the Old Testament, because it is abolished by the New. But a thousand generations too do not seem to signify anything eternal; because they certainly have an end, and for temporal things themselves they are too many. For however few the years by which a generation is determined, which the Greeks call genea; which some have set at the least at fifteen years, from which a man begins to be able to beget; what are these thousand generations, not only from the time of Abraham, when this promise was made to him, to the time of the New Testament, but from Adam himself, to the end of the age? For who would dare to say that this age is extended by fifteen thousand years?

7. Accordingly it seems to me that here the Old Testament is not to be understood, which is said to be taken away by the New through the prophet: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will confirm for the house of Jacob a New Testament; not according to the Testament which I established for their fathers, when I led them out of the land of Egypt (See Jer 31:31-32): but the testament of faith, which the Apostle praises, when he sets Abraham before us to imitate, and convicts those who glory in the works of the Law from this, that Abraham believed God even before circumcision, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Finally, when he had said, He was mindful forever of his covenant; which we ought to understand as eternally, namely the covenant of justification and of the eternal inheritance, which God promised to faith: Of the word, he says, which he commanded for a thousand generations. What is it, he commanded? For what he says, To you I will give the land of Canaan, is not commanded, but promised: but what we ought to do is commanded, what we are to receive is promised. The command, then, is faith, that the just man live by faith; and to this faith eternal inheritance is promised. A thousand generations, then, because of the perfection of the number, are to be understood for all; that is, as long as generation succeeds generation by following, so long the command is to live by faith. This the people of God observes, the sons of the promise coming by birth, and departing by death, until every generation is finished; which is signified by the number a thousand, because the solid square of the number ten, ten times ten, and this ten times, reaches a thousand. Which he arranged, he says, with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac. And he established it for Jacob, that is, for Jacob himself, as a precept. They are the three patriarchs whose God he specially calls himself, whom the Lord too names in the New Testament, where he says: Many will come from the east and west, and recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 8:11). This is the eternal inheritance. For here too, where he says, He established it for Jacob as a precept; he makes manifest that it is the precept of faith: for he would not call a promise a precept. For if the work is in the precept, the reward in the promise: This is the work of God, says the Lord, that you believe in the one whom he sent (John 6:29). This word, then, which he commanded, mindful forever of his covenant, that is, the word of faith which we preach, he established for that same Jacob as a precept; and for that same Israel as an eternal covenant, that is, that from the word itself and the precept fulfilled he would give something eternal. Saying: To you I will give the land of Canaan, the cord of your inheritance. How, then, is this eternal, unless it signifies something eternal? For it is itself called the land of promise, the land flowing with milk and honey. Which wholly signifies grace, in which it is tasted how sweet the Lord is; to which not all men pertain: for faith is not of all. Therefore he added: The cord of your inheritance. Whence in another psalm, where the one seed of Abraham, which is Christ, is understood to speak, he says: The cords fell to me in glorious places; for my inheritance is glorious to me (Ps 16:6 (15:6)). But why it was called "the land of Canaan", the interpretation of this name discloses; for Canaan is interpreted "humble." And if this is referred to that sentence of holy Noah, by which he said that the same Canaan would be the servant of his brothers, from this is also servile fear. But the servant does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever (John 8:35). Therefore, the Canaanite excluded, the land of promise is given to the seed of Abraham. For perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), that the son may remain in the house forever. Whence it was said: And for that same Israel as an eternal covenant.

8. [v. 12.] Then he follows the history most known in the truth of the holy Books. When they were few in number, very few and sojourners in it: that is, in the land of Canaan. When the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob dwelt there, before they received it as an inheritance, in their seed they were very few, and sojourners in it. But some manuscripts have, not very few and sojourners; but very few and sojourners (in the accusative case). Where it appears that those who so translated this followed a Greek expression, which cannot be transferred into Latin, except with an absurdity which could not be borne at all. For if we should try to translate that whole expression, we would say: In their being few in number, very few and sojourners in it. But what the Greek says, In their being, this in Latin is When they were: which word cannot be followed by an accusative case, but by a nominative. For who would say: When they were very few (accusative)? but: When they were very few (nominative).

9. [vv. 13-15.] When, then, they were few in number, or few in number, very few and sojourners in it; they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people. It is a repetition of what he had said, from nation to nation. He did not allow a man to harm them: that is, he did not permit it. But the Greek expression is, to harm them (in one construction); the Latin is, to harm them (in another). And he rebuked kings for their sake. Do not, he says, touch my anointed ones, and do not deal maliciously with my prophets. He spoke the words of God rebuking or convicting kings, that they should not hurt the holy fathers, when they were few in number, and very few and sojourners in the land of Canaan. Which words, although they are not read in the books of his history, yet must be understood as either secretly said—as God speaks in the hearts of men by hidden and truthful visions—or even expressed through an angel. For both the king of Gerar and the king of the Egyptians were divinely warned not to harm Abraham, and another king not to harm Isaac, and others not to harm Jacob; when they were very few and sojourners, before Jacob with his sons passed over to dwell in Egypt: which is understood to be commemorated in that he said, They passed from nation to nation, from kingdom to another people. But because it occurred to ask how, before they passed over and were multiplied in Egypt, they could endure, few in number, very few and sojourners in a foreign land, he went on and added: He did not permit a man to harm them, and he rebuked kings for their sake. Do not touch my anointed ones, and do not deal maliciously with my prophets.

10. But it can rightly raise the question how they were called anointed, before there was the anointing from which this name was imposed on kings: which began from Saul, whom David succeeded in the kingdom; and thence the other kings both of Judah and of Israel were anointed by a continuation of the hallowed custom: in which anointing was figured the one true Christ, to whom it was said, God, your God, anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your partakers (Ps 45:7 (44:8)). Whence, then, were they even then called anointed (christi)? For that they were prophets, we read of Abraham; and surely what was manifestly said of him is to be understood of them too. Or were they anointed for this reason, because, even if secretly, they were yet already Christians? For although the flesh of Christ is from them, yet Christ is before them: which he answered the Jews too, saying, Before Abraham came to be, I am (John 8:58). But how could they be ignorant of him, or not believe in him; when they were for this reason called prophets, because, though more secretly, they yet foretold the Lord? Whence he himself says openly: Abraham desired to see my day, and he saw it, and rejoiced (John 8:56). For no one, apart from this faith which is in Christ Jesus, whether before his incarnation, or afterward, was reconciled to God; since it has been most truly defined by the Apostle: For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5).

11. [vv. 16, 17.] Then now he begins to narrate how it came about that they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people. "And he called," he says, "a famine upon the land; he broke every support of bread. He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold as a servant." Through this it came about that they passed from nation to nation, from kingdom to another people. But the expressions of the holy Scriptures are not to be passed over negligently. He called, he says, a famine upon the land: as if famine were some person, or some animate body, or some spirit that could obey the one calling; whereas famine is a destruction brought on by want of food, and so is in those who suffer it, like some disease. For as a disease ceases to be, generally by means of medicine; so famine too is in a way healed by nourishment. What, then, is it, He called a famine? Or perhaps these evils which men suffer have certain evil angels set over them (for in another psalm too he says that God afflicted men by a sending through evil angels, certainly not with erring judgment), and this is perhaps, He called a famine, that is, the angel set over famine, called by the name of the thing over which he is set? From which opinion the old Romans consecrated certain such gods, like the goddess Fever, and the god Pallor. Or, what is more believable, He called a famine, is to be understood: He said that there should be a famine; so that to call is to summon; to summon is to say; to say is to command? For he called the famine who calls the things that are not, as though they were. Nor did the Apostle there say: He who calls the things that are not, that they may be; but, as though they were (Rom 4:17). For with God what is to be by his arrangement has already been done; because it is said of him elsewhere: Who has made the things that are to be (See Isa 45:11 LXX). And here, when the famine was made, then it was said to be called, that is, that it might be present which had already been arranged in his hidden governance. Finally, how he called the famine, he immediately expounded, saying: He broke every support of bread. And this too is an unusual expression: for he said broke, for what is, "consumed."

12. [v. 17.] He sent a man before them. What man? Joseph. How did he send him? Joseph was sold as a servant. Surely when it was done, it was the sin of the brothers, and yet God sent Joseph into Egypt. A great and very necessary matter is to be gazed upon, then, how God uses well the evil works of men, just as they, on the contrary, use badly the good works of God.

13. [vv. 18, 19.] Then he wove together the narration, commemorating what Joseph endured in his lowliness, and how he was raised on high. They humbled his feet in fetters; iron passed through his soul, until his word came. That Joseph received fetters, we do not read; but that it was done, is by no means to be doubted. For some things could be passed over in that history, which yet did not lie hidden from the Holy Spirit, who speaks in these Psalms. But the iron which he says passed through his soul, we take to be the tribulation of hard necessity: for he did not say "body," but soul. For there is a certain such expression in the Gospel, where Simeon said to Mary: Behold, this one is set for the fall, and for the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be contradicted; and a sword will pass through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:34-35). For the passion of the Lord, which to many was a fall, and in which the hidden things of many hearts were laid open, since it was made plain what they thought of the Lord, without doubt saddened his very mother too, struck grievously by carnal bereavement. But Joseph was in that tribulation until his word came, by which he had truly interpreted the dreams: whence he was commended to the king, that he might foretell to him too the future from his dreams. But because he said, until his word came, lest we should understand his in such a way that anyone might suppose so great a matter should be attributed to a man; he immediately added: The eloquence of the Lord inflamed him: or, what other manuscripts have, more expressed from the Greek: The eloquence of the Lord set him on fire; so that he too might be counted among those to whom it was said: Be praised in his holy name (Ps 105:3 (104:3)). The eloquence of the Lord set him on fire. Rightly, when the Holy Spirit was sent from the Lord, there appeared to them tongues divided as it were of fire: and the Apostle says, fervent in spirit (Rom 12:11). From which fire those depart of whom it is said: The love of many will grow cold (Matt 24:12).

14. [vv. 20-22.] Finally there follows: The king sent, and loosed him; the prince of peoples, and let him go. He himself is the king, who is the prince of peoples: he loosed the fettered one, let go the shut-up one. He set him lord of his house, and prince of all his possession. That he might instruct his princes like himself, and teach his elders prudence. The Greek has: And teach his elders wisdom. Which could in every way be said word for word thus: He instructed his princes like himself, and made his elders wise: for the Greek has a word for those we are wont to call "elders," not the word for "old men"; but the other word, which cannot be said in Latin by one word, is from "wisdom," which in Greek is called sophia, not from "prudence," which is called phronesis. Yet neither do we read this in that exaltation of Joseph, just as we do not read of the fetters in his lowliness. But how could it be that so great a man, a worshiper of the one true God, in Egypt was intent only on feeding bodies, and on governing only bodily things, and bore no care for the souls by which he might make them better? But those things were written in that history, which, according to the intention of the writer, in whom was the Holy Spirit, were judged sufficient to signify, by that narration, things to come.

15. [v. 23.] And Israel entered into Egypt, and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham. What is Israel, this is Jacob; and what is Egypt, this is the land of Ham. For here it is most plainly shown that from the seed of Ham, son of Noah, whose firstborn was Canaan, the nation of the Egyptians too arose. Accordingly, in those manuscripts where in this place is read Canaan, it must be corrected. But it was better translated, was a sojourner, than, as other manuscripts have, dwelt: which would be the same, if it were said "inhabited"; for it signifies nothing else. For it is the very same word in the Greek in this place, which is also above, where it was said: Very few and sojourners in it. But sojourning, or dwelling-as-a-guest, shows not a native, but a newcomer. Behold how they passed from nation to nation, from kingdom to another people. What had been briefly proposed, was unfolded by a brief narration. But from what kingdom they passed to another people, can rightly be asked. For they did not yet reign in the land of Canaan, because the kingdom of the people of Israel had not yet been established there. How, then, can it be understood, except perhaps by anticipation, because there the kingdom of their seed was to be?

16. [v. 24.] Then the things done in Egypt are narrated. And he increased, he says, his people exceedingly, and made it firm over its enemies. This too is all briefly proposed, that how it was done may then be narrated. For the people of God was not then made firm over the Egyptian enemies, when their male offspring were being killed, or when they were being worn down in making bricks; but when, by a mighty hand, through the signs and portents of the Lord their God, they were made to be feared and honored, until the contention of the hard king was overcome, and the Red Sea overwhelmed the persecutor with his army.

17. [v. 25.] What, then, was briefly set down, He made his people firm over its enemies, as if we were asking how it was done, he begins to tell, until by narrating he determines it too. And he turned their heart, that they hated his people, and dealt deceitfully with his servants. Is it to be understood, or believed, that God turns the heart of a man to commit sins? or is it not a sin, or a small sin, to hate the people of God, and to deal deceitfully with his servants? Who would say this? Is God, then, the author of these so grave sins, who is to be believed the author of no sin even the lightest? Who is wise, and will understand these things? For this is that wonderful goodness of God, by which he uses well even the bad, whether angels or men. For although they themselves are bad by their own fault, he makes good come from their evil. For they were not good before they hated his people; but malign and impious, such as would easily envy their fellow-dwellers who were prosperous. In that, then, in which he multiplied his people, by this benefit of his he turned the bad to envying. For envy is the hatred of another's prosperity. So, then, he turned their heart, that through envy they hated his people, and dealt deceitfully with his servants. Not, then, by making their heart bad, but by doing good to his people, he turned their heart, of its own accord bad, to hatred. For he did not pervert an upright heart, but turned one of its own accord perverse to the hatred of the people, where he might use that evil well; not by making them bad, but by lavishing on these people goods which the bad could most easily envy. By which hatred of theirs, how he used it both for the exercise of his people, and for the glory of his name, which is useful to us, the consequent things teach: which are commemorated in his praise, when Alleluia is sung.

18. [v. 26.] He sent Moses his servant, Aaron whom he chose, him. It would suffice, whom he chose; but nothing is to be sought in what is added, him. It is an expression of the Scriptures, as is: In which they will dwell in it: with which expression the divine pages are full.

19. [v. 27.] He set in them the words of his signs and his prodigies in the land of Ham. We ought not to take the words of signs and prodigies as if they were words, by which words the signs and prodigies were done, that is, which they should speak that signs and prodigies might be done. For many were done without words, whether by the rod, or by the hand stretched out, or by ashes cast into the sky. But because those very things that were done were not empty of some signification, just as the words we speak too; therefore they too are called words, not of voices and sounds, but of signs and prodigies. He set in them, that is, he did through them.

20. [v. 28.] He sent darkness, and made it dark. This too is written among the plagues with which the Egyptians were struck. But what follows is read variously in different manuscripts. For some have: And they exacerbated his words; but others: And they did not exacerbate his words: but what I said first, we find in more; but where the negative particle is added, we could scarcely find two manuscripts. But lest perhaps the corruption has abounded because of the easier sense; for what is more easily understood than that which was said: And they exacerbated his words, namely by their obstinate contradictions? we have tried to expound that too according to some right meaning: and this meanwhile occurs: They did not exacerbate his words, that is, in Moses and Aaron; because they bore with them most patiently even when most hard, until all the things which God had arranged to do in them were fulfilled in order.

21. [vv. 29, 30.] He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. Their land gave forth frogs, in the inner chambers of their kings: as if he said: He turned their land into frogs. For there had been so great a multitude of frogs, that this could fittingly be said.

22. [v. 31.] He spoke, and there came the dog-fly and the gnats in all their borders. If it is asked when he spoke, it was in his word before it came to be; and without time it was there, at what time it should come to be: although both through the angels, and through his servants Moses and Aaron, even then in a way he spoke that it should be done, when it was to be done.

23. [v. 32.] He made their rains hail. The expression is similar to that where he says, Their land gave forth frogs; except that there the whole land was certainly not turned into frogs, whereas the rain could be turned wholly into hail. A burning fire in their land: it is understood, he set.

24. [v. 33.] And he struck their vines and their fig trees, and broke every tree of their borders. This was done by the force of hail and lightning; whence he said too burning fire.

25. [v. 34.] He spoke, and there came the locust and the caterpillar, of which there was no number. The locust and the caterpillar are one plague; since the one is the parent, the other the offspring.

26. [v. 35.] And it ate all the hay in their land, and ate all the fruit of their land. Hay too is fruit, as Scripture is wont to speak, which calls even the standing crops of grain "hay"; but in order to say two things, he perhaps wished to make them correspond in number to the two he had said, that is, the locust and the caterpillar. But all this pertains to the variety of expression that cures weariness, not to a diversity of meanings.

27. [v. 36.] And he struck every firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their labor. This plague is the last, except the death in the Red Sea. But I think the firstfruits of their labors were said because of the firstborn of the cattle. Which plagues, although they are ten, were neither all commemorated, nor read in the same order in which they were done there. For the praising is free from the law of the one narrating and weaving the history. The author and speaker of which praising, since it is the Holy Spirit through the Prophet; by the same authority by which he acted through him the man who wrote that history, he both commemorates something done which is not read there, and passes over what is read there.

28. [v. 37.] But he adds this too to the praises of God, that he led the Israelites enriched with silver and gold out of Egypt; because they themselves were such as could not yet scorn the wage of their labors, temporal indeed, yet owed and just: nor, in that they deceived the Egyptians, of whom they asked that gold and silver be lent to them, is God to be thought to command, or, if they did it, to approve such deceits in those who have their heart aloft. For rather, through those words of God—certainly by him who saw their heart and examined their desires—they were permitted to do these things, rather than commanded: yet not without some advancement of the carnal soul, in that they did this to those who justly suffered such things, and, though by deceit, yet took away from wicked men what was owed to be rendered to them. But as by the iniquity of the Egyptians, so by the weakness of these, God divinely used it for what was needed to figure and foretell by those deeds. And he led them out in silver and gold. And this too is an expression of the Scriptures. For it was said, in silver and gold, as if it were said, with silver and gold. And there was not in their tribes one infirm: but in body, not in mind. This too was a great benefit of God, that in that necessity of migrating there was no one sick.

29. [v. 38.] Egypt was glad at their departure, because the fear of them fell upon them. The fear, certainly, of the Hebrews upon the Egyptians. For it is not their fear, by which the Hebrews feared, but by which they were feared. Someone will say: How, then, were the Egyptians unwilling to let them go? how did they let them go as if they would return? how did they lend gold and silver to those asking, as if they would return and repay, if Egypt was glad at their departure? But it is to be understood that, after that last death of the Egyptians, and so great a slaughter in the Red Sea of so great a pursuing army, the remaining Egyptians feared lest the Hebrews return, and crush their remnants with great ease. Then was fulfilled what above, when he had said, And he increased his people exceedingly, he soon added: And he made it firm over its enemies. For to expound this sentence, set down in one little verse, how it was done, he added the other things which he narrated in this praise of disaster, up to this place, where he says, Egypt was glad at their departure, because the fear of them fell upon them; as it were assigning what he had proposed, that he made his people firm over its enemies.

30. [v. 39.] Accordingly now he tells what divine benefits were conferred on them as they journeyed in the wilderness. He spread out a cloud for their protection, and fire that it might shine for them by night. These things are as manifest as they are known.

31. [v. 40.] They asked, and the quail came. They did not desire the quail, but flesh. But because the quail too is flesh, and in this psalm he does not speak of the embittering of those in whom God is not well pleased, but of the faith of the elect, which is the true seed of Abraham; they themselves are to be understood as having asked that there might come that whence the murmur of the embittered might be put down. Now in the verse that follows, And he satisfied them with the bread of heaven, he indeed did not name manna, but it is obscure to no one who reads those Scriptures.

32. [v. 41.] He broke open the rock, and waters flowed; rivers went forth in the dry ground. And this deed is understood as quickly as it is read.

33. [vv. 42-44.] But by all these benefits of his, God commends the merit of faith in Abraham. For there follows and he says: Because he was mindful of his holy word, which he had toward Abraham his servant. And he led out his people in exultation, and his chosen ones in gladness. What he says, his people; this he repeated, his chosen ones: and what he says, in exultation; this he repeated, in gladness. And he gave them the regions of the nations, and they possessed the labors of the peoples. What are the regions of the nations; these are the labors of the peoples: and what was said, he gave them; this was repeated, they possessed.

34. [v. 45.] And as if we were asking for what good these things were given, lest this very thing be supposed the highest good, that this prosperity of temporal things was given to the people of God; he immediately referred it to something else, where the highest good must be sought: That they may keep, he says, his justifications, and seek out his law. Where it is to be understood that the servants of God and the chosen sons of the promise, the true and germane seed of Abraham, imitating the faith of Abraham, receive these earthly goods from God for this reason, that they may not flow loose in luxury in them, or grow torpid in perverse security; but that they may have all these things prepared by the divine mercy, in the seeking of which they could be occupied with the most busy labors, that they may be free for that whence the eternal good can be acquired, that is: That they may keep his justifications, and seek out his law. Finally, since he wished such men here to be understood as the seed of Abraham, who would truly be the seed of Abraham, such as certainly were not lacking even in that people: which the apostle Paul too sufficiently shows, when he says, But God was not well pleased with all of them (1 Cor 10:5); for if not with all, surely there were certain there in whom God was well pleased: because, then, this psalm commends such, he said nothing here of the iniquities and provocations and embittering of those in whom God is not well pleased. But because to the wicked too not only the justice, but also the mercy of God almighty and clement appeared; of these the following psalm speaks with the praises of God. And yet both were in one people, nor did those defile these by the contagion of their iniquities. For the Lord knows who are his: and if in this age he cannot separate from the unjust, let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity (2 Tim 2:19).

35. So that, as it were in the body of this psalm, we may commend its as it were hidden soul, that is, in the as it were outer words the inner understanding: it seems to me that the seed of Abraham is admonished, who are all the sons of the promise pertaining to the eternal inheritance of the eternal covenant, to choose God himself as it were their very inheritance, and to worship him freely, that is, for his own sake, not for any profit of reward outside himself; and to do this praising, calling upon him, announcing him, working well through faith not to their own, but to his glory, rejoicing in hope, fervent in love. All this is sounded by these verses: Confess to the Lord, and call upon his name, announce among the nations his works. Sing to him, and sing psalms to him, tell all his wonders. Be praised in his holy name; let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord, and be confirmed; seek his face always.

36. Then, to nourish the hearts of the little ones, that they may be strengthened in faith, from the Patriarchs are set forth examples both of their faith and of God's promise, that by imitating and hoping we may be their seed, not from the nation of the Hebrews alone, but as many as receive this grace in all the earth. All of which is contained in these verses: Remember his wonders which he did, his prodigies and the judgments of his mouth. Seed of Abraham his servants, sons of Jacob his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God, in all the earth are his judgments. He was mindful forever of his covenant, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations. Which he arranged with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac. And he established it for Jacob himself as a precept; and for Israel himself as an eternal covenant, saying: To you I will give the land of Canaan, the cord of your inheritance. All of which, according to my small measure, I have expounded how they were to be taken.

37. Here it occurred to a mind of little faith: If, then, God is to be worshiped freely, and as the inheritance of the eternal covenant is to be sought from himself; does he not, even by the multiplication of his own mercy, fail to desert this mortal life of those who seek him, and their temporal needs? For listen attentively to what he bestowed on our fathers, both those in whom he set examples of faith, and those who, propagated from their flesh, also imitated their faith. When they themselves were few in number, very few and sojourners in it: that is, in the land of Canaan. And they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people. He did not leave a man to harm them, and he reproved kings for their sake. Do not touch my anointed ones, and do not deal maliciously with my prophets.

38. But if you ask how they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people, hear: And he called a famine upon the land, he broke every support of bread. He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold as a servant. They humbled his feet in fetters; iron passed through his soul, until his word came. The eloquence of the Lord set him on fire: the king sent, and loosed him; the prince of peoples, and let him go. He set him lord of his house, and prince of all his possession. That he might instruct his princes like himself, and teach his elders prudence. And Israel entered into Egypt, and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Ham. Behold how they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people.

39. And he increased his people exceedingly, and made it firm over its enemies. But if you wish to know how he made it firm over its enemies, hear: He turned their heart, that they hated his people, and dealt deceitfully with his servants. He sent Moses his servant, Aaron whom he chose, him. He set in them the words of his signs, and of his prodigies in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark, and they exacerbated his words. He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. Their land gave forth frogs, in the inner chambers of their kings. He spoke, and there came the dog-fly and the gnats in all their borders. He made their rains hail, a burning fire in their land. And he struck their vines and their fig trees, and broke every tree of their borders. He spoke, and there came the locust and the caterpillar, of which there was no number. And it ate all the hay in their land, and ate all the fruit of their land. And he struck every firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their labor. And he led them out in silver and gold, and there was not in their tribes one infirm. Egypt was glad at their departure, because the fear of them fell upon them. Behold how he made his people firm over its enemies.

40. But while his justice inflicted these evils on their enemies; what his mercy lavished even of temporal things on them, hear: He spread out a cloud for their protection, and fire that it might shine for them by night. They asked, and the quail came, and he satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He broke open the rock, and waters flowed; rivers went forth in the dry ground. Because he was mindful of his holy word, which he had toward Abraham his servant. And he led out his people in exultation, and his chosen ones in gladness. And he gave them the regions of the nations, and they possessed the labors of the peoples. Not that they should worship him because of these things, but that they should refer and turn these things too to the eternal good; that is: That they may keep his justifications, and seek out his law. Whatever other goods, then, God gives, are to be referred to the free worship of him: but the worship of him itself is not to be referred to other goods which God gives; for then it will be free. Provoking to which contest, the enemy dared to say to God: Does Job worship God for nothing? (Job 1:9) Further, if Joseph, sold as a servant, and humbled, and exalted, made a way to temporal goods for the people of God, that it might be made firm over its enemies; how much more does Jesus, sold and humbled by his brothers according to the flesh, and exalted in the heavens, make a way to eternal goods for the people of God, triumphing over the devil and his angels? Hear, then, O seed of Abraham, not glorying in the flesh, but imitating his faith; hear, O servants of God, and chosen of God, having the promise of the present life and of the future. If temptations are hard in this age, think of Joseph in prison, of Jesus on the cross. If the prosperity of temporal things is at hand, use it not for its own sake before God, but use it for the sake of God: and do not suppose that he is worshiped by his worshipers for the necessities of this life, which he gives even to his blasphemers; but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (See Matt 6:33).

Exposition of Psalm 105

1. The hundred and fifth psalm too is itself prefaced with Alleluia: and this twice. But some say that one Alleluia pertains to the end of the preceding psalm, the other to the beginning of this one. And they assert this, that all the Alleluiatic psalms have Alleluia at the end, not all at the head: whence whatever psalm does not have Alleluia at the end, they hold that it ought not to have it at the head either; but what seems to be at its head pertains to the end of the preceding one. But we, until they persuade us by some certain proofs that this is true, follow the custom of many, who, wherever they read Alleluia, attribute it to that psalm at whose head they find it. For there are very few manuscripts (which indeed I have found in none of the Greek ones I was able to inspect) that have Alleluia at the end of the hundred and fiftieth psalm; after which there is now none that pertains to the same canon. But not even this could prescribe to custom, even if all manuscripts had it. For it could be that, for some reason of the praise of God, the whole book of Psalms, which is said to consist of five books (for where it is written, So be it, so be it, there they say are the ends of the books), after all that has been sung, is closed at the last with Alleluia: nor do I see it necessary, because of the end of the hundred and fiftieth psalm, that all the Alleluiatic psalms have Alleluia at the end. But when at the head of a psalm the Alleluia is doubled, why the Lord sometimes once, sometimes twice says Amen, and in that way Alleluia cannot sometimes once, sometimes twice be said, I do not know: especially since, after the mark of the number by which the psalm is inscribed as to which it is, like this hundred and fifth, both Alleluias are set. But one ought to have been set before the number itself, if it pertains to the end of the preceding one; and after the number of the Psalm the other Alleluia written, which pertains to the Psalm of that number. But perhaps in this too unskilled custom has prevailed, and something can be brought forward which we do not yet know, whence the judgment of truth ought rather to teach us than the prejudice of custom. Now, however, before we learn this thoroughly, wherever after the number of the psalm, whether once or twice, we find Alleluia written, according to the most celebrated custom of the Church, we attribute it to that psalm which is prefaced with the same number; confessing that we both believe the secrets of all the titles which are in the Psalms, and of the order of those same Psalms, to be great, and that we have not yet been able, as we wish, to penetrate them.

2. But I see these two, the hundred and fourth and the hundred and fifth, so joined to each other, that in one of them, which precedes, the people of God is commended in his elect, of whom there is no complaint, who I judge were there in whom God was well pleased: but in this one which follows, those are commemorated who in the same people embittered him; and yet not even to them was the mercy of God lacking. But these things are said from the person of those who, converted, pray for pardon; and the examples of those are commemorated to whom, even sinners, the rich mercy of God appeared. This psalm too, then, begins as that one: Confess to the Lord. But there follows: And call upon his name; but here: For he is good, for his mercy is unto the age. Wherefore here indeed even a confession of sins can be understood; for after a few verses there follows too: We have sinned with our fathers, we have acted unjustly, we have committed iniquity: but in that he says, For he is good, for his mercy is unto the age, it is certainly the praise of God, and in his praise a confession. Although even when each one confesses his own sins, he ought to confess with the praise of God; nor otherwise is the confession of sins pious unless it is not despairing, and asks the mercy of God. It has, then, his praise, whether even in words, when it calls him good and merciful; or in the affection alone, when it believes this. For even that publican, of whom those words alone were commemorated, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13), though he did not say, "Because you are good and merciful," or something of the sort; yet he would not say that, unless he believed this; since he prayed with hope, which could not be without that faith. There can be, then, a true and pious praise of God, where there is no confession of sins; which praise is much more frequently called confession in the Scriptures: but there is no pious and useful confession of sins, where God is not praised, whether in heart, or even with mouth and speech. But what other manuscripts have, For he is good; others have, For he is sweet: so one Greek word, which is chrestos, a different translation has followed. Likewise what was said, For his mercy is unto the age; the Greek has eis ton aiona, which can also be translated forever. Accordingly, if that mercy is here understood by which no one can be blessed without God; we better take forever: but if it is that mercy which is shown to the wretched, that they may either be consoled in their wretchedness, or even be freed from it; better unto the age, that is, to the end of the age, in which there will not be lacking wretched ones to whom mercy may be shown. Unless perhaps someone dares to say that even to those who will be damned with the devil and his angels, some mercy of God will by no means be lacking; not such as would free them from that damnation, but that it would be somewhat mitigated for them: and so the eternal mercy of God could be understood over their eternal wretchedness. But that some will receive a more tolerable damnation in comparison with certain others, we read; but who would boldly say that the punishment of anyone to whom he has been handed over is mitigated, or has some pause at certain intervals, since that rich man did not deserve one drop? But of this so great a matter we must discuss more diligently at leisure; now, as far as concerns this psalm, let what has been said of it thus far suffice.

3. [vv. 2, 3.] Who will speak the powers of the Lord? Filled with the consideration of the divine works, he who begs his mercy: Who, he says, will speak the powers of the Lord, will make heard all his praises? What was said above is to be understood, so that this sentence too is full: Who will make heard all his praises? that is, who is sufficient to make heard all his praises? Will make heard, he said, that is, will cause them to be heard; showing that the powers of the Lord and his praises are to be spoken in such a way that they be proclaimed to hearers. But who can do all? Or perhaps, because there follows: Blessed are those who keep judgment, and do righteousness in all time, he called those his praises which are understood as his works in his precepts? For it is God, says the Apostle, who works in you (Phil 2:13). And it was said to the seed of Abraham: Sing to him, and sing psalms to him: which we understood as said as if it were said, "Both speak and do good things in his praise." With which two words, that is, of singing and singing psalms, the two following verses agree, so that what was said, Tell all his wonders; this is, Sing to him: but what was said, Be praised in his holy name; this is, Sing psalms to him. To this seed indeed the Lord himself says: Let your works shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt 5:16). Here, then, considering the very precepts of God, the works of which precepts are the praises of him who works in his own, he says: Who will speak the powers of the Lord? since he works these things ineffably. Who will make heard all his praises? that is, who, when he has heard, does all his praises? which are the works of his precepts. Because, insofar as they are done—even if not all the things that are heard are done—he is to be praised, who works in us both to will and to work, for his good will (Phil 2:13). Therefore, though he could say, All his commandments, or, all the works of his commandments; he preferred to say, his praises: because, as was said, insofar as they are done, he himself is to be praised. Yet these praises, who is sufficient to make heard? that is, when they have been heard, who is fit to do all?

4. Blessed are those who keep judgment, and do righteousness in all time: certainly from when they begin and live in time. For he who perseveres to the end, he will be saved. But it can seem a repetition of the same sentence, so that to do righteousness is the same as to keep judgment: so that even in the earlier verse is understood, in all time; as in the later is understood, blessed; and, the understood words being restored, it is said thus: Blessed are those who keep judgment in all time, blessed are those who do righteousness in all time. But unless there were some difference between judgment and righteousness, it would not be said in another psalm: Until righteousness be turned into judgment (Ps 94:15 (93:15)). Scripture indeed loves to set these two together: as is, Righteousness and judgment are the direction of his seat (Ps 89:14 (88:15)); and that: And he will bring forth your righteousness as light, and your judgment as noonday (Ps 37:6 (36:6)); when there too a repetition of the same sentence seems to appear. And perhaps because of the nearness of signification one can even be set for the other, either judgment for righteousness, or righteousness for judgment: yet if they are spoken properly, I do not doubt that there is some difference, so that he is said to keep judgment who judges rightly, but to do righteousness who acts rightly. Nor do I think it absurd to understand, according to what was said, Until righteousness be turned into judgment, that here too those are called blessed who keep judgment in faith, do righteousness in work. For a time will come that the judgment which is now kept in faith will also be exercised in work, when righteousness will have been turned into judgment, that is, when the just will have received the power of judging rightly those by whom they are now not rightly judged. Whence elsewhere the body of Christ itself is understood to say: When I have received the time, I will judge righteousnesses (Ps 75:2 (74:3)). Which would be said more word for word, I will judge equities. But he did not say: When I have received the time, I will do righteousness; because it is to be done in all time, as he says here too: Those who do righteousness in all time.

5. [vv. 4, 5.] Then, because God justifies, that is, makes just, by healing them from their iniquities, there follows a prayer: Remember us, O Lord, in the good pleasure of your people: that is, that we may be among those in whom you are well pleased; because God is not well pleased with all of them. Visit us in your salvation. For he is the Savior, in whom sins are forgiven, and souls healed, that they may be able to keep judgment, and do righteousness; whom, since those who speak these things understood to be blessed, they consequently ask this for themselves in prayer. Of this salvation it is said elsewhere: That we may know on earth your way: and as if we were asking on what earth, there follows: Among all the nations; again, as if we were asking what way, there follows: Your salvation (Ps 67:2 (66:3)). For of him the old man Simeon said: For my eyes have seen your salvation (Luke 2:30); who said of himself: I am the way (John 14:6). Visit, then, us in your salvation, that is, in your Christ. To see in the goodness of your elect, to rejoice in the gladness of your nation: that is, visit us for this in your salvation, that we may see in the goodness of your elect, and rejoice in the gladness of your nation. But what is here set, in goodness; other manuscripts have, in sweetness: as that, For he is good; others have, For he is sweet. But it is the very same word in the Greek that is read elsewhere too: The Lord will give sweetness (Ps 85:12 (84:13)); which some too have translated goodness, some kindness. But what is it, Visit us, that we may see in the goodness of your elect, that is, in that goodness which you bestow on your elect; except that we should not remain blind, like those to whom it was said: But now you say: We see; your sin remains (John 9:41)? For the Lord enlightens the blind (Ps 146:8 (145:8)), not by their merits, but in the goodness of his elect, that is, which he shows or gives to his elect: as the salvation of my countenance, not from myself, but my God (Ps 42:11 (41:12)); and we say our daily bread, but yet we add, give us (Matt 6:11). Visit, then, us in your salvation, to see, that is, that we may see, in the goodness of your elect; to rejoice, that is, that we may rejoice, in the gladness of your nation. We ought to understand the one nation of God to be the whole seed of Abraham; but the sons of the promise, not of the flesh. These, then, whose voice it is, desire to have the gladness of the same nation. And what is the gladness of this nation, except its God? To whom it is said: My exultation, redeem me (Ps 32:7 (31:7)): and to whom it is said: The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord; you have given gladness into my heart (Ps 4:6-7 (4:7-8)); namely, the highest, true, unchangeable, and beatifying good, which God himself is. That you may be praised with your inheritance. I wonder that this verse is so translated in many manuscripts, since there is one and the same Greek expression in these three verses, so that if this is rightly said which is read, That you may be praised with your inheritance; it could rightly be said, That you may see in the goodness of your elect, and rejoice in the gladness of your nation: the whole sense being woven thus: Visit us in your salvation, that you may see in the goodness of your elect, that you may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, and be praised with your inheritance. But according to what we said, Visit us, that we may see in the goodness of your elect, and rejoice in the gladness of your nation; consequently here too it ought to have been said, That we may be praised with your inheritance: to which inheritance it was said, Be praised in his holy name (Ps 105:3 (104:3)). But further, since this expression seems ambiguous; if that meaning is true by which the translators preferred to say, That you may be praised; then the two earlier verses too are to be understood thus, because, as I said, there is one Greek expression in these three verses: so that this whole is taken as said thus: Visit us in your salvation, that you may see in the goodness of your elect, that is, for this visit us, that you may make us be there, and there see us; that you may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that is, that you be said to rejoice, when they rejoice from you; that you may be praised with your inheritance, that is, that you be praised with it, since it is not praised except for your sake. Whether, then, in that way or in this it is to be understood, what was said, to see, to rejoice, to be praised; for this reason they desire to be visited in the salvation of God, that is, in his Christ, that they may not be estranged from his people, and from those in whom God is well pleased.

6. [vv. 6, 7.] But what they next confess, let us hear: We have sinned with our fathers, we have acted unjustly, we have committed iniquity. What is it, with our fathers? Or, as the Epistle to the Hebrews has, that Levi too was tithed with Abraham, since he was in his loins when he gave tithes to the priest Melchizedek; so these too sinned with their fathers, in whose loins they were when those fathers were in Egypt? For those who were at that time when this psalm was written, and especially their descendants (because it could either be said by those who were then, or be prophesied about those who would be afterward), were far from the age of those who sinned in Egypt, not understanding the wonders of God. For this follows, expounding how they sinned with their fathers: Our fathers, he says, in Egypt did not understand your wonders; and the rest, which he commemorates much of their sins. Or is it rather to be taken thus, what he says, We have sinned with our fathers, as if he said: We have sinned as our fathers did, namely by imitating their sins? But if it is so, it must be supported by some example of such an expression: which, when I sought it for the present, did not occur to me, that anyone says he sinned with that man, or did something with that man, whom in a similar deed he imitated even after much time.

7. What is it, then: Our fathers did not understand your wonders; except, they did not come to know what through those wonders you wished to bestow on them? What, certainly, except eternal life, and the not temporal but unchangeable good, which through patience is awaited? Therefore impatiently they murmured, and were embittered, and sought to be made blessed by present goods, deceitful and fleeting. They were not mindful of the multitude of your mercy. He reproves both the understanding, and the memory. For there was need of understanding, that they might think to the eternity of which goods God was calling them through those temporal things: but of memory, that they might at least not forget the wonders done temporally, and faithfully presume that, by the same power they had already experienced, God would free them from the persecution of their enemies; but they forgot what he had bestowed on them in Egypt, to crush their enemies through such great prodigies. And they provoked, going up in the sea, the Red Sea. The manuscript I was looking at had it thus: and indeed by those two last words, where it was said, the Red Sea, a star had been prefixed; by which are signified the things that are in the Hebrew, and are not in the translation of the Seventy. But more manuscripts, which I was able to inspect, both Greek and Latin, have it thus: And they provoked, or, what is more expressed from the Greek: And they embittered, going up in the Red Sea. Whoever reads that history, when they went out of Egypt, and crossed through the Red Sea, grieves at their unbelief, in how great trepidation and despair they were, after so many and so great recent miracles in Egypt; of the multitude of whose mercy of God he says they were not mindful. But they went up was said for this reason, that such is the position of the land, that going from the land of Canaan into Egypt is called a descent, and from there into it an ascent. It is to be noted indeed how Scripture wished to blame both not understanding what is to be understood, and not remembering what is to be retained in memory: which men are unwilling to be reckoned to their own fault, for no other end than that they may pray less, and be less humble to God, in whose sight they should confess what they are, and, help obtained, be able to be what they are not. For even sins of ignorance or negligence are better accused that they may perish, than excused that they may remain; and are better purged by calling upon God, than confirmed by provoking him.

8. [v. 8.] Yet he adds that God did not act according to their unbelief. And he saved them, he says, for his name's sake, that he might make known his power: not for any good merits of theirs.

9. [v. 9.] And he rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up. We do not read of any voice sent from heaven by which the sea was rebuked; but he called the divine power by which it was done a rebuke: unless perhaps someone says it was rebuked secretly, in such a way that the water could hear, and men could not. Very hidden and abstruse is the force by which God acts, so that even those things which lack perception immediately obey his will. And he led them out in the deeps, as in a desert. By deeps he meant a multitude of waters. For some, wishing to translate this whole little verse, said: And he led them out in many waters. What is it, then, in the deeps, as in a desert, except that it had been made, by dryness, like a desert, where there had been deeps of waters?

10. [v. 10.] And he saved them from the hand of those who hated them. This verse some translated by a circumlocution, avoiding less Latin words: And he made them safe from the hand of those who hated them. And he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. What price was given in this redemption? Or is it a prophecy, that this was done in figure of Baptism, where we are redeemed from the hand of the devil at a great price, which is the blood of Christ? Whence not by just any sea, but by the Red Sea this was more fittingly figured: for blood has a red color.

11. [v. 11.] And the water covered those who troubled them; not one of them remained: not of all the Egyptians, but of those who were pursuing the departed, desiring to seize or kill them.

12. [v. 12.] And they believed in his words. The expression seems less Latin, because he does not say: His words, or, in his words (accusative), but, in his words (ablative); yet it is most usual in the Scriptures. And they praised his praise. Such are the expressions, when we say: He served this servitude, he lived such a life. But he commemorates that most known praise of God, where it is said: Let us sing to the Lord; for he is gloriously magnified: horse and rider he cast into the sea (Exod 15:1).

13. [v. 13.] They quickly did, they forgot his works. Other manuscripts have it more intelligibly: They hastened, they forgot his works: they did not endure his counsel. For they ought to have considered that God's so great works toward them were not empty, but called to some endless happiness, which is to be endured through patience; but they hastened to be made blessed by temporal things, which for this reason confer true happiness on no one, because they do not extinguish insatiable cupidity: For whoever drinks, he says, of this water, will thirst again (John 4:13).

14. [v. 14.] Finally: And they desired a desire in the wilderness, and tempted God in the waterless place. What is it, in the wilderness; this was repeated, in the waterless place, that is, in a place without water: but what, they desired a desire; this, they tempted God. Such indeed is the expression: They desired a desire; as the earlier: They praised praise.

15. [v. 15.] And he gave them their petition: that is, what they asked by petition. And he sent fullness into their soul. Nor did he therefore make them blessed; because that was not the fullness of which it is said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5:6). And so in this place he said "soul" not according to that by which it is rational, but according to that by which it makes a body an animate animal. To the sustenance of which animal pertain food and drink, according to what is said in the Gospel: Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than the garment? (Matt 6:25) as if to feed pertains to the soul, to be clothed to the body. According to this it is said in Isaiah: Why is it that we have fasted, and you did not see; we have defrauded our souls, and you did not know? (Isa 58:3) The people sinning in the wilderness is afflicted with many plagues.

16. [v. 16.] And they provoked Moses in the camp, Aaron the holy one of the Lord. What provoking, or, as others more expressly translated, embittering, he means, the consequent things sufficiently indicate.

17. [v. 17.] It was opened, he says, and swallowed up Dathan, and covered over the congregation of Abiram. What is, swallowed up; this is, covered over. But of both, that is, Dathan and Abiram, there was one cause of a most proud and sacrilegious schism.

18. [v. 18.] And fire blazed up in their synagogue. flame burned up the sinners. This is not in the Scriptures a usual name for those who, although they live justly and praiseworthily, are not without sin. For rather, just as there is a difference between those who deride and derisers, between those who murmur and murmurers, between those who write and writers, and other similar things; so Scripture is wont to call "sinners" those who are very wicked and burdened with great packs of sins.

19. [vv. 19, 20.] And they made a calf in Horeb; and adored the graven thing. And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf eating hay. He does not say, into a likeness (accusative), but, in the likeness (ablative). Such is the expression as that where he says: And they believed in his words. Elegantly indeed he does not say: And they changed the glory of God, although they did this; as the Apostle too speaks: And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man (Rom 1:23): but he said their glory. For God was their glory, if they had endured his counsel, and not hastened; to whom it is said: My glory, and the one who lifts up my head (Ps 3:3 (3:4)). This their glory, that is, God, they changed into the likeness of a calf eating hay, that they might be eaten by him by whom are eaten those who taste according to the flesh: For all flesh is hay (Isa 40:6).

20. [vv. 21, 22.] They forgot God who saved them. How did he save them? Who did great things in Egypt, wonders in the land of Ham, terrible things in the Red Sea. The things that are wonders, the same are terrible; for there is no wonder without a certain dread: although these things could be called terrible from this too, that they afflicted the adversaries, and showed these people what they ought to fear.

21. [v. 23.] And he said that he would destroy them. Because they forgot him who made them safe, doing great things, and made and adored the graven thing, by this certainly so monstrous a crime and incredible impiety they were worthy to perish. He said, then, that he would destroy them; if Moses his chosen one had not stood in the breaking in his sight. He did not say that he stood in the breaking, as if to break the wrath of God; but in the breaking, that is, in the blow by which they were to be struck: that is, unless he had set himself before them, saying: If you forgive them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of your book (Exod 32:32). Where it was shown how much the intercession of the saints avails for others with God. For Moses, secure of the justice of God, by which he could not blot him out, obtained mercy, that he might not blot out those whom he could justly. So he stood in the breaking in his sight, to turn away his wrath, lest he destroy them.

22. [v. 24.] And they held the desirable land for nothing. But had they seen it? How, then, did they hold for nothing what they had not seen, except as there follows: Nor did they believe in his words? Surely, unless that land signified something great, which land was called flowing with milk and honey, through which visible sacrament it led to invisible grace and the kingdom of heaven those who understood his wonders; in no way would these be blamed, that they held for nothing that land, whose temporal kingdom we too ought to hold for nothing, that we may love the free Jerusalem our mother, which is in heaven, truly desirable. But rather here unbelief is deservedly reproved, because, in that they held the desirable land for nothing, they did not believe the words of God, leading through certain small things to great, and, hastening to be blessed by temporal things, which they tasted according to the flesh, they did not endure, as was said above, his counsel.

23. [v. 25.] And they murmured in their tents; they did not hear the voice of the Lord: vehemently forbidding them from murmuring.

24. [vv. 26, 27.] And he raised his hand over them, to lay them low in the wilderness: and to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the regions.

25. [vv. 28, 29.] Here, before he said that anyone interceded against so great an indignation of God, and in some way appeased him, he went on and added. And they were initiated to Beelphegor; that is, consecrated to the idol of the gentiles: And they ate the sacrifices of the dead. And they provoked him in their inventions, and ruin was multiplied among them. As if he deferred to this the fact that he had raised his hand over them, to lay them low in the wilderness, and to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the regions, that, given over to a reprobate sense, they might commit even that, in which by a more monstrous crime they would be punished with evident justice; as the Apostle says: And as they did not approve to have God in knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things that are not fitting (Rom 1:28).

26. [v. 30.] Finally, so great was their crime, that they were consecrated to an idol, and ate the sacrifices of the dead (that is, because the gentiles sacrificed to dead men as if to gods), that God was unwilling to be appeased otherwise, except in the way that Phinehas the priest appeased him, who killed alike the male and female caught in an adulterous embrace. But if he had done this out of hatred of them, not out of love, while the zeal of the house of God consumed him, it would not be reckoned to him for righteousness. For by this deed, that people of which there was to be a greater destruction, as if one man, he struck as it were with a rod, that he might save his soul from death. The Lord Christ indeed willed the discipline to be milder, the New Testament revealed; but more dreadful is the threat of Gehenna, which then, in those threats of God, we do not read, according to the dispensation of the times. Ruin was multiplied, then, among them, when for their grave sins they were gravely laid waste. And Phinehas stood, and appeased, and the shaking ceased. Briefly he said the whole, because here he does not teach those who do not know, but commemorates to those who know. But what is set here, "shaking," is above the "breaking": for in the Greek it is one word.

27. [v. 31.] And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, unto generation and generation, forever. God reckoned this to his priest for righteousness, not only as long as there is a generation, but forever; who searches the heart, and knows how to weigh with how great a love of the people it was done.

28. [vv. 32, 33.] And they provoked him at the water of contradiction, and Moses was vexed because of them; for they exacerbated his spirit. And he made a distinction with his lips. What is it, he made a distinction? As if God could not do that, who had already done so great things, that water flow forth from the rock. For doubtingly he struck the rock with the rod, and therefore he distinguished this miracle from the other miracles, in which he had not doubted. From this he offended, from this he deserved to hear that he should die, and not enter the land of promise. For, disturbed by the murmur of the unbelieving people, he did not hold the trust such as he ought. To whom yet God, as to his chosen one, even after his death gives good testimony, that we may understand that that wavering of his faith was corrected by this punishment alone, that he was not permitted to enter into that land where he himself was leading the people. But far be it that we believe him estranged from the kingdom of the grace of God, which that land of promise signified, whence milk and honey were said to flow. For this is rather the eternal covenant which he arranged with Abraham, not according to the flesh our father, but according to faith.

29. [vv. 34-36.] But those of whose iniquities this psalm speaks, when they had entered into that temporal land of promise, did not destroy the nations, which the Lord had said to them. And they were mingled among the nations, and learned their works, and served their graven things; and it became a scandal to them. That they did not destroy them, but were mingled with them, became a scandal to them.

30. [vv. 37, 40.] And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons: and they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, which they sacrificed to the graven things of Canaan. That they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons and idols, that history does not narrate; but neither can this psalm lie, nor the Prophets, who say this in many places of their rebukes. But that the gentiles had this custom, even their own writings did not keep silent.

31. But what is it that follows? And the land was slain in bloods. For we would suppose an error of the copyist, and would say that for what is stained (infecta) he made slain (interfecta), unless we had the benefit of God, who willed his Scriptures to be in many languages; and, the Greek manuscripts inspected, we would see it written thus: The land was slain in bloods. What is it, then, The land was slain, unless this be referred to the men who dwelt in the land, by a tropical expression, by which is signified, through that which contains, that which is contained, as we call a house bad, in which the bad dwell, and good, in which the good? For they themselves were slaying their own souls by sacrificing their sons, and by shedding the blood of the little ones, who were strangers to the consent of that crime: whence it was said, They shed innocent blood. Therefore: The land was slain in bloods, and was contaminated in their works, when they themselves were slain in soul, and contaminated in their works. And they fornicated in their inventions. These he calls inventions, which the Greeks call epitedeumata: for this word is in the Greek manuscripts both in this place, and above, where it was said, They provoked him in their inventions; since both there and here he calls them inventions in which they imitated others. Let us not, then, suppose them so called inventions, as if instituted by themselves, with no preceding example in others which they imitated. Whence other translators of ours preferred to say, not inventions, but "pursuits"; others, "affections," or "affectations," others "pleasures": and the very same who said inventions, in another place set "pursuits." This I wished to commemorate, lest the name of invention raise a question in that matter which they did not devise from themselves, but imitated from others.

32. [vv. 40-43.] And the Lord was angry with fury at his people. Some of our translators were unwilling to set "anger" for what the Greek has thymos; but some set "mind"; some translated it "indignation," some "spirit." But whichever of these is said, disturbance does not befall God; but, transferred from custom, the power of taking vengeance received this name.

33. And he abominated his inheritance. And he handed them over into the hands of the nations, and those who hated them had dominion over them: and their enemies troubled them, and they were humbled under their hands. Since he called them the inheritance of God, it is manifest that he abominated them and handed them over into the hands of their enemies not for destruction, but for discipline. Finally there follows: Often he freed them.

34. But they exacerbated him in their counsel. This is what he said above: They did not endure his counsel. But the counsel of a man is ruinous to the man himself, by which he seeks the things that are his own, not the things that are God's. In whose inheritance—which is that he himself is for us, when he deigns to offer himself to be enjoyed—we will suffer no narrows of fellowship with the saints, through love of our own thing as it were private. For that most glorious city, having obtained the promised inheritance, in which no one will die, no one will be born, will not have citizens who each rejoice in their own things, because God will be all in all. Whose fellowship whoever in this pilgrimage has faithfully and ardently desired, grows accustomed to prefer common things to private, not seeking his own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's: lest, wise for himself and consulting for himself, he exacerbate God by his counsel; but, hoping for what he does not see, let him not hasten to be made blessed by the things that are seen, and, patiently awaiting that eternal thing which is not seen, let him follow in his promises the counsel of him whose help he prays for in his temptations. So he will be both humble in his confessions, lest he become like those of whom it is said, And they were humbled in their iniquities.

35. [vv. 44, 45.] Yet God, full of mercy, did not neglect them; And he saw when they were troubled, when he heard their prayer. And he was mindful of his covenant, and he repented according to the multitude of his mercy. He repented was said, because he changed what he seemed about to do, namely to destroy them. And with God indeed all things are arranged and fixed; nor does he do anything as if by sudden counsel, which he did not foreknow from eternity that he would do: but in the temporal motions of the creation, which he governs wonderfully, he himself not moved temporally, as if by a sudden will, is said to do what, by the ordered causes of things, he arranged by the unchangeableness of his most secret counsel, by which, each thing being known in its own times, he both makes things present, and has already made things future. And for these things who is fit? Let us hear, then, Scripture, humbly saying lofty things, when it both holds out things to be taken for the nourishing of the little ones, and proposes things to be scrutinized for the exercising of the greater. And he saw when they were troubled, when he heard their prayer; and he was mindful of his covenant: certainly of the eternal covenant which he arranged with Abraham, not of the old which is abolished, but of the new which is hidden even in the old. And he repented according to the multitude of his mercy. He did what he had arranged, but he had foreknown that he would grant it to those troubled and praying; because even their prayer itself, when it was not yet, but was to be, was without doubt not hidden from God.

36. [v. 46.] And he gave them over to mercies. That they might be not vessels of wrath, but vessels of mercy. But I think mercies were said in the plural, into which he gave them, because each one has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that. He gave, then, them over to mercies, in the sight of all who had taken them captive. Come now, whoever you are who read these things, and by reading in the apostolic writings, and by scrutinizing in the prophetic, come to know the grace of God by which we are redeemed unto eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, and see the Old Testament revealed in the New, the New veiled in the Old; recall whom the apostle Paul called the prince of the power of the air, who works in the sons of unbelief (Eph 2:2), and that where he says of certain men, that they may recover from the snares of the devil, captured by him according to his will (2 Tim 2:26): and the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, where, casting him out of the hearts of the faithful, he says, Now the prince of this world is cast out (John 12:31); and likewise the Apostle himself saying: Who rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love (Col 1:13). Having reasoned these and such things, turn your mind also to the writings of the Old Testament, and see what is sung in that psalm whose title is: When the house was being built after the captivity: for there it is said: Sing to the Lord a new song (Ps 96:1 (95:1)). And lest you suppose it pertains only to the people of the Jews: Sing, he says, to the Lord, all the earth; sing to the Lord, bless his name, announce, or rather, announce well, or rather, that I may translate the very word which is set in the Greek, evangelize day from day, his salvation (Ps 96:1-2 (95:1-2)). For from this the Gospel is named, in which is announced day from day, the Lord Christ, light from light, the Son from the Father. For this is too his salvation; because the salvation of God is Christ, as we have already shown above. Announce among the nations his glory, among all peoples his wonders. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised, terrible above all gods: for all the gods of the nations are demons (Ps 96:3-5 (95:3-5)). These enemies, then, with their king the devil, held the people of God captive. From which captivity, when we are redeemed, and the prince of this world is cast out, the house is built after the captivity: whose cornerstone is Christ, who founded the two in himself, into one new man, making peace, which, coming day from day, he evangelized to those who were near, and to those who were far off, making both one; and bringing other sheep which are not of this fold, that there may be one flock and one shepherd. And so God gave over to mercies his predestined ones; because it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy (Rom 9:16): in the sight of all who had taken them captive. These enemies, then, the devil and his angels, had taken captive those predestined to the kingdom and glory of God: but, cast out by our Redeemer, those who were wont to have dominion over the unbelievers within, assail the faithful from without. But they assail, they do not overcome, those who lay hold of the tower of strength from the face of the enemy. But that they may assail, they perceive that there are in us remnants of weakness, on account of which we say, Forgive us our debts; on account of which we say, Lead us not into temptation, but free us from evil (Matt 6:12-13). These enemies, then, cast out, the Lord Christ accomplished healings in the body, of which the head is the Savior himself of the body, that in that very body of his the third thing might be consummated. For so he said: Behold, I cast out demons, and accomplish healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am consummated (See Luke 13:32); that is, I am perfected, all of us meeting in the perfect man, in the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ.

37. [vv. 47, 48.] And so, the demons cast out by whom we were held captive, he accomplishes healings. Therefore here too, when he had said, And he gave them over to mercies, in the sight of all who had taken them captive; as if, the demons who had taken them being cast out, a prayer is made that he accomplish healings. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the nations, or, as other manuscripts have, from the gentiles; that we may confess to your holy name, and glory in your praise. Then briefly he subjoined the praise itself: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, from the age and unto the age: which we understand, from eternity to eternity; because he will be praised without end by those of whom it is said: Blessed are those who dwell in your house, for ages of ages they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)). This is the third consummation of the body of Christ, the demons cast out and the healings accomplished, even to the immortality of that very body, the eternal kingdom of those perfectly praising, because perfectly loving: but perfectly loving, because contemplating face to face. For then will be perfected what at the beginning of this psalm was prayed: Remember us, O Lord, in the good pleasure of your people; visit us in your salvation, to see in the goodness of your elect, to rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that you may be praised with your inheritance. For he gathers not only from the gentiles the sheep which had perished of the house of Israel, but also those which are not of that fold; that there may be one flock, as was said, and one shepherd. But the Jews, when they suppose this prophecy to pertain to their own visible kingdom, because they do not know how to rejoice in the hope of invisible goods, are going to fall into the snares of him of whom the Lord says: I came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43). Of whom the apostle Paul says: For the man of sin will be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God. And a little after: Then will be revealed, he says, the wicked one, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the spirit of his mouth, and will make void by the illumination of his presence him whose presence is according to the working of Satan, in all power and signs and lying prodigies, and in all the seduction of iniquity to those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved; and therefore God will send them the working of error, that they may believe a lie, and all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but consented to iniquity (2 Thess 2:3-4, 8-12). Through that apostate, through that one who exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, it seems to me that the people of the carnal Israelites will suppose this prophecy to be fulfilled, by which it was said, Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the gentiles; because, under his leadership, as it were in the sight of their visible enemies, who had visibly taken them captive, they will have visible glory. So they will believe a lie, because they did not receive the love of the truth, so as to desire not carnal goods, but spiritual. For they were so deceived by the devil that they killed Christ, when they said: If we let him go thus, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come, and take away both our place and our nation: when Caiaphas, one of them, since he was high priest of that year, said to them: You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people, and the whole nation not perish. But this, as the Evangelist understood, he did not say of himself, but, since he was high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation; and not only for the nation, that is, for the sheep which had perished of the house of Israel, but that he might gather into one the sons of God who were scattered (John 11:48-52). For he had other sheep which were not of that fold: all these sheep, both of the Israelites and of the gentiles, the devil and his angels had taken captive. And so, the dominion of the devil being driven from them, in the sight of the malign spirits who had taken them captive, that they may be saved and perfected forever, their voice is in the prophecy: Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from the gentiles. Not as the Jews suppose it to be fulfilled through the antichrist, but through Christ our Lord coming in the name of his Father, day from day, his salvation; of whom here too it was said: Visit us in your salvation. And let all the people say: this people of the predestined, of circumcision and of uncircumcision, a holy nation, a people unto adoption: So be it, so be it.

Exposition of Psalm 106

1. This psalm commends to us the compassions of God, proved in us, and therefore sweeter to those who have experienced them. And it would be a wonder if it could be sweet to anyone, except to him who has learned in himself that which he hears in this psalm. Yet it was written not for some one or two, but for the people of God, and set forth for it to recognize itself as it were in a mirror. Whose title is not now to be treated: for it is Alleluia, and twice Alleluia. Which it is our custom to sing solemnly at a certain time, according to the ancient tradition of the Church: for not even this do we sing on certain days without a sacrament. We sing Alleluia indeed on certain days, but we think it every day. For if by this word the praise of God is signified, even if not in the mouth of the flesh, certainly in the mouth of the heart: His praise is always in my mouth (Ps 34:1 (33:2)). But that this title has Alleluia not once, but twice, is not proper to this psalm, but another earlier one too has it so. And as far as appears from its text, that one was sung of the people of Israel; but this is sung of the whole Church of God spread throughout the world. Perhaps not without merit it has Alleluia twice: because of which we cry both Abba, Father. Although Abba is nothing other than Father: yet the Apostle did not in vain say, In whom we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15): except that one wall, coming to the cornerstone, cries, Abba; the other from the other side cries, Father; in that cornerstone certainly, which is our peace, who made both one. Let us see, then, here what we are admonished of, and whence we may rejoice, and whence we may groan, and whence we may ask for help; whence we are deserted, whence we are helped; what we are through ourselves, what through the mercy of God; how our pride is crushed, that his grace may be glorified. Let what I am about to say, if it can be, occur to each man in himself. But I speak to men who walk the way of God, and are set in some spiritual advancement: whence if any perhaps for this reason understand me less, let them find where they are, and by making progress hasten to understanding. But I do not think God will desert our effort, that what we say may reach all, whether the experienced or the inexperienced, so that the experienced may approve, the inexperienced may desire, and my discourse may be sweet to all: which will first be sweet to the Lord, if it is truthful; but it will be truthful, if it is not from myself to me, but from him. So the Psalm began.

2. [v. 1.] Confess to the Lord, for he is sweet, for his mercy is unto the age. Confess this, that he is sweet: if you have tasted, confess. But he cannot confess who was unwilling to taste: for whence will he say that to be sweet which he does not know? But you, if you have tasted how sweet the Lord is: Confess to the Lord, for he is sweet: if you have tasted with eagerness, belch it out by confession. For his mercy is unto the age, that is, forever. For here unto the age is set thus, because in some places of Scripture too, unto the age, that is, what is said in Greek eis ton aiona, is understood as forever. For his mercy is not for a time, and not forever; since this mercy of his is over men for this reason, that they may live with the angels forever.

3. [vv. 2, 3.] Let those say it who were redeemed by the Lord. Redeemed indeed the people of Israel too seems to have been from the land of Egypt, from the hand of slavery, from unfruitful labors, from works of mud: yet let us see whether it is they themselves who say these things, who were freed from Egypt by the Lord. It is not so. But who are these? Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemies. Still anyone can take those too as redeemed from the hand of the enemies, that is, of the Egyptians. Let it be properly expressed who they are for whose sake this psalm wishes these things to be sung. From the regions he gathered them. They can still be the regions of Egypt, for there are many regions even of one province. Let it say openly: From the east and the west, from the north and the sea. These, then, we now understand as redeemed in the whole world. This people of God, freed from great and broad Egypt, is led as it were through the Red Sea, that in Baptism it may finish off the enemies. For by the sacrament as of the Red Sea, namely Baptism consecrated by the blood of Christ, the pursuing Egyptians, the sins, are blotted out; and as you escape, no enemy who pressed you remains. These, then, let them say these things; and let us hear now, brothers (since this people of God is being led) what is done here in the gathering of all the nations redeemed through Christ: not as if these things which are sung happen at once in all, but in each one of the believers; but in that people otherwise. For the whole people, the whole nation from the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, the whole multitude of the house of Israel was once led out of Egypt, once led through the Red Sea, once led through to the land of promise; for all those in whom these things happened were together: But all these things happened to them in figure; and were written for our correction, upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor 10:11). But we, not all at once, but little by little and one by one believing, are gathered into a certain one city, and into one people of God; but in each one of us, even singly, these things happen which are written, they happen in the people. For the people is from individuals, not individuals from the people: for is one man from peoples? But the people is constituted of individual men. Whatever, then, as I speak, you recognize in yourself, whoever you are who have experienced it, do not by thinking as it were remain in yourself, and suppose that it happens in you alone; but believe that these things happen either in all, or in nearly all, who come to this people, and are redeemed from the hand of the enemies by the precious blood.

4. For he is going to repeat constantly what we sang just now: Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men. These verses, as far as I could notice, which you can too, he repeats four times; in which number, as far as we were able, with the Lord helping, to scrutinize, he signifies to us certain four temptations, from which he frees us to whom his compassions are confessed. For suppose a man at first seeking nothing, living according to the old life with seductive security, supposing that there is nothing else after this life that is at some time to be ended; a certain negligent and slothful man, having a heart overwhelmed by the allurements of the world, and lulled to sleep by deadly delights: that this man may be roused to seek the grace of God, that he may become anxious, and as it were wake from sleep, does not the hand of God rouse him? But yet by whom he was roused, he does not know. But he begins now to be God's, when he has come to know the faith of the truth. But before he knows it, he grieves at his error. For he finds himself in error, he wishes to know the truth, he knocks where he can, he tries what he can, he wanders where he can, he suffers even hunger for the truth itself. The first temptation, then, is of error and hunger. When, wearied in this temptation, he cries out to God, he is led through to the way of faith, whence he may begin to journey to the city of rest. He is led, then, to Christ, who said: I am the way (John 14:6).

5. When, then, he has been there, now knowing what he ought to observe, sometimes by attributing much to himself, and as it were presuming on his own strength, he begins to wish to fight against sins, and because of pride to be overcome. He finds himself, then, bound by the difficulties of desires, and unable to walk the way because of the fetters: he feels himself shut in by the difficulty of vices; and, as if a wall of impossibility being raised, and the gates closed, he finds no way to escape so as to live rightly. He now knows how he ought to live: for before he was in error, and suffered hunger for the truth; but now he has received the food of truth, and is set in the way: he hears: Live well, according to what you know; for before you did not know how you should live, now you have received and know. He tries, he cannot; he feels himself bound, he cries out to the Lord. The second temptation, then, is of difficulty in working well, as that first was of error and hunger. He cries out in this too to the Lord: the Lord frees him from his necessities, breaks the bonds of difficulty, sets him in the working of equity. It now begins to be easy for him which had been difficult, to abstain from evils, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to kill, not to commit sacrilege, not to covet another's: there has come to be an ease which had before been a difficulty. The Lord could bestow this without difficulty; but if we had this without difficulty, we would not recognize the giver of this good. For if at first, when he willed, he could, and did not feel the desires struggling against him, nor would the soul, weighed down by its bonds, be dashed about; he would attribute to his own strength what he felt himself able to do, and would not confess to the Lord his compassions.

6. After these two temptations, the first of error and want of the truth, the second of difficulty in working well, a third temptation takes up the man: I speak to one who has now passed these two. For these two, I confess, are known to many. For who does not know that he came from ignorance to the truth, from error to the way, from hunger of wisdom to the word of faith? Then many wrestle with the difficulties of their vices, and, still bound by habit, groan as in an enclosure and fetters. They recognize this temptation too, although they now say, if perhaps they say: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? (Rom 7:24) For see the tightest bonds: The flesh, he says, desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; that you may not do the things that you wish (Gal 5:17). Accordingly, one who has now been helped by the Spirit, that, as he did not wish to be an adulterer, so he is not; as he did not wish to be a thief, so he is not; and all those other things which men wish to conquer, and, often bent, are overcome, so that they cry out to God, that he rescue them from their necessities, and, freed from there, confess to the Lord his compassions: whoever, then, is such, and has conquered those difficulties, and now lives commendably among men, without any complaint of bad morals, is taken up by a third temptation of a certain weariness in the delay of this life, so that sometimes neither to read nor to pray delights him. The third temptation is contrary to the former: for before he was in danger from hunger, afterward from distaste. Whence is this too, except from a certain languor of the soul? Now adultery does not allure you, nor yet does the word of God delight you. Now, after the danger of inexperience and of cupidity, from which two you rejoice to have escaped, see lest weariness and distaste slay you. Nor is this a light temptation: recognize yourself in it, and cry out to the Lord, that he free you here too from your necessities; and when you have been freed from this temptation, let them confess to him his compassions.

7. But freed from error, freed from the difficulty of working well, freed from the weariness and distaste of the word of God, perhaps you will be worthy to have a people committed to you; you may be set at the helm of the ship, to govern the Church. There is the fourth temptation. The storms of the sea shaking the Church disturb the pilot. Finally, those three temptations every pious believer in the people of God can experience; this fourth is ours. For the more we are honored, the more we are in danger. It is to be feared lest the danger of error turn anyone of you from the truth; it is to be feared lest each one's cupidity conquer him, and he choose to follow it, rather than from its difficulties to cry out to the Lord; it is to be feared lest to each one of you the word of God grow less savory, and he die of distaste: but the temptation of governing, the temptation of dangers in ruling the Church, touches us especially. But how will you too be strangers to it, if the whole ship is in danger? Which I said for this reason, lest in this fourth temptation, as if our own (where it is needful that you not cease from prayers, for you are the first to be shipwrecked), you be less anxious, and pray less for us. For what, brothers, because you do not sit at the same helm, do you not sail in the same ship?

8. After these four temptations, four cries, four deliverances, four confessions of the Lord's compassions, generally in this psalm the Church herself is consequently commended; that you may most evidently know of which the Psalm was speaking from the beginning. But she is commended in such a way that the grace of God is preached to us in all things, who resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5): because for this reason he came, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind (John 9:39); because every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low (Luke 3:5; Isa 40:4). This being commended, something is said which may also be understood of the heretics, by whom, as it were by civil wars, the Church is shaken; and the Psalm is concluded, which I have now expounded, more briefly perhaps than you thought. For so far do I think I have expounded this whole somewhat lengthy psalm, that you now expect from me not the office of an expositor, but almost of a reader, if you hold what I said. For I think they are set before your eyes; but, that they may be better commended, let them be briefly repeated. The first temptation of error and hunger for the word; the second of difficulty in conquering desires; the third of weariness and distaste; the fourth of storm and dangers in governing the Churches: and in all these the cries, and the deliverances, and the confessions of the compassions of God. At the end is made the commending of the Church herself, who has both been made safe through the grace of our God, not through her own merit: and the affliction of the enemies is commemorated because of pride; with whom extinguished, the Church was raised up: and because of certain treacheries of diminution from the heretics, and as it were of domestic losses, and from these the divine benefits around the Church; and the conclusion of the Psalm. Let us now read rather than discuss.

9. [vv. 2-9.] Let those say it who were redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemies; from the regions he gathered them, from the east and the west, and the north and the sea. Let the Christians themselves, then, say it, called together from the whole world. They wandered in the wilderness, in the dryness, they did not find the way of the city of habitation. We have heard of a wretched wandering: what of the want? Hungering and thirsting, their soul failed in them. But why did it fail? for what good? For God is not cruel; but he commends himself, which is expedient for us, that, when we fail, he may be asked, and, by helping, be loved. And therefore after this error and hunger and thirst: And they cried to the Lord, when they were troubled; and he rescued them from their necessities. And what did he bestow on them, because they were wandering? And he led them into the right way. They did not find the way of the city of habitation, they burned with hunger and thirst, and failed: And he led them into the right way, that they might go to the city of habitation. How he relieved their hunger and thirst, he does not yet say, but await this too. Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men. Say it, you experienced ones, to the inexperienced, now set in the way, now directed to find the city, now at last freed from hunger and thirst: For he satisfied the empty soul, and filled the hungering soul with good things.

10. [vv. 10-17.] Live well, then; you are now set in the way, you have now heard what you ought to do, what to hope. What else takes you up, since you try and are overcome? Sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, fettered in beggary and iron. Whence this, except that you were attributing to yourself, because you did not recognize the grace of God, because you reproved the counsel of the Lord concerning you? For see what he adds: Because they embittered the eloquences of the Lord; through pride, not knowing the righteousness of the Lord, and wishing to establish their own. And they exacerbated the counsel of the Most High. And their heart was humbled in labors. And now fight against desire. With God ceasing from his help, you can labor, you cannot conquer. And when you have been pressed by your own bad habit, your heart will be humbled in labors; that now, your heart humbled, you may learn to cry, Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? Their heart was humbled, then, in labors; they were made weak, and there was no one to help them. What, then, remains, except why it was done? For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would be wholly from the Law: but Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise from the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But the Law entered in, that the offense might abound (Gal 3:21-22; Rom 5:20). You received the word, you received the precept, and you do not cease to do what you were doing badly; and, the precept received, you increase sins through transgression. O proud one, if you did not know yourself, at least learn yourself humbled: you will cry out, you will be freed from necessity; freed, you will confess the compassions of the Lord. And they cried to the Lord, when they were troubled, and from their necessities he made them safe. They were freed from the second temptation, there remains that of weariness and distaste. But first see what he bestowed on them, freed. "And he led them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds. Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men." Why? what difficulties did he conquer? "Because he crushed the gates of bronze, and broke the bars of iron. He took them up from the way of their iniquity: for because of their injustices they were humbled." Because they attributed it to themselves, not to God: because they established their own righteousness, not knowing the righteousness of God, they were humbled. They found that they could not without the help of him, on whose strength alone they were presuming.

11. [vv. 18-22.] But what other kind remains? Their soul abominated every food. Now they suffer distaste, languish with distaste, are in danger from distaste: unless perhaps you suppose that they could be killed by hunger, and cannot be by distaste. See what follows, when he had said, Their soul abominated every food; lest you should suppose them as it were secure from fullness, and not rather see them dying of distaste: And they drew near, he says, even to the gates of death. What, then, remains? That you should not attribute to yourself the fact that the word of God delights you, nor be puffed up by any arrogance from this, and, greedy for food, proudly leap upon those who are in danger from distaste. Understand that this too was bestowed on you, that it is not from yourself to yourself. For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) Understanding this, then, and in danger from this vice and languor, do what follows: And they cried out to the Lord, when they were troubled, and from their necessities he freed them. And because it was a languor not to be delighted: He sent his word, and healed them. See what evil distaste has; see from what he frees, to whom the one in distaste cries. He sent his word, and healed them: and rescued them. From what? Not from error, not from hunger, not from the difficulty of conquering sins, but from their corruption. It is a certain corruption of the mind, to feel distaste at what is sweet. Therefore for this benefit too, as for the others above: Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men. And let them sacrifice the sacrifice of praise. For now, that he may be praised, the Lord is sweet. And let them tell his works in exultation: not with weariness, not with grief, not with anxiety, not with distaste, but in exultation.

12. [vv. 23-31.] That fourth remains, in which we are all in danger. For we are all in the ship: some work, some are carried; yet together all are both in danger in the tempest, and saved in the harbor. For after all these things there follows: Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing work in many waters: that is, among many peoples. For that waters are often set for peoples, the Apocalypse of John is witness, where John asking what those waters were, it was answered him: They are peoples (Rev 17:15). Those, then, who do work in many waters, they saw the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For what is deeper than human hearts? Thence for the most part winds burst out, the storms of seditions and dissensions disturb the ship. And what is done in these? God, wishing that both those who govern and those who are carried should cry out to him: He spoke, and the spirit of the storm stood. What is it, it stood? It remained, it endured: still it disturbs, long it tosses, it rages, and does not pass. For he spoke, and the spirit of the storm stood. And what did this spirit of the storm do? And its waves were lifted up. They ascend even to the heavens, by hearing: they descend even to the deeps, by fearing. They ascend even to the heavens, they descend even to the deeps: outside battles, inside fears. Their soul wasted away in evils. They were troubled, and were moved, like a drunk man. Those who sit at the helm, and who faithfully love the ship, perceive what I say: They were troubled, and were moved like a drunk man. Certainly when they speak, when they read, when they discourse, they appear wise: woe from the tempest! And all, he says, their wisdom was swallowed up. Sometimes all human counsels fail: wherever each one turns himself, the waves roar, the tempest rages, the arms fail; where the prow may be driven, to what wave the side may be bared, whither the ship, driven, may be let go, by what rocks it may be restrained lest it perish, is utterly not seen by the governors. And what remains, except what follows? And they cried out to the Lord, when they were troubled, and from their necessities he led them out. And he commanded the storm, and it stood into a breeze. It did not stand into a tempest, but into a breeze. And its waves were silent. Hear about this matter the voice of a certain governor endangered, humbled, freed: I do not wish, he says, you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction, which happened in Asia, that we were burdened beyond strength, and beyond measure, (I see all his wisdom swallowed up) so that we were weary, he says, even of living. And what? would he thus desert those failing? or did they not fail for this reason, that he might find glory among them? Finally, what follows? But we ourselves had in ourselves the answer of death, that we should not be trusting in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead (2 Cor 1:8-9). And he commanded the storm, and it stood into a breeze. Now those had in themselves of themselves the answer of death, whose whole wisdom had been swallowed up. And its waves were silent. And they rejoiced, because they were silent: and he led them into the harbor of their will. Let them confess to the Lord his compassions. Everywhere absolutely, everywhere let them confess to the Lord, not our merits, not our strength, not our wisdom, but his compassions. Let him be loved in all our deliverance, who was called upon in all our tribulation. Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men.

13. [vv. 32-38.] And see whence he says it, whence he prefaced all these things, whence he enumerated all these, where these things are done. And let the peoples exalt him in the Church, and in the seat of the elders let them praise him. And let them exalt him, this is, let them praise him: and let them praise him, this is, let them exalt him. Let the peoples and the elders, the merchants and the governors, exalt, praise. For what did he do in this Church? what did he establish? whence did he rescue her? what did he bestow on her? How he resisted the proud, gave grace to the humble: the proud, namely, first the people of the Jews, arrogant and exalting themselves over the lineage of Abraham, and that to that nation were entrusted the eloquences of God. These things did not avail them to health, but to exaltation of heart, to swelling rather than to greatness. What, then, did God do, resisting the proud, giving grace to the humble; cutting off the natural branches because of pride, grafting in the wild olive because of humility? what did God do? Hear these two things: God, first, how he resists the proud, then, how he gives grace to the humble. He set the rivers into a desert. Waters ran there, prophecies ran: seek now among the Jews a prophet, you find none. For he set the rivers into a desert, and the issues of waters into thirst. He set the rivers into a desert. Let them say: Now there is no prophet, and he will know us no more (See Ps 74:9 (73:9)). He set the rivers into a desert, and the issues of waters into thirst, a fruitful land into salt-flats. You seek there the faith of Christ, you find none; you seek a prophet, you find none; you seek a priest, you find none; you seek a sacrifice, you find none; you seek a temple, you find none. Why this? Because: He set the rivers into a desert, and the issues of waters into thirst; a fruitful land into salt-flats. Whence, by what desert? From the malice of those who dwell in it. Behold how he resists the proud: hear how he gives grace to the humble. He set the desert into pools of waters, and the land without water into issues of waters. And he made the hungering to dwell there. Since to him it was said: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Ps 110:4 (109:4)). For you seek a sacrifice among the Jews; you have none according to the order of Aaron, because he set the rivers into a desert: you seek one according to the order of Melchizedek; among them you do not find it, but throughout the whole world it is celebrated in the Church. From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is praised (Ps 113:3 (112:3)). And God says to those whose rivers he set into a desert: I have no will in you, says the Lord, nor will I accept a sacrifice from your hands, for from the rising of the sun to its setting, a clean sacrifice is offered to my name (Mal 1:10-11). Where all the sacrifices were unclean, when they were a desert, when they were squalid, when all the nations were salt-flats; there now are springs, there now rivers, there now pools of waters, and issues of waters. Therefore he resisted the proud, but gave grace to the humble. And he made the hungering to dwell there: because: The poor will eat, and be satisfied (Ps 22:26 (21:27)). And they established a city of habitation: meanwhile of habitation in hope; since: He who hears me, he says, will dwell in hope (See Prov 1:33). And they established a city of habitation. And they sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and made the fruit of grain: in which that laborer rejoices who says, Not because I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit (Phil 4:17). And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly, and their cattle were not diminished. This stands. For the firm foundation of God stands, because the Lord knows who are his (2 Tim 2:19). Cattle and beasts are called those in the Church who walk simply, but are useful; not much learned, but full of faith. Therefore both the spiritual and the carnal he blessed, and they were multiplied exceedingly, and their cattle were not diminished.

14. [vv. 39-42.] And they were made few, and were vexed. Whence this, from outside? Rather from within. For that they might be made few, they went out from us, but they were not of us (1 John 2:19). But he speaks as it were of these, of whom they were speaking before, that they may be distinguished with understanding; because he speaks as it were of the same, on account of the common Sacraments. For they pertain to the people of God, even if not through virtue, certainly through the appearance of piety; for of them we have heard the Apostle: In the last times grievous times will be at hand; for men will be lovers of themselves (2 Tim 3:1-2). The first evil, lovers of themselves; certainly pleasing themselves. Would that they displeased themselves, and pleased God; would that they cried out in difficulties, and were freed from necessities. But presuming much on themselves, they were made few. It is manifest, brothers; all who divide themselves from unity are made few. For there are many, but in unity, while they are not separated from unity: for when the multitude of unity begins not to pertain to them, in heresy and in schism they are few. And they were made few, and were vexed by the tribulation of evils and grief. Contempt was poured out upon the princes. For they were reprobated by the Church of God: and rather, because they wished to be princes, therefore they were scorned, and were made salt that has lost its savor cast out; therefore it is trodden underfoot by men. Contempt was poured out upon the princes. And he seduced them in the trackless place, and not in the way. Those above in the way, those directed to the city, finally led, not seduced: but these seduced in the trackless place. What is it, he seduced them? God handed them over to the desires of their heart (Rom 1:24). For this is, he seduced, he gave them over to themselves. For if you ask properly, they seduce themselves. For he who supposes himself to be something, when he is nothing, seduces himself (Gal 6:3). What is it, then, he seduced them? He let them go. In the trackless place, and not in the way: for how are men in the way who hold a part, and leave the whole? how in the way? What, then, is the way, or where is the way recognized? May God, he says, have mercy on us, and bless us; may he enlighten his countenance upon us, that we may know on earth your way (Ps 67:1-2 (66:2-3)). On what earth? Among all the nations your salvation. Certainly such men, that they may be diminished, that they may be made few, go out from here; from the multitude of unity all went out, as I commemorated a little before was said of them: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us. But if perhaps they are ours in the hidden foreknowledge of God, it is necessary that they return. How many not ours as it were within, and how many ours as it were outside? The Lord knows who are his. And those not ours who are within, when they have found occasions, go out; and those ours who are outside, when they have found occasions, return. Take, then, that which God knows, according to this he seduced them in the trackless place, and not in the way. And what did he do with them? What I had begun to say, which you should attend to. He could have put up with them within always, but we would not profit from them: but when they are separated, and disquiet us by malicious questions, there is set before us from them both a zeal for inquiry, and an example of fear. Each one trembles, when he sees another to have gone out, as if from his going-out it were said to him: Wherefore let him who supposes himself to stand see that he does not fall (1 Cor 10:12). They are useful, then, because they go out: for if they were within, and were so bad, nothing would be profited from them. What was said of them in a certain psalm? The congregation of bulls, that is, of the stiff-necked and the proud; the congregation of bulls among the cows of the peoples. Cows he calls the seducible souls, which easily consent to the seducing bulls. But why this? That those who are proved by silver may be shut out (See Ps 68:30 (67:31)). What is it, that they may be shut out? That they may appear, that they may stand out, those who are proved in the eloquence of God. For when the heretics are answered out of necessity, the Catholics are built up out of usefulness. This sentence Paul plainly expressed: For there must be, he says, heresies, that those who are proved may be made manifest among you (1 Cor 11:19). There must be seducing bulls too, that those who are proved by silver may be manifest, that is, shut out. What is it, proved by silver? The eloquences of the Lord, chaste eloquences; silver tried by fire for the earth, purged sevenfold (Ps 12:6 (11:7)). Whoever are proved in this silver, that is, in the eloquence of the Lord, cannot fully bring out this silver, except disquieted by the questions of the heretics. And here notice that it was not omitted: behold contempt was poured out upon the princes, upon those bulls. Why were they scorned? Announcing something else. What were they scorned as? Anathematized. For whoever announces to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema. What is so scorned as salt that has lost its savor, which, cast out, is trodden underfoot? And see whether they are not princes; hear Paul himself: Even if we, or an angel from heaven, evangelize to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema (Gal 1:8-9). They are princes, they are learned, they are great, they are precious stones. What still will you say; are they perhaps angels? And yet, even if an angel from heaven announce to you anything other than what you have received, let him be anathema: because the devil himself too is an angel fallen from heaven. Contempt was poured out, then, upon the princes. And he helped the poor man from beggary. What is this, brothers: The princes were scorned, and the poor man was helped? The proud were cast away, and the humble was instructed. This he did, and by doing this he helped the poor man from beggary. That man is a beggar, attributing nothing to himself, awaiting all from the mercy of God; before the Lord's door he cries daily, knocking that it may be opened to him, naked and trembling that he may be clothed, casting his eyes to the ground, and beating his breast. This beggar, this poor man, this humble man God helped greatly, even from that very separation of the heretics; because they were made few, and vexed, and seduced in the trackless place and not in the way. Finally, what afterward, from those diminished, seduced, made few, vexed, in the helped poor man what comes to be? And he set the families like sheep. As if you understood one poor man and one beggar, of whom he said, And he helped the poor man from beggary: this poor man is many families, this poor man is many peoples; many Churches one Church, one people, one family, one sheep. And he set the families like sheep. Great are these mysteries, great these sacraments, how deep, full of mysteries; how sweetly found, because long hidden. Therefore: The upright will see, and rejoice; and all iniquity will stop its mouth. That iniquity chattering against unity, and forcing the truth to be made manifest, convicted will stop its mouth.

15. [v. 43.] Who is wise? and he will keep these things, and will understand the compassions of the Lord. See with what end he closed: Who is wise? and he will keep these things. And what will the wise man keep? That is, if he is poor, he keeps it; if he is not rich, that is, if he is not proud, not puffed up, he keeps these things. For why does he keep these things? Because he will understand the compassions of the Lord: not his own merits, not his own strength, not his own power; but the compassions of the Lord, who led the erring and the needy into the way and fed him; who loosed and freed the one fighting against the difficulty of sins, and bound by the bonds of habit; who restored the one in distaste at the word of God, and almost dying of a certain weariness, by sending the medicine of his word; who led the one in danger amid shipwrecks and stormy perils, the sea calmed, to the harbor: who finally set him in that people, where he gives grace to the humble, not in that where he resists the proud; and made him his own, that, remaining within, he might be multiplied, not that, going out, he might be diminished. This the upright see, and rejoice. All iniquity, then, will stop its mouth, and he who is wise will keep these things. Whence will he keep them? Through humility, by understanding the compassions of the Lord; because everywhere it was said: Let them confess to the Lord his compassions, and his wonders to the sons of men.

Exposition of Psalm 107

1. The hundred and seventh psalm I did not think I should expound; since I have already expounded it in the fifty-sixth psalm, and in the fifty-ninth psalm, of whose last parts this one consists. For the last part of the fifty-sixth is the first of this, up to that verse where it is said: And over all the earth your glory. But from here to the end, it is the last part of the fifty-ninth: just as the last part of the hundred and thirty-fourth is the same as that of the hundred and thirteenth, from that verse where it is said: The images of the nations are silver and gold: just as the thirteenth and the fifty-second, some middle parts being changed, have all things the same from beginning to end. Whatever, then, in this hundred and seventh psalm is set somewhat otherwise than in those two of whose parts it consists, does not have a difficult meaning: as in the fifty-sixth it is said, I will sing, and sing psalms; arise, my glory; but in this one: I will sing, and sing psalms in my glory. For there it was said, Arise, that in that glory there might be singing and singing of psalms. Likewise there: For your mercy is magnified even to the heavens; or, as others translated, is lifted up: but here: For your mercy is great above the heavens. For it is magnified even to the heavens for this reason, that it may be great in the heavens; for this is what he wished to say by above the heavens. Likewise in the fifty-ninth: I will be glad, and divide Shechem: but here: I will be exalted, and divide Shechem. Where it is shown that what was signified about dividing Shechem was foretold as future after the exaltation of the Lord, and that gladness pertains to this exaltation; so that he is glad for this reason, because he is exalted. Whence elsewhere he says: You have turned my mourning into joy for me; you have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness (Ps 30:11 (29:12)). Likewise there: And Ephraim the strength of my head; but here: And Ephraim the upholding of my head. For by upholding strength comes to be, that is, by upholding he makes them strong, fructifying in us: for Ephraim is interpreted "fructification." But upholding can be referred to both, whether when we take up Christ, or when he himself takes us up, who is the head of the Church. And what there he says, those who trouble us; but here, our enemies: certainly they are the very same.

2. We are admonished indeed by this psalm that those titles which are set as it were about history are most rightly so done that we understand them according to prophecy, according to which we see the psalms to have been written. For what is so diverse according to history as that which is in the title of the fifty-sixth: Unto the end, do not corrupt; for David himself, for the inscription of a title, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave: and in the title of the fifty-ninth: Unto the end, for those who will be changed, for the inscription of a title, for David himself, for instruction, when he set fire to Mesopotamia, Syria, and Syria Sobal, and Joab turned back, and struck in the valley of salt-flats twelve thousand? For apart from what is set, For the inscription of a title, and, for David himself, and, unto the end; the rest are so diverse, that the one has the humility of David, the other his strength; the one a flight, the other victories. And yet from the later parts of these two, whose titles are so diverse, this psalm is composed. Where it is signified that both run together to some one thing, not on the surface of history, but in the height of prophecy, the ends of both being joined in this one, whose title is: A song of a psalm, for David himself; like neither of those titles, except that here too is set, for David himself. Since in many parts and in many ways, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, God of old spoke to the Fathers through the Prophets; yet he spoke him whom he afterward sent, that the eloquences of the Prophets might be fulfilled: For as many as are the promises of God, in him too (2 Cor 1:20).

Exposition of Psalm 108

1. That this psalm has a prophecy concerning Christ, whoever reads the Acts of the Apostles faithfully recognizes; where it evidently appears that of Judas the betrayer of Christ was prophesied what is here written: Let his days be few, and let another receive his bishopric, when Matthias, ordained into the place of Judas, was joined as the twelfth to the number of the Apostles. But if we should try to understand of that one man all the things which are here said in an evil sense, the principle of exposition will by no means, or scarcely, be able to apply; but if of such a kind of evil men, that is, of the enemies of Christ and the ungrateful Jews, all things seem to me able to be more clearly opened. For just as certain things are said which seem to pertain properly to the apostle Peter, and yet do not have an illustrious meaning, except when they are referred to the Church, whose person he is recognized to have borne in figure, because of the primacy which he had among the disciples; as is, To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt 16:19), and any such things: so Judas in a way sustains the person of the enemies of Christ, the Jews, who both then hated Christ, and now, the lineage of that same impiety persevering by succession, hate him. Of which men and of which people there can not unfittingly be understood, not only those things which we read more openly about them in this psalm, but even those which are said more expressly of Judas himself properly; as is what I commemorated: Let his days be few, and let another receive his bishopric. Which will appear, with the Lord helping, when in the order of treating we come to those verses.

2. [v. 2.] The Psalm, then, begins thus: O God, do not pass over my praise in silence; for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful is opened over me. Whence it appears both that the faultfinding which the sinner and the deceitful do not keep silent is false, and that the praise which God does not keep silent is true. For God is truthful, but every man a liar; because no man is truthful, except him in whom God speaks. But the greatest praise is of the only-begotten Son of God, by which this very thing that he is, the only-begotten Son of God, is proclaimed. But this did not appear, but lay hidden by the appearance of his weakness, when the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful was opened over him; and therefore that was opened, because the power of this one was covered. But he says, The mouth of the deceitful is opened, because the hatred which was covered by deceit burst out into a voice. This too is said more plainly in the following verses.

3. [v. 3.] They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue: then certainly when they praised him as it were a good master with captious flattery. Whence elsewhere it is said: And those who praised me swore against me (Ps 102:8 (101:9)). Then, because they burst out crying, Crucify, crucify (Luke 23:21); there followed, he added: And they surrounded me with words of hatred. Those who with a deceitful tongue spoke as it were words not of hatred, but of love; therefore against me, because they did this by lying in wait; afterward with words, not of false and deceitful love, but of open hatred they surrounded me, and warred against me for nothing. But just as the pious love Christ for nothing, so the impious hate him for nothing; because, just as truth is sought for its own sake by the best, with no advantage proposed outside it, so iniquity by the worst. Whence even among the authors of secular letters it was said of a certain most wicked man: You were bad and cruel rather for free (Virgil, Aeneid 2.103-04 (paraphrase)).

4. [v. 4.] For that, he says, they should love me, they detracted from me. There are in this kind six distinctions, which, once commemorated, can most easily be noticed: to render good for evil, not to render evil for evil; to render good for good, to render evil for evil; not to render good for good, to render evil for good. Of these the first two are of the good, and of those two the first is better; the last two are of the bad, and of those the latter is worse; the two middle ones in a way of the middling, but of these the former is near to the good, the latter near to the bad. These things in the holy Scriptures one ought to attend to. The Lord himself renders good for evil, who justifies the impious (Rom 4:5), and hanging on the cross said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Whose footsteps following, holy Stephen, his knee bent, prayed for those stoning him, saying: Lord, do not lay this offense to their charge (Acts 7:60). To which matter pertains the precept: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44). That evil is not to be rendered for evil the apostle Paul says: Rendering to no one evil for evil (Rom 12:17); and the apostle Peter: Not rendering evil for evil, or curse for curse (1 Pet 3:9): whence in the Psalms too it is read: If I have rendered to those who repaid me evils (Ps 7:4 (7:5)). Of the two latter, that milder one pertains to the nine lepers, who, when they had been cleansed by the Lord, did not give thanks: but that last one, than which nothing is worse, pertains to those of whom it is read in this psalm. For that they should love me, they detracted from me. For they owed love for the Lord's so great benefits; which they not only by no means rendered, but even for that good inflicted evil. But the two middle ones which we said are in a way of the middling men, are thus: that the former of them, which is to render good for good, both the good have, and the moderately good, or moderately bad. Therefore the Lord does not reprove this, but does not wish his disciples to remain in this alone, whom he wishes to advance to greater things, to whom he says: If you love those who love you, that is, if you render good for good; what reward will you have, that is, what great thing will you do? do not even the publicans do this? (Matt 5:46) But he wishes them both to do this, and far more; that is, to love not only friends, but even enemies. But the latter, which is to render evil for evil, both the bad have, and the moderately bad, or moderately good; even so far that the Law gave them a measure of avenging: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Exod 21:24): which, if it can be said, is the righteousness of the unjust. Not because it is wicked that each one receive what he has done; otherwise the Law would by no means have established it: but because the lust of avenging is vicious, and it pertains more to a judge to decree this among others, than for a good man to seek it for himself. Wherefore the impious, fallen from that summit of kindness, where good is rendered for evil, to how great a depth of malignity have they come, by repaying evil for good! by how great a precipice they have passed over so many intervening degrees! Nor should it be thought something small, because he does not say: For that they should love me, they killed me; but, they detracted from me: for indeed they killed because they detracted, denying the Son of God, and saying that he casts out demons by the prince of demons (Matt 9:34); and: He has a demon, and is mad; why do you hear him? (John 10:20) and other such things. By which detraction they were turning away from him those whose conversion he was seeking: and therefore he rather said this, to show that those who detract from Christ, and through this kill souls, harm more than those who, by raging, destroyed his mortal flesh, especially soon to rise again.

5. But when he had said, For that they should love me, they detracted from me; what does he say? But I prayed. He did not indeed say what he prayed; but what better do we understand than for those very men? For they detracted most of all from the crucified one, when they mocked him as a man whom they had as it were conquered; of which cross he said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34): so that, since they in the depth of malignity rendered evil for good, he in the summit of kindness might render good for evil. Although it is well understood that he prayed too for his disciples, which he said even before his passion, that their faith might not fail, when he himself, hanging on the wood, to commend patience, did not show his power among the words of those detracting, whom he could destroy by divine power. But it was more useful for us that he gave an example of patience, than if, by destroying his enemies without delay, he had built us up to this, that we should impatiently hasten to be avenged on those we suffer as bad: since it is written: Better is the patient man than the strong (Prov 16:32). The divine eloquences, then, teach us by the Lord's example, when we hear: For that they should love me, they detracted from me; but I prayed; that when we perceive any to be ungrateful, not only not rendering good, but even rendering evil for good, we should pray: and he indeed for others either raging, or grieving, and in danger in their faith; but we even for ourselves first, that we may conquer our mind, with God having mercy and helping, by which we are carried into the desire of avenging, when detraction is made whether against us present or absent. Then, when we recall the patience of Christ, as if he himself were roused—as happened when he slept in the ship—who calms the disturbance and tempest of our heart, with mind settled and appeased, let us pray even for our detractors, that we may securely say: Forgive us, as we too forgive (Matt 6:12). But he forgave, who certainly did not have a sin to be forgiven him.

6. [v. 5.] But there follows: And they set against me evils for goods. And as if we were asking, "What evils? for what goods?" And hatred, he says, for my love. This is all and the great guilt of theirs. For what could they harm, persecuting one dying by will, not by necessity? But the hatred itself is the greatest crime of the persecutor, although it is the voluntary punishment of the one suffering. But he sufficiently expounded how above he said, For that they should love me, because they owed love not in just any way, but to his love; when here he added, for my love. This love he commemorates in the Gospel, where he says: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I wished to gather your children, as a hen her chicks under her wings, and you would not! (Matt 23:37)

7. Then he begins to prophesy what they will receive for that very impiety; and he says those things in such a way, as if, from a desire of avenging, he wished that they come to be; whereas they are said to be future with the most certain truth, and to come worthily upon such men through the justice of God. Which manner of foretelling future things, as it were under the appearance of wishing evil, some not understanding suppose that hatred is rendered for hatred, and an evil mind for an evil mind: since indeed it belongs to few to discern how the punishment of the wicked pleases the accuser desiring to glut his enmities, and how in a far other way it pleases the judge punishing sins with a right will. For that one renders evil for evil; but this one, even when he avenges, does not render evil for evil, since he renders the just for the unjust: but what is just, is certainly good. He punishes, then, not from delight in another's misery, which is evil for evil; but from love of justice, which is good for evil. And so let not the blind slander the light of the Scriptures, supposing that God does not punish sins; nor let the unjust flatter themselves as if he rendered evil for evil. Let us hear, then, what the divine discourse weaves; and in the words as it were of one wishing evil, let us understand the foretellings of one prophesying; and let us discern God repaying just things, with our mind lifted up to his eternal law.

8. [v. 6.] Set over him a sinner, and let the devil stand at his right hand. Since above the complaint was of several, now the Psalm speaks of one. But above he had said: They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue, and surrounded me with words of hatred, and warred against me for nothing: for that they should love me, they detracted from me; but I prayed: and they set against me evils for goods, and hatred for my love. All of several. But now, foretelling what they would deserve for these iniquities of theirs, and what would be to them by divine judgment: Set over him, he says, a sinner: as if directing his attention to the one who handed him over, of such enemies of his as he spoke above. Since, then, he here foretells Judas the betrayer, according to the Scripture of the Acts of the Apostles, as to be punished with the due punishment; what is it, Set over him a sinner, except the one whom he indicates in the following verse, when he says, And let the devil stand at his right hand? This, then, he deserved, that he should have the devil over him, that is, be subject to the devil, who was unwilling to be subject to Christ. But let him stand at his right hand was said, because he set the works of the devil before the works of God. For this is not without reason called each one's right hand, which he prefers; as the right is preferred to the left. Therefore of those too who, preferring the joys of this world to God, called blessed the people for whom these things are, it was most rightly said: Their right hand is the right hand of iniquity (Ps 144:8 (143:8)). Whence, in that they called blessed the people for whom these things are, their mouth spoke vanity; which was said of them above. But of whom the mouth speaks truth, against that which these men said, that the people for whom these things are is blessed, he too ought to say what follows in the same psalm: Blessed is the people whose Lord is their God (Ps 144:15 (143:15)): for to this one the devil is not at the right hand, but the Lord: as he says elsewhere too: I foresaw the Lord in my sight always, for he is at my right hand, that I not be moved (Ps 16:8 (15:8)). The devil, then, stood at his right hand, when he set greed before wisdom, and money before his own salvation, that he might hand him over by whom he ought to be possessed, lest he be possessed by him whose works Christ himself loosed, by whom he was unwilling to be possessed.

9. [v. 7.] When he is judged, let him go out condemned. For he was unwilling to be such as to whom it would be said: Enter into the joy of your lord; but such as of whom it is said: Cast him into the outer darkness (Matt 25:21, 30). And let his prayer become sin. Since there is no just prayer except through Christ, whom he sold by the monstrousness of sin: but a prayer which is not made through Christ, not only cannot blot out sin, but even itself becomes sin. But when Judas could have so prayed that his prayer became sin, it can be asked. I believe, before he handed over the Lord, and when he was already thinking of handing him over: for after that he could no longer pray through Christ. For after he had handed him over, and repented of it, if he had prayed through Christ, he would have asked indulgence; if he had asked indulgence, he would have had hope; if he had had hope, he would have hoped for mercy; if he had hoped for mercy, he would not in despair have bound his neck for himself. Accordingly, when he had said, When he is judged, let him go out condemned; lest from the imminent condemnation he be supposed to have been able to free himself by the prayer which he had learned with his fellow-disciples, where it is said, Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors: And let his prayer, he says, become sin; because it is not made through Christ, whom he was unwilling to follow, but to persecute.

10. [v. 8.] Let his days be few. His days he said, the days of his apostleship; which were few, since before the passion of the Lord they were consumed by his own crime and death. And as if it were said: What, then, will become of the most sacred number twelve, in which not in vain the Lord wished to have twelve first Apostles? he immediately subjoined: And let another receive his bishopric. As if saying: Let him both be punished according to his desert, and let that number be filled up. But if anyone desires to know how it was done, let him read the Acts of the Apostles.

11. [v. 9.] Let his sons become orphans, and his wife a widow. Certainly, he himself dead, both his sons became orphans, and his wife widowed.

12. [v. 10.] Let his sons, wavering, be carried about, and beg. Wavering was said, uncertain where they go, destitute of all protection. Let them be cast out of their dwellings. He expounded what he had said above, be carried about. But all this, how it happened to his wife and sons, the following verses indicate.

13. [vv. 11, 12.] Let the moneylender search out all his substance, and let strangers plunder his labors. Let there be no helper for him: he means, for the protecting of his posterity; therefore there follows: Nor let there be one who has mercy on his orphans.

14. [v. 13.] But because the orphans too could, even without a helper and without a guardian, yet grow up in hardships and want, and preserve the lineage by propagation; there follows, and he says: Let his offspring become unto destruction, in one generation let his name be blotted out: that is, let what is begotten from him beget no more, and quickly pass away.

15. [v. 14.] But what is it that he then subjoins? Let the iniquity of his fathers come back into remembrance in the sight of the Lord, and let the sin of his mother not be blotted out. Is it to be understood that even the sins of his parents are rendered to him? For they are not rendered to one who has been changed in Christ, and has begun to be not a son of the wicked, not imitating their ways: because both that is most truly written, I will render the sins of the fathers upon the sons (Exod 20:5); and that which is said through the prophet: Both the soul of the father is mine, and the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sins, it will die (Ezek 18:4). For this was said of those who turn to God, and do not imitate the evils of their parents; which the prophet himself evidently shows: for he says that the iniquities of the parents do not harm those who, by doing righteousness, have been unlike them. But that which was said, I will render the sins of the fathers upon the sons, it was added, who hate me, that is, as their parents hated me: so that, just as the imitation of the good causes even one's own sins to be blotted out, so the imitation of the bad causes one to share not only one's own, but even the deserts of those whom one has imitated. If, then, Judas had held that to which he was called, in no way would either his own past or his parents' iniquity pertain to him: because, then, he did not hold the adoption in the family of God, but rather chose the iniquity of the old lineage; the iniquity of his fathers came back in the sight of the Lord, that in him it too might be punished; and the sin of his mother was not blotted out in him.

16. [v. 15.] Let them be against the Lord always: that is, his fathers and his mother let them be against the Lord always, not that they may oppose the Lord, but that the Lord may not forget their most wicked deserts in him, when he repays him these too. Against the Lord he said: In the sight of the Lord: for other translators too rendered it thus: Let them be in the sight of the Lord always; but others: Let them be before the Lord always: as it was said elsewhere: You set our iniquities in your sight (Ps 90:8 (89:8)). But always he says, that that crime alone may be without remission, both here, and in the age to come. Let the memory of them perish from the earth: namely of his fathers and his mother. He means the memory of them which is kept in the propagation of generation: this he prophesied would perish from the earth, because both Judas himself, and his sons who were as it were the memory of his fathers and his mother, without succession of offspring, as was said above, were extinguished in the brevity of one generation.

17. Someone says: Is even this to be believed to pertain to the punishment of Judas, that after his death his wife and sons came to beggary, and were carried about, cast out of their dwellings, the moneylender searching out all his substance, and strangers plundering all his labors, no one helping or having mercy on his orphans, and that they quickly died without posterity? Does any grief touch the dead even concerning the things that happen among their own after each one's death? or are they at least to be thought to know these things, whose perception is elsewhere according to their deserts, whether well or ill? To whom I answer that it is indeed a great question, and not to be discussed at present, since it is a matter of a more lengthy work, whether, or how far, or in what way the spirits of the dead know the things that are done around us. Yet, what can be briefly said, if they had no care about us, the Lord would not say that that rich man who was suffering torments in hell said: I have there five brothers, lest they too come into this place of torments (Luke 16:28). But however those who try to understand this otherwise may understand it, and since it must be confessed that it is not a consequence that, if the dead know that their own are alive—because they see them neither in the places of punishments, where that rich man was, nor in the rest of the blessed, where he recognized Lazarus and Abraham, though far off—they therefore necessarily know the things, whether glad or sad, that are done around their dear ones: this I say, that there are few men of such a mind as to neglect, and altogether scorn, what good or evil befalls their own after their death, at least while they live; but many, which even the so great care of commending one's last will and of testaments of whatever sort indicates, take pains that, when they are dead, it may be well with their own. But the continuance of their posterity through the successions of generations only those praiseworthily despise who cut themselves off for the kingdom of heaven, and desire their sons to do this, or long to be crowned with martyrdom, so that none of them remains on the earth: but all the rest, or nearly all, wish their own to be happy in this life after their death, and do not wish their lineage to perish. Wherefore, that Judas dying so unhappily, his wife thus remained a widow and his sons orphans, that, the moneylender searching out all his substance, and strangers plundering his labors, they were cast out of their dwellings, nor did his orphans find anyone having mercy on them, and they perished in one generation without posterity; if the dead perceive these things, it is a heap of evils; if they do not perceive these things, it is a dread for the living. But if it moves anyone how he could have a substance which the moneylender searched out, and strangers plundered, when he was already following the Lord with the other eleven; let him believe that he so left all that he had to his sons and wife, that he did not sincerely or perseveringly break off from there the bond of cupidity: who, even if he seemed to sell them as it were to be distributed to the poor, would surely do what Ananias did after the Lord's ascension. For he would not fear that the Lord would by divinity know this, whom he supposed could be deceived, when he took away from the purses the things that were put in.

18. [vv. 6-15.] But now let us see, if we can, as far as the Lord helps, how these things can fit also the people of the Jews, whose enmities against the Lord remained in obstinate hatred: of which people we said that Judas bore the person in figure, as the apostle Peter bore that of the Church. Set over him a sinner, and let the devil stand at his right hand. Just as in Judas, so in this people it is to be understood; who, having repelled Christ from himself, was made subject to the devil, whose persuasions in all depraved and earthly desires he set before eternal salvation. When he is judged, let him go out condemned: because, persisting in wickedness and unbelief, he stores up for himself wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works. And let his prayer become sin; because it is not made through the mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ, and the priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Let his days be few. It is to be taken according to the kingdom, because the kingdom of the Jews did not long persevere afterward. And let another receive his bishopric. I judge that the Lord Christ himself is not unfittingly understood to be the bishopric of the people of the Jews, because he was made according to the flesh of the tribe of Judah: and the Apostle says: For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers (Rom 15:8). And he himself says: I am not sent except to the sheep which have perished of the house of Israel (Matt 15:24); because to them he showed his presence in the flesh. And the Magi who came from the east said this: Where is he who is born king of the Jews? (Matt 2:2) And this was written in the title over the crucified one: whence to those wishing to change it Pilate not in vain answered: What I have written, I have written (John 19:22). This bishopric of the people of the Jews, then, that is, the Lord Christ, another received, that is, the people of the gentiles. Let his sons become orphans: of whom it is said: But the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness (Matt 8:12). But they were made orphans, that kingdom lost, as if their father lost; although they are well understood to have lost God the Father too: For he who does not have the Son, says Truth, does not have the Father either (See 1 John 2:23). And his wife a widow. By the wife of the kingdom the people can be understood, over which kings, made subject to it, have dominion: but she was made a widow, that kingdom lost. Let his sons, wavering, be carried about, and beg. They wavered in dangers, with enemies pressing they were carried about, the sons of the kingdom of the Jews were vanquished. But what is it to beg, except to live by the mercy of men, as they live under the kings of those nations among which they were carried? Let them be cast out of their dwellings. So it happened. Let the moneylender search out all his substance: that is, of his people. Where nothing better is understood than that their debts are not forgiven, because they are forgiven only in Christ, whom they rejected; who also taught us to say: Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors (Matt 6:12). But all his substance was said, all his life; that no debts, that is, no sins, be given to him. And let strangers plunder his labors: the devil and his angels; because those do not lay up treasure in heaven who do not have Christ. Let there be no helper for him. Who is a helper for one for whom Christ is not? Nor let there be one who has mercy on his orphans. Those who, their father lost, that is, the kingdom, so remained, or God lost, whose Son they persecuted and hated, there is no one who has mercy on them, not for the taking up or sustaining of temporal life, but for the true life, that is, eternal. Let his offspring become unto destruction: certainly unto everlasting destruction. In one generation let his name be blotted out. Because they were begotten, not regenerated, therefore in one generation they are blotted out: for in the other, that is, in regeneration, if they recognized and held it, they would not be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers come back into remembrance in the sight of the Lord: that the Lord may render to the same people persevering in malice the iniquity of his fathers too. For so he says to them: You are witnesses to yourselves, that you are the sons of those who killed the Prophets: and a little after he says: That upon you may come all the just blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the just to the blood of Zechariah (Matt 23:31, 35). And let the sin of his mother not be blotted out. The sin of Jerusalem, who is in slavery with her children, who kills the Prophets, and stones those sent to her. Let them be against the Lord always, their iniquity and sin; that is, that they not be abolished from the sight of the Lord, with God avenging forever. And let the memory of them perish from the earth. The earth of God is the field of God; the field of God is the Church of God: from which earth perished the memory of them, who, since they were natural branches, because of unbelief were broken off.

19. [vv. 16, 17.] For that he did not remember, either that Judas, or that people, to do mercy. But it is better taken of the people, what he says, he did not remember: for if it killed Christ, it might at least remember by repenting, and do mercy upon his members, which it has most perseveringly persecuted. Therefore he says that he persecuted the needy and beggar man. It can indeed be taken of Judas; because the Lord did not disdain to become poor, when he was rich, that by his poverty we might be enriched. But how shall I understand "beggar," except perhaps because he said to the Samaritan woman, Give me to drink (John 4:7), and on the cross said, I thirst (John 19:28)? But what follows, how it may be taken in our head himself, that is, the Savior of his body, whom Judas persecuted, I do not find. For when he had said, And he persecuted the needy and beggar man, he added and said: And to put to death the one pricked in heart; that is, that he might put him to death: for some translated it thus too. But one pricked in heart is not wont to be said, except by the goads of sins in the grief of repenting; as it was said of those who, when they had heard the Apostles after the Lord's ascension, were pricked in heart (Acts 2:37), who had killed the Lord. To whom most blessed Peter spoke, saying among other things: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins will be forgiven you (Acts 2:38). But since these very ones were made the members of him whose members they fixed on the wood, the people of the Jews did not remember to do mercy; it persecuted the needy and beggar man, but in his members: of whom he is going to say, as far as concerns the very works of mercy: When you did it not to one of these least of mine, you did it not to me (Matt 25:45). And to put to death the one pricked in heart: plainly the one pricked in heart, but in his members. But of those who persecuted, to put to death the one pricked in heart, was Saul too, consenting to the killing of Stephen who was pricked in heart; for Stephen himself too was of those who were pricked in heart. But Saul remembered to do mercy; and he who in the morning was seizing, in the evening divided the spoils: he himself too pricked in heart, so that even in him they persecuted the needy, wishing to put to death the one pricked in heart. For this they hated in the apostle Paul, that, pricked in heart, he preached the one he had before persecuted. For, persecuting the needy and beggar and pricked-in-heart in his members, to put him to death, he himself too heard from heaven: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) and, made pricked in heart, he began to suffer such things as he was doing to those pricked in heart.

20. [v. 18.] Then the Psalm follows: And he loved the curse, and it will come to him. Although Judas too loved the curse, both by stealing from the purses, and by selling and handing over the Lord; yet more openly that people loved the curse, when it said: His blood be upon us and upon our sons (Matt 27:25). And he was unwilling to have the blessing, and it will be put far from him. Judas too indeed, because he was unwilling to have Christ, in whom is the eternal blessing; but more openly the people of the Jews was unwilling to have the blessing, to whom that man enlightened by the Lord said: Do you too wish to become his disciples? And it was unwilling to have the blessing, and held it for a curse; and answered: May you be his disciple (John 9:27-28): and the blessing was put far from it, because it passed over to the gentiles. And he put on the curse as a garment: whether Judas, or that people. And it entered like water into his inward parts. Therefore both outside and inside; outside like a garment, inside like water: since he fell into the judgment of him who can kill both body and soul in Gehenna; the body outside, the soul inside. And like oil in his bones. He shows that he did evil with delight, and procured for himself the curse, that is, eternal punishment; because the blessing is eternal life. For now evil deeds delight, like water into the inward parts, and like oil in the bones; but it is for this reason called a curse, because to such men God has foretold torments. But the curse is as it were oil in the bones, when men suppose themselves strong from it, because they are allowed to commit evils as it were with impunity.

21. [v. 19.] Let it become for him like the garment with which he is covered. Since above he already spoke of the garment, what is it that he repeats? Or, because he had said, He put on the curse as a garment, does the garment with which one is not put on, but covered, differ from it? For each one is put on with a tunic, but covered with a cloak. And what is this, except to glory in iniquity even in the sight of men? And like a belt, he says, with which he is always girded. Men gird themselves chiefly for this reason, that they may be more fit for working, lest they be hindered by the folds of the garment. Therefore he girds himself with the curse, who undertakes an evil that is not sudden, but planned, and so learns to do evil that he is always ready: whence here too he says, And like a belt with which he is always girded.

22. [v. 20.] This is the work of those who detract from me before the Lord. He did not say, the reward of them; but, the work of them: for it is manifest that by the clothing, and the covering, and the water, and the oil, and the belt, he was describing the very works by which eternal cursing is procured. There is not, then, one Judas, but many, of whom it is said, This is the work of those who detract from me before the Lord. Although the plural number too could be set for the singular number; as, Herod being dead, it was said by the angel: Those who sought the soul of the boy are dead (Matt 2:20). But who detract more from Christ before the Lord, except those who detract from the very words of the Lord, saying that he is not the one whom the Law of the Lord and the Prophets foretold? And who speak, he says, evils against my soul: by denying that he could, when he willed, rise again; whereas he says: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again (John 10:18).

23. [v. 21.] And you, O Lord, Lord, act with me. Some thought mercy was to be understood, and some even added it; but the more correct manuscripts have it thus: And you, O Lord, Lord, act with me, for your name's sake. Whence a deeper sense is not to be passed over, that the Son so said to the Father, Act with me, because the works of the Father and the Son are the same. Where, even if we understand mercy (for there follows: Because your mercy is sweet), even this, because he did not say: Act in me; or Act upon me; or anything of the sort; but said, Act with me; we well understand that both the Father and the Son together do mercy in the vessels of mercy. This can also be understood thus: Act with me, that is, help me. Which we have in the daily custom of speaking, when of some matter that is on our side, we say: "It acts with us." For the Father helps the Son, insofar as the man is God, because of the form of a servant: to which man God, and to which form of a servant the Father is also Lord. For in the form of God, the Son does not need help; for he is equally omnipotent with the Father, from which he himself too is the helper of man. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so too the Son gives life to whom he wishes (John 5:21): nor does the Father give life to some, the Son to others, or the Father in one way, the Son in another; because he both does the same things, and in like manner. Whence insofar as the Son of God is man, God raised him from the dead, that is, the Father, to whom he says in the Psalms: Raise me up, and I will repay them (Ps 41:10 (40:11)): but insofar as he is God, he raised himself too; for which he says: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). Which he signified here too, if anyone attends diligently: for he bade the Scriptures, which bear witness of him, be searched, not passed over on the surface. For he did not say only: You, O Lord, Lord, act with me; but he said: And you. What is it, And you, except that I too? But that he said not once Lord, but repeating, Lord, Lord; he has in this the feeling of one praying: as is, God, my God (Ps 22:1 (21:2)). But that, when he had said, Act with me, he added, for your name's sake; he commended grace. For by no preceding merits of works was human nature borne up to so great a loftiness, that the whole at once, the Word and flesh, that is, God and man, should be called the only-begotten Son of God. But this was done, that by him who had created, through that which had not perished, that which had perished might be sought: whence here too there follows: Because your mercy is sweet.

24. [v. 22.] Free me, for I am needy and poor. Need and poverty is the weakness from which he was crucified. And my heart is troubled within me. This is referred to that which he said as the passion drew near: My soul is sorrowful unto death (Matt 26:38).

25. [v. 23.] Like a shadow when it declines, I was taken away. This signified death itself. For as from a declining shadow night comes, so from mortal flesh death comes. I was shaken off like the locusts. This I judge is more fittingly understood now in his members, that is, his faithful. Which, to set down somewhat more openly, he preferred to say, like the locusts, than like a locust: although even in the singular number many could be taken, as that is: He spoke, and the locust came (Ps 105:34 (104:34)); but it would be more obscure. They were shaken off, then, that is, put to flight by the persecutors, his faithful, of whom he wished to signify either the multitude by the name of locusts, or that they leaped from place to place.

26. [v. 24.] My knees were made weak by fasting. We read that the Lord Christ had a fast of forty days: but did that abstinence avail so much in him, that his knees were made weak? Or is this too more aptly understood in his members, that is, his holy ones? And my flesh was changed because of oil: because of spiritual grace. Whence Christ too is named from the chrism: but chrism is anointing. But the flesh was changed because of oil not for the worse, but for the better, that is, rising from the contempt of death into the glory of immortality. And so, when he had said, My knees were made weak by fasting, where I judge it is signified that those who seemed strong in his members, as if the presence of the bread by which they were sustained being withdrawn, failed in his passion even to denial, which appeared in Peter; as if to confirm them, lest by succumbing they should fall utterly: And my flesh, he says, was changed because of oil, that I might strengthen by my resurrection those failing in my death, and anoint them by sending the Holy Spirit, who would not have come to them unless I had gone away. For he had said this: He cannot come unless I go away (See John 16:7): and the Evangelist said: The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39). His flesh was not yet changed. But whether by water, because of washing or watering, or by oil, because of exultation and the kindling of love, the Holy Spirit is signified; he is not therefore diverse from himself, because the signs are diverse. For even the lion and the lamb are very diverse, and yet by both Christ was signified. The lion for one thing, the lamb for another; yet not another: because the lamb is not strong, nor the lion innocent; but Christ is both innocent as a lamb, and strong as a lion. But Jesus Christ himself says in Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me (Isa 61:1; Luke 4:18).

27. [v. 25.] And I became a reproach to them: through the death of the cross. For Christ indeed redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (Gal 3:13). They saw me, and shook their heads. Because they saw him hang, they did not see him rise again; they saw when his knees were made weak, they did not see when his flesh was changed.

28. [v. 26.] Help me, O Lord my God, make me safe according to your mercy. This can be referred to the whole, that is, both to the head, and to the body: to the head, because of the form of a servant; to the body, because of the servants themselves. For in them too he could say to God, Help me, and, make me safe; in whom he said to Saul, Why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) But that he added, according to your mercy; free grace is commemorated, not from the debt of works.

29. [v. 27.] And let them know that this is your hand, and you, O Lord, made it. He said let them know of those for whose raging he even prayed; because among those to whom he became a reproach, shaking their heads in mockery of him, were also those who afterward believed in him. But let those learn who attribute the form of a human body to God, how God has a hand. For if what he makes, he makes with a hand, does he then make his hand itself with a hand? How, then, was it said here: And let them know that this is your hand, and you, O Lord, made it? Let us understand, then, that the hand of God is Christ: whence elsewhere it is said: And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? (Isa 53:1) This hand both was, and he made it; because: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14): and it was without time according to divinity, and it was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh.

30. [v. 28.] They will curse, and you will bless. Vain, then, and false is the curse of the sons of men, loving vanity, and seeking a lie; but God, when he blesses, does what he says. Let those who rise against me be confounded. For they suppose that by rising they advance something against me; but when I have been exalted above the heavens, and my glory has begun to be above all the earth, they will be confounded. But your servant will rejoice: whether at the right hand of the Father, or in his members rejoicing, both amid temptations in hope, and after temptations forever.

31. [v. 29.] Let those who detract from me be clothed with shame: that is, let them be ashamed of having detracted from me. But this can be taken in a good sense too, while they are corrected. And let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak. A "diplois" is a double cloak. For some translated this verse thus too: And let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak. But it is understood, let them be confounded both inside and outside, that is, both before God and before men.

32. [v. 30.] I will confess to the Lord exceedingly with my mouth. "Exceedingly" (nimis) is wont to be said in the custom of Latin speech for what is more than it ought to be: to which the contrary is "too little" (parum), which is less than it ought to be. But nimis represents a Greek word; but this verse does not have the Greek word for "excessively," but has another, sphodra. Which some of ours translated by sometimes setting exceedingly, sometimes greatly. But if exceedingly is understood for what is greatly, it can be set in praise too; for this confession too signifies praise. For so it follows: And in the midst of many I will praise him. He says too in another psalm: In the midst of the Church I will sing to you (Ps 22:22 (21:23)). But when the Church itself sings, which is the body of Christ, how does the Church sing in the midst of the Church? So here too, since many are the members of Christ, if when they themselves praise, he praises, because they are his members; how does he praise in the midst of many, when, those many praising, he himself is said to praise? Or does he praise in the midst of many for this reason, because he is here with his Church to the consummation of the age; so that what he says, in the midst of many, we take to mean that he is honored by those same many? For he is said to be in the midst to whom special honor is shown. But if the heart is as it were the middle of a man; nothing better is understood to be said than, in the hearts of many I will praise him. For Christ dwells through faith in our hearts: and therefore he says, with my mouth, that is, with the mouth of my body, which is the Church. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

33. [v. 31.] For he stood at the right hand of the poor man. Of Judas it was said: And let the devil stand at his right hand; who wished to increase his own riches by selling Christ: but here the Lord stood at the right hand of the poor man, that the riches of the poor man might be the Lord himself. He stood indeed at the right hand of the poor man, not to multiply for him the years of a life at some time to be ended, nor to increase his money, or make him strong in bodily strength, or unharmed for a time; but to make safe, he says, my soul from those who persecute it. But the soul is made safe from those who persecute it, if it does not consent to them unto evil; but it does not consent to them, when the Lord stands at the right hand of the poor man, lest by that very poverty, that is, weakness, it succumb. This help was bestowed on the body of Christ in all the holy martyrs.

Exposition of Psalm 109

1. As far as the Lord grants, who set us as ministers of his word and sacrament to serve you in the fatness of his mercy, we have taken up this psalm, which we sang just now, brief in the number of words, great in the weight of meanings, with him helping who made you attentive, that he may also make us fit, as we can, to consider and treat it. Let your soul live, and watch toward God. For God set a time for his promises, and a time for fulfilling what he promised. The time of the promises was in the time of the Prophets up to John the Baptist: but from him and thereafter to the end, it is the time of fulfilling what was promised. Faithful is God, who made himself our debtor; not by receiving anything from us, but by promising us so great things. The promise was too little; he willed himself to be bound even by writing, as it were making with us a bond of his promises; so that, when he began to pay what he promised, we might consider in the writing of the promises the order of the things to be paid. So the time of prophecy was, as we have often already said, the foretelling of the promises. He promised eternal salvation, and a blessed life with the angels without end, and an unfading inheritance, everlasting glory, the sweetness of his countenance, the house of his sanctification in the heavens, from the resurrection from the dead no fear thereafter of dying. This is his promise as it were final, to which all our intention runs, to which when we have come, let us seek nothing further, demand nothing further. But by what order one comes to that which will be at the end, neither did he keep silent of this by promising and foretelling. For he promised to men divinity, to mortals immortality, to sinners justification, to the abject glorification. Whatever he promised, he promised to the unworthy, that the reward might be promised not as it were to works, but that grace might be given freely from his name. Because even this very thing, that he lives justly, insofar as a man can live justly, is not of human merit, but of divine benefit. For no one lives justly, except being justified, that is, made just: but a man is made just by him who can never be unjust. For as a lamp is not kindled by itself, so neither does the human soul furnish light to itself; but it cries to God: You will light my lamp, O Lord (Ps 18:28 (17:29)).

2. Since, then, the kingdom of heaven was promised to sinners, not those remaining in sin, but freed from sin, and serving righteousness; and that they may be able to do this very thing, they are helped by grace, as we said, and justified by him who is always just: it seemed incredible that God bears so great a care for men, and even today those who despair of divine grace, and are unwilling to convert themselves from their worst morals to God, that they may be justified by him, and, through his indulgence all their sins being blotted out, may begin to live justly in him who never lived unjustly, have this ruin of their thought against themselves, that they say God does not care for human affairs, nor from this can suppose that the maker and ruler of this world can think how each mortal lives on the earth. So a man supposes himself not to be reckoned by God, who was made by God. If we could address such a man: if he first admitted us to his ears, then to his heart; if he did not repel by resisting one who seeks him, and suffered himself, lost, to be found; we could say to him: O man, how will God not reckon you, made, who cared beforehand that you should be made? Why do you suppose you are not numbered in the order of created things? Do not believe the seducer: your hairs are numbered by your creator. This finally the Lord too says in the Gospel to the disciples, lest they fear death, lest they suppose that anything of theirs would perish in death. They in death feared for their soul, he gave them security even about their hairs. Does the soul, then, perish, whose hair does not perish? Yet, brothers, because it seemed incredible to men what God promised, that from this mortality, corruption, abjection, weakness, dust and ashes men would be equal to the angels of God; he not only made a writing with men, that they might believe; but even set a mediator of his faith, not any prince, or any angel or archangel, but his only Son: so that by what way he would lead us through to that end which he promised, through that same Son of his he might both show and provide. For it was too little for God if he made his Son the shower of the way; he made him himself the way, that you might go through him governing you, walking through himself.

3. He promised, then, that we would come to him, that is, to that ineffable immortality, and equality with his angels. How far away were we? how far above was he, how far below were we? how far in the highest was he, how far in the lowest did we lie in despair? We were sick, without expectation of health: a physician was sent, whom the sick one did not recognize. For if they had recognized him, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But this too availed for the medicine of the sick one, that the sick one killed the physician: he came to visit, he was killed to heal. He insinuated himself to believers as God and man; God by whom we were made, man by whom we were re-created. One thing in him appeared; another lay hidden; and what lay hidden was much more excellent than that which appeared: but what was more excellent could not be seen. The sick one was cured by that which could be seen; that he might afterward become capable of the vision of that which by being hidden was deferred, not by being denied taken away. So the only Son of God, about to come to men, to take up man, and through that which he took to be man, to die, to rise, to ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of the Father, and to fulfill among the nations what he promised, and after the fulfillment of his promises among the nations to fulfill even this, that he come, and demand what he advanced, separate the vessels of wrath from the vessels of mercy, render to the impious what he threatened, to the just what he pledged: all this, then, had to be prophesied, had to be foretold, his coming had to be commended; that, coming suddenly, he might not be dreaded, but, believed, be awaited. From these promises is this psalm, prophesying certainly and openly our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; so that we can in no way doubt that Christ is announced in this psalm: since indeed we are Christians, and already believe the Gospel. For when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself asked the Jews whose son they said the Christ was, and they had answered, David's; he immediately rejoined to those answering, and said: How then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies under your feet? If, then, he says, in the spirit he calls him Lord, how is he his son? (Matt 22:42-45) From this verse this psalm begins.

4. [v. 1.] The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. This question, then, set before the Jews by the Lord, we ought to treat at the very entrance of the Psalm. For if what the Jews answered is demanded of us, whether we too confess it, or deny it; far be it that we deny. If it is said to us, Is Christ the son of David, or not? if we say no, we contradict the Gospel; for, as Matthew writes, the Gospel begins thus: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David (Matt 1:1). The Evangelist says that he writes the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Rightly, then, the Jews, asked by Christ whose son they believed the Christ to be, answered: David's. The Gospel agrees with their answer. This not only the supposition of the Jews has, but also the faith of Christians. Still I see other supports. The Apostle says: Who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom 1:3): he says too to Timothy: Remember that Christ Jesus rose from the dead from the seed of David, according to my gospel. And of this gospel what does he say? In which I labor even to chains, as a malefactor; but the word of God is not bound (2 Tim 2:8-9). The Apostle labored, then, even to chains for his gospel, that is, for the evangelical dispensation, which he preached to the peoples, which he expended on the peoples: he who in the morning had seized, in the evening divided the food (See Gen 49:27). He labored, then, even to chains for the gospel. What gospel? That Christ Jesus rose from the dead, from the seed of David. For this gospel the Apostle labored: and yet about this Christ asked; and to the Jews answering what the Apostle preached, he rejoined a voice as it were of contradiction, and said: How then does David in the spirit call him Lord? and he interposed the testimony from this psalm: The Lord said to my Lord. If, then, in the spirit he calls him Lord, how is he his son? The Jews under this question fell silent; what to answer thereafter they did not find: nor yet did they seek him as Lord, because they did not recognize him to be that son of David either. But we, brothers, let us believe, and say: for with the heart one believes unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation: let us believe, I say, and say both son of David, and Lord of David. Let us not blush at the son of David, lest we find the Lord of David angry.

5. For by this name those blind men, most rightly calling him as he passed by, deserved to be enlightened. For Jesus was passing by, and they, having heard the sound of the passing crowd, recognizing already by the ear what they could not yet by the eyes, cried out with a great voice, and said: Have mercy on us, son of David (Matt 20:30). But the crowds rebuked them, that they should be silent: and they nonetheless, by desire of the light, conquering the contradiction of the crowds, persevered in crying out; they held him passing by; and from the one who touched them they deserved to be enlightened. For they said to him as he passed: Have mercy on us, son of David. He stood, and, the cry of those contradicting being conquered by them: What, he says, do you wish that I do for you? And they: Lord, that we may see (Matt 20:32-33). He touched and opened their eyes; they saw present the one they had perceived passing by. The Lord did, then, something transitory: but there is another thing that stands. One thing, I say, is the transitory of the Lord, another the stable of the Lord. The transitory of the Lord: the birth of the Virgin, the incarnation of the Word, the gradation of ages, the showing of miracles, the enduring of sufferings, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven: all this was transitory. For Christ is not still being born, or still dying, or still rising, or still ascending into heaven. Do you not see that these deeds ran through times, exhibited through times to the wayfarers something transitory, lest they remain on the way, but reach the homeland? Finally, those blind men too were sitting by the way, there they perceived him passing by, and by crying out held him. On the way, then, of this age the Lord worked this transitory thing of his, and this transitory thing pertains to the son of David. Therefore those said to the passing Lord: Have mercy on us, son of David. As if they said: We recognize the son of David in the one passing by, we learn the son of David made in passing. Let us too, then, recognize, and confess the son of David, that we may deserve to be enlightened. For we perceive the son of David passing by, and are enlightened by the Lord of David.

6. Behold, then, since our Master asked the Jews, and they for this reason did not answer, because they were unwilling to be disciples; behold, if he asked us, what would we answer? The Jews failed in this question, let the Christians make progress; let them not be disturbed, but instructed. For the Lord does not ask wishing to learn, but asks as it were a teacher. Let the wretched Jews say: You, tell us. They preferred to be burst by puffed-up taciturnity, than to be taught by humble confession. Let our Master, then, tell us, and let us see what we may answer the one asking: What do you think of Christ? whose son is he? Let us altogether answer what the Jews did, but not remain where the Jews did. Let us recall the Gospel which we believe: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David. Let not the fact that we are asked cause us to forget that Christ is the son of David, which the Apostle commends to memory; Come, Christian, remember that Christ Jesus rose from the dead, from the seed of David. Therefore let us be asked and answer: What do you think of Christ? whose son is he? Let Christian mouths say in concord: David's. Let the Teacher too rejoin, and recall to us: How then does David in the spirit call him Lord? The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies under your feet. How would we say it, unless we learned it from you? Now, then, because we have learned it, we say: In the beginning you were the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; all things were made through you: behold the Lord of David. But because of our weakness, because, despairing flesh, we lay, the Word became flesh, that you might dwell among us: behold the son of David. Certainly, when you were in the form of God, you did not think it robbery to be equal to God; therefore the Lord of David: but you emptied yourself, taking the form of a servant; thence the son of David. Finally, even in your very question, saying, How is he his son? you did not deny him to be his son, but inquired the manner in which it might be. He calls him, you say, David, Lord; how is he his son? I do not deny, but say how. Those, then, from the Scriptures which they read, and did not understand, if in that question they recalled the manner, would they not answer: How do you ask? Behold, a virgin will conceive in the womb, and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is interpreted, God with us (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:23). A virgin will conceive in the womb, a virgin of the seed of David will bear a son, that he may be the son of David: for Joseph and Mary were of the house and lineage of David. So that virgin bore, that he might be the son of David. But the one she bore, they will call his name Emmanuel, God with us: behold, you have the Lord of David too.

7. Something perhaps about this matter, how Christ is both son of David, and Lord of David, this psalm too will intimate to us. Let us hear, then, and treat it; let us knock with piety, let us wring it out with love. David himself, then, says it: for it is not lawful to contradict the Lord: David, he says, in the spirit calls him Lord. David himself, then, what does he say of Christ? For: A Psalm for David himself: and this is the whole title, simple, without the figure of a question, without any knot of difficulty. What, then, does David say? The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. What is, a footstool for your feet; this is, under your feet: for the footstool of the feet is under the feet. He said, he says, the Lord, to my Lord. David heard this, heard it in the spirit: where we, when he heard, did not hear; but we believed him who heard, speaking and writing what he heard. He heard, then, surely, he heard in a certain secret chamber of truth, in a certain sanctuary of mysteries: where the Prophets heard in secret what they preached openly; there David heard, who with great confidence says: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. We know that Christ sits at the right hand of the Father after the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into the heavens. It is now done; we did not see it, but believed: in the Books we read, preached we heard, by faith we hold. Whence even by the very fact that Christ was the son of David, he was made the Lord of David. For that which was born of the seed of David was so honored that it was even the Lord of David. So you wonder at this, as if such things did not happen even in human affairs. For if it should happen that someone's son becomes king, his father being a private man, will he not be lord of his father? More wonderful is what can happen, that not only a private man's son, made king, is lord of his father; but a layman's son, made bishop, is father of his father. Therefore even by the very fact that Christ took flesh, that he died in the flesh, that he rose again in the same flesh, that he ascended into heaven in the same and sits at the right hand of the Father, and in that same flesh so honored, so glorified, so changed into a heavenly habit, he is both son of David, and Lord of David. For according to this dispensation of the passing of Christ, that too is said by the Apostle: Wherefore God exalted him from the dead, and gave him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil 2:9-10). He gave him, he says, the name which is above every name: to Christ according to man, to Christ according to the flesh dead, rising, ascending, he gave the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Where will David be, that he is not his Lord? Be he in heaven, be he on earth, be he under the earth; his Lord will be the one who is Lord of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. Let David too, then, rejoice with us, honored by the nativity of his son, freed from his dominion; and rejoicing let him say, let him be heard by those rejoicing: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet.

8. Sit, not only on high, but also in secret: excelling that you may have dominion, hidden that you may be believed. For what would be the reward of faith, unless that which we believe were hidden? But the reward of faith is to see what we believed before we saw. But as Scripture sounds: The just lives by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17). There would not, then, be the righteousness of faith, unless that which, preached, we should believe, were hidden, and by believing we should arrive at seeing. For how great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you! Have you hidden it, then, and have they remained? Far from it: But you have perfected it for those who hope in you (Ps 31:19 (30:20)). A wonderful mystery, then, of Christ sitting at the right hand of God: it is hidden that it may be believed, withdrawn that it may be hoped for. For by hope we were made safe. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what one sees, why does he hope for it? These are the words of the Apostle. You recognize them indeed, but I commend them for the sake of the untaught. What, then, does the Apostle say? By hope, he says, we were made safe. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what one sees, why does he hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, with patience we wait for it (Rom 8:24-25). Because, then, that which is seen is not hope; You hid the sweetness for those who fear you. Because that which we do not see, we hope for, and through patience wait for; You perfected it for those who hope in you. Finally, dearest ones, attentively receive what I am about to say. Since our righteousness is from faith, and by faith our hearts are cleansed, that we may be able to see what we have believed: for both are set down; both: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8); and: By faith cleansing their hearts (Acts 15:9). Because, then, this is the righteousness of faith, to believe what you do not see, and by the very merit of faith to arrive at the vision in its own time; the Lord in the Gospel, when he promised the Holy Spirit, said this: He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). Of what sin? of what righteousness? of what judgment? He himself goes on and expounds; he does not admit human conjectures: Of sin indeed, he says, because they did not believe in me. How many other sins of the Jews! And yet as if this were the only one, he so said: Of sin indeed, because they did not believe in me. This is that sin, of which elsewhere he says: If I had not come, they would not have sin (John 15:22). What is this: If I had not come, they would not have sin? Did you, then, come to the just, and make them sinners? But, other sins excepted, which could be remitted through faith, he named this one sin, which, if it were not admitted, all would be relaxed. Of sin indeed, he says, because they did not believe in me: and elsewhere: If I had not come, they would not have sin. For by the very fact that he came and they did not believe in him, they fell into sin: which if they did not fall into, all the other sins could be forgiven through the indulgence of grace obtained through faith. Therefore of sin, because they did not believe in me: of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will no longer see me (John 16:9-10). This is righteousness, because you go to the Father, and they will no longer see you: for this righteousness is from faith. For the just lives by faith; and then he lives by faith, if he does not see what he believes. Because, then, it pertains to righteousness to live by faith, and no one lives by faith except by not seeing what he believes; that he might make righteousness itself in men, that is, that they might believe what they do not see: Of righteousness, he says, because I go to the Father, and you will no longer see me. This, he says, will be your righteousness, that you believe in him whom you do not see, and, cleansed by faith, may afterward, on the day of resurrection, see him in whom you believed.

9. Christ sits, then, at the right hand of God, the Son is at the right hand of the Father in secret: let us believe. For he says two things here, because both God said: Sit at my right hand; and he added, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet, that is, under your feet. You do not see Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father: at least you can see how his enemies are set as a footstool for his feet. When this is fulfilled openly, believe that the other is in secret. What enemies are set as a footstool for his feet? Those to whom, meditating empty things, it is said: Why did the nations rage, and the peoples meditate empty things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together into one, against the Lord and against his Christ; and they said: Let us break their bonds, and cast off from us their yoke: let them not have dominion over us, let them not subject us to themselves. He who dwells in the heavens will mock them (Ps 2:1-4): you were an enemy; you will be under his feet, either adopted, or conquered. Seek, then, what place you have under the feet of the Lord your God; for you must have one, either of grace, or of punishment. He sits, then, at the right hand of God, until his enemies are set under his feet. This is done, this is being carried out: even if it is accomplished little by little, it is accomplished unceasingly. For though the nations rage, and the peoples meditate empty things; though the kings of the earth stand up, and the princes gather together into one, against the Lord and against his Christ: will they, by raging, by meditating empty things, by gathering against Christ into one, bring it about that this be not fulfilled: I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and your possession the ends of the earth? (Ps 2:8) It will be wholly fulfilled, both with them raging, and with them meditating empty things: I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and your possession the ends of the earth. For they meditate empty things: but that there be fulfilled, I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and your possession the ends of the earth; not some empty-speaker, but the Lord said to me (Ps 2:7). So in this psalm too we can say: He said, not anyone whatever, not those who rage and meditate empty things; but The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. Let them rage, let them meditate empty things, let them make a din; will it not be fulfilled? Their memory perished with a din. Certainly another psalm too speaks, but not another spirit: Their memory perished with a din, and the Lord abides forever (Ps 9:6-7 (9:7-8)). He, then, who, their memory perishing with a din, abides forever, he himself said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand. For he sits at the right hand of the Father, until he set all his enemies as a footstool for his feet.

10. [v. 2.] And what follows? The Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion. It appears, brothers, most evidently it appears that the Prophet does not speak of that kingdom of Christ by which he always reigns with the Father, Lord of the things which were created through him: for when does the Word, God with God, not reign in the beginning? For it is said: But to the King of the ages, invisible, incorruptible, the only God, honor and glory, for ages of ages (1 Tim 1:17). To the King of the ages honor and glory, for ages of ages: to what King of the ages? Invisible, incorruptible. For in that Christ too is with the Father invisible and incorruptible, because he is his Word, and his Power, and his Wisdom, and God with God, through whom all things were made; he is the King of the ages: but yet that dispensational and transitory thing, by which he called us through the medium of his flesh into eternity, his kingdom begins from the Christians; but of his kingdom there will be no end. His enemies, then, are set as a footstool for his feet, as he sits at the right hand of the Father; they are set, as was said; this is done, this is being carried out wholly to the end. Let no one say that what has begun cannot be fulfilled. Why do you despair of the end of what has begun? The Almighty began, the Almighty promised that he would fulfill what he began. But whence did he begin? The Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion. Which Zion is itself Jerusalem. Hear the Lord himself: Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day (See Luke 24:46). Hence he sits at the right hand of God the Father, by rising again where he was. Then, with him sitting at the right hand of the Father, what is done? that his enemies be set as a footstool for his feet, what is done? Hear him teaching and expounding: And there will be preached in his name repentance and remission of sins through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47); because: The Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion. The rod of your power, that is, the kingdom of your might; because: You will rule them with a rod of iron (Ps 2:9): the Lord will send forth out of Zion; because: Beginning from Jerusalem.

11. When, then, he has sent forth out of Zion the rod of his power, what will happen? And have dominion in the midst of your enemies. First, have dominion in the midst of your enemies: among the raging nations. For will he, after the saints have received their honor, and the impious their damnation, have dominion in the midst of his enemies? And what wonder if then he will have dominion, the just reigning with him forever, and the impious burning in eternal punishments? what wonder if then? Now in the midst of your enemies, now in this passing of the ages, in this propagation and succession of human mortality, now while the torrent of times glides by, for this the rod of your power is directed out of Zion, that you may have dominion in the midst of your enemies. Have dominion, have dominion in the midst of the pagans, the Jews, the heretics, the false brothers. Have dominion, have dominion, son of David, Lord of David, have dominion in the midst of the pagans, the Jews, the heretics, the false brothers. Have dominion in the midst of your enemies. We do not rightly understand this verse, if we do not now see it being done. Sit, then, at the right hand of God, hide yourself that you may be believed, until the times of the nations are fulfilled. For so it is written: Whom heaven had to receive, until the times of the nations are fulfilled (See Acts 3:21; Luke 21:24). For that you might rise, you died; that you might ascend, you rose; that you might sit at the right hand of the Father, you ascended: therefore that you might sit at the right hand of the Father, you died. For from death is resurrection, from resurrection ascension, from ascension the sitting at the right hand: all this, then, began from death. The excellence of this brightness has the beginning of humility. With you, therefore, sitting at the right hand of the Father, the times of the nations are fulfilled, all the enemies are set as a footstool for your feet, and that this may be reached, you will first have dominion in the midst of your enemies: for to this end the Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion. But that you might die, and through your death the bond of sins be blotted out, and repentance and remission of offenses be preached through all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem, the blindness of the Jews brought about. For the enlightening of some, the blindness of others served: For blindness in part has come upon Israel, that the fullness of the nations might enter, and so all Israel be saved (Rom 11:25-26). Blindness in part has come upon Israel killed you; killed, you rose again, by your blood you washed away the sins of the nations, sitting at the right hand of the Father you gathered from every quarter those suffering and fleeing to you. Blindness has come upon Israel in part, it has come that the fullness of the nations might enter, and so all Israel be saved, and all your enemies be a footstool for your feet. But this now; afterward, what?

12. [v. 3.] With you is the beginning in the day of your power. What is this day of his power? When the beginning is with him, or what beginning, or how the beginning is with him; since he himself too is the beginning? May the Lord help, that it be disturbed neither for me to say, nor for you to hear. For I see what has already been done, and with you I see it with the eyes of faith: with the eyes of the flesh too I see what is now being done, and again with the eyes of faith with you I hope for what is to be. What, then, has been done? what is being done? what is to be? Christ suffered, died, rose on the third day, ascended into heaven, as we know, on the fortieth day, sits at the right hand of the Father: this has now been done, this we did not see, but believe. What is now being done? He has dominion in the midst of his enemies, the rod of his power being sent forth out of Zion; this is being done, this is being carried out. The servants then saw the form of a servant present; and the servants now believe it absent. This we believe of the form of a servant, which we can grasp, while we are still servants. For this is that milk of the little ones, which he tempered, passing the bread through the flesh. For that bread of the angels, in the beginning was the Word: yet that man might eat the bread of the angels, the Creator of the angels became man. So the incarnate Word became receivable for us: which we would not be able to receive, if the Son, equal to God, did not empty himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man (Phil 2:7). So that we might in some way grasp him who could not be grasped by mortals, the immortal became mortal; that, his death accomplished, he might make us immortal, and give something to be gazed upon, something to be believed, something afterward to be seen. He gave the form of a servant to be gazed upon by those present, not only to be seen by the eyes, but even to be handled by the hands. With the same form he ascended into heaven; he bade us believe what he granted them to see. But we too have what we may see: for they saw the rod sent forth out of Zion, we see him have dominion in the midst of his enemies. All this, brothers, pertains to the dispensation of the servile form, which is tolerably grasped by servants, and loved by those who will be free. For the unchangeable Truth which is the Word of God, God with God, through whom all things were made, abiding in himself makes all things new (Wis 7:27). That we may see this, great and perfect cleanness of heart is necessary, which is made through faith. For the form of a servant being shown, it was deferred to the showing of the form of God. For he himself, speaking in the form of a servant to servants, says: He who loves me, keeps my commandments: and he who loves me will be loved by my Father; and I will love him, and show myself to him (John 14:21). To those seeing him he promised that he would show himself. What did they see? what did he promise? They saw the form of a servant, he promised the form of God. I will show, he says, myself to him. This is the brightness to which the kingdom is led which is now gathered in the passing of this age: for it is led to a certain ineffable vision, which the impious will not deserve. But the form of a servant, when it was here, was seen by the impious: those who believed saw it, those who killed him saw it too. Lest you suppose it something great to see that form, friends saw it, enemies saw it; and some seeing killed him, some not seeing believed. This form of a servant, then, which here in lowliness both the pious and the impious saw, both the pious and the impious will see in the judgment too. For when the Lord was borne into heaven before the eyes of his disciples, an angelic voice sounded to those gazing on him: Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus will so come, as you saw him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). So, then, so, in the same form: because of the impious it was said: They will see him whom they pierced (John 19:37; Zech 12:10). They will see going to judge the one they mocked being judged. This form of a servant, then, will be conspicuous in the judgment both to the just and the unjust, both to the pious and the impious, both to the faithful and the unbelieving. What, then, will the impious not see? For those of whom it was said, They will see him whom they pierced; of them again it was said: Let the impious be taken away, that he not see the brightness of the Lord (Isa 26:10 LXX). What is this, brothers? Let us distinguish, let us examine. The impious is roused, to see something; the impious is taken away, that he not see something. What he is going to see, we have already shown; that form of which it was said: So he will come. What, then, will he not see? And I will show myself to him. What is it, myself? Not the form of a servant. What is it, myself? The form of God, in which I did not think it robbery to be equal to God. What is it, myself? Most beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we will be: we know that when it appears, we will be like him; for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2). This brightness of God is the ineffable light, the fountain of light without changeableness, truth without failing, wisdom abiding in itself, making all things new: this is the substance of God. And so the impious will be taken away, that he not see this honor of the Lord. For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt 5:8).

13. It seems to me, then, brothers, as far as the Lord deigns to impart to our capacity, that it is of that very time: if indeed it should be called time; for at a certain time we are to come to the no-time: thence it seems to me said (which I say without prejudice, if anyone can understand something better, more readily, more probably): thence it seems to me said: With you is the beginning in the day of your power. Finally this, as I think, the following verse explains sufficiently. For because here too his power was named, by which he subjected the nations to his yoke, by which he laid the peoples low, not by iron, but by wood, even though in the flesh, even though in lowliness, even though as yet as far as the servile form allows, yet his great power is grasped; because what is weak of God is stronger than men: because, then, his power was named here too, which he commended by saying: The Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion, and have dominion in the midst of your enemies: for how great is his power, having dominion in the midst of his enemies making a din, availing nothing against him, daily saying to themselves: When will he die, and his name perish? (Ps 41:5 (40:6)) while his glory grows among the peoples, while the nations are subjected to his name, while the sinner sees and is angry, gnashes his teeth and wastes away (Ps 112:10 (111:10)): because, then, this too is his power, the Prophet, wishing to commend in another way his power, as Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God in the perpetual light of unchangeable truth; for which vision we are kept, for which vision we are deferred, for which vision we are cleansed by faith, from which vision the impious is taken away, lest he see the honor of the Lord; wishing, then, to show this: With you, he says, is the beginning in the day of your power. What is it, With you is the beginning? Suppose any beginning. If Christ himself; it would rather be said: You are the beginning, than With you is the beginning. For he answered those asking, Who are you, and said: The Beginning, who also speak to you (John 8:25): since the Father too is a beginning, of whom is the only-begotten Son, in which beginning was the Word, because the Word was with God. What, then, if both the Father is a beginning, and the Son a beginning, are there two beginnings? Far from it. For just as the Father is God and the Son is God, but the Father and the Son are not two gods, but one God: so the Father is a beginning and the Son a beginning, but the Father and the Son are not two, but one beginning. With you is the beginning. Then you will be seen how the beginning is with you. For neither here is the beginning not with you. For did you not say: Behold, you will each go to your own, and leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me? (John 16:32) So here too with you is the beginning. For you said elsewhere too: But the Father, abiding in me, does his works (John 14:10). With you is the beginning; nor was the Father ever separated from you. But when it will be seen that the beginning is with you, then it will be manifest to all now made like you; for they will see you as you are: for here Philip saw you, and sought the Father. Then, then, will be seen what is now believed: then with you is the beginning, the saints seeing, the just seeing; the impious being taken away from the midst, that they not see the honor of the Lord.

14. Now, then, let us believe, brothers, what we shall then see. For Philip too was rebuked because he sought to see the Father, when in the Son himself he did not recognize the Father: So long a time I am with you, and you have not known me? Philip, he who has seen me, has seen the Father too (John 14:9). But he who has seen me, not he who has seen in me the form of a servant. He, then, who has seen me, such as I hid myself from those who fear me, such as I perfect myself to be seen by those who hope in me, has seen the Father too. But because this vision will be afterward, now in its place what shall we have? Let us see what he says to Philip, to whom he had said: He who has seen me, has seen the Father. As if Philip silently answered him: And how shall I see you, if you are seen otherwise than in the form of a servant? or how shall I see the Father, a weak mortal man, dust and ashes? turning to him, deferring the vision, commanding faith, he who had said, He who has seen me, has seen the Father; because it was too much for Philip, and far from him to see: Do you not believe, he says, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? (John 14:10) What you cannot yet see, believe, that you may deserve to see. When, then, it has come about that we see, then it will appear: With you is the beginning in the day of your power. Of your power: not of the power of your weakness, because there is the power. Of your power: men now have in faith, in hope, in love, in good works their own powers; but they will go from powers unto power (Ps 84:7 (83:8)). With you, then, is the beginning: you will be seen with the Father, in the Father, so that the Father is with you the beginning in the day of your power, that power of yours which the impious will not see. For this weakness of yours too is stronger than men: for indeed in the day of your power is the beginning with you.

15. Of what power do you speak, expound. Because here too, as was said, his power was named, when the rod of his power is sent forth out of Zion, that he may have dominion in the midst of his enemies. Of what power do you speak? In the splendor of the saints. In the splendor, he says, of the saints. He speaks of that power, when the saints will be in splendor: not when, still bearing earthly flesh and groaning in a mortal and corruptible body, which weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind thinking of many things; when the very thoughts of one another are not seen, this is not it: In the splendor of the saints. But what is it, In the splendor of the saints? Until the Lord comes, and lights up the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then there will be praise for each one from God (1 Cor 4:5). This will be: In the splendor of the saints; because then the just will shine in the kingdom of their Father, like the sun. For hear what this is: In the splendor of the saints. There will come, he says, the harvest, there will come the end of the age: the householder will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and cast them into the furnace of burning fire. Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:39-43). In what kingdom? See whether a certain vision is reserved, of which it was said to us: With you is the beginning. In what kingdom? Certainly in eternal life. For to those set on the right he is going to say this: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world (Matt 25:34). Then, the impious being damned, the just separated and praised, what follows what he had said, Receive the kingdom? Then the impious will go into eternal burning, but the just into eternal life (Matt 25:46). What he had said kingdom, this he said eternal life, into which the impious will not go. See whether eternal life is a certain vision: But this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3); because with you is the beginning in the day of your power. Therefore: With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the splendor of the saints.

16. But this is deferred, this will be given afterward: what now? From the womb before the daystar I begot you. What here: If God has a Son, does he have a womb too? Like the bodies of flesh, he does not have one: because neither a bosom; yet it was said: He who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him (John 1:18). But what is the bosom, that is the womb; and both bosom and womb are set for what is secret. What is it, From the womb? From the secret, from the hidden; from myself, from my substance; this is, From the womb: because: His generation who will declare? (Isa 53:8) Let us take, then, the Father saying to the Son: From the womb before the daystar I begot you. What is it, then, before the daystar? The daystar is set for the stars, as if Scripture from a part signifying the whole, and by the eminent star all the stars. But how were those stars made? That they may be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years (Gen 1:14). If, then, the stars were set both for signs and for seasons, and the daystar was named for the stars; what is before the daystar, this is before the stars; and what is before the stars, this is before the seasons; if, then, before the seasons, from eternity: do not ask when; eternity has no when. "When" and "at some time" are words of times. From the Father he was not born in time, through whom the times were made. It was said, then, as it had to be said, figuratively, prophetically, so that both the womb is set for the secret substance, and the daystar for the times. Or do you wish that we look at David himself, who called his Lord his son? For to say this, he heard it from his Lord; from him he heard it by whom he could not be deceived: and he already called him his Lord, because: The Lord said, he says, to my Lord: Sit at my right hand. And he himself speaks, his as it were discourse is woven. If, then, he himself speaks, perhaps he himself could say: From the womb before the daystar I begot you: from the virginal womb, from the womb before the daystar I begot you. For if that virgin, drawing her line from the flesh of David, Christ being born of that womb, as it were begotten from the womb by David. From the womb, which no male approached: from the womb indeed, properly from the womb, because alone from a sole womb. Therefore: From the womb, says that one, who had called him his Lord: From the womb before the daystar I begot you. And this very before the daystar was signally said, and properly said, and so fulfilled. For the Lord was born by night from the womb of the virgin Mary: the testimonies of the shepherds indicate it, who were keeping watch over their flock. From the womb before the daystar I begot you. O you, my Lord, sitting at the right hand of my Lord, whence my son, except because From the womb before the daystar I begot you?

17. [v. 4.] And for what were you born? The Lord swore, and it will not repent him: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For to this end were you born from the womb before the daystar, that you might be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. If we understand born from the womb, of the virgin; before the daystar, by night, as the Gospels attest; without doubt thence from the womb before the daystar, that he might be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For according to that by which he was born of the Father, God with God, coeternal with the begetter, he is not a priest; but a priest because of the flesh assumed, because of the victim which he would offer for us, received from us. The Lord swore, then. What is it, The Lord swore? Does the Lord, then, swear, who forbids man to swear? Or does he perhaps for this reason rather forbid man to swear, lest he slip into perjury, and therefore God rather swears, because he cannot be perjured? For man, who by the habit of swearing can slip in tongue into perjury, is well forbidden to swear: for he will be the further from perjury, the further he is from swearing. For man, who swears, can swear false and true: but he who does not swear. Why, then, should the Lord not swear, when the oath of the Lord is the confirmation of the promise? Let him by all means swear. What, then, do you do, when you swear? You call God to witness: this is to swear, to call God to witness; and therefore it is troublesome, lest you bring God as witness to some falsehood. If, then, you by swearing call God to witness, why should not God too by swearing call himself to witness? As I live, says the Lord, is an oath of God. So he swore concerning the seed of Abraham: As I live, says the Lord; because you have heard my voice, and have not spared your only son for my sake, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and like the sand which is on the lip of the sea, and in your seed all the nations will be blessed (See Gen 22:16-18). And the seed of Abraham which is Christ, that seed of Abraham, taking flesh from the seed of Abraham, will be a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Concerning the priesthood, then, according to the order of Melchizedek, the Lord swore, and it will not repent him. What of the priesthood according to the order of Aaron? Does it repent God, as a man, or does he, unwilling, fall into something so as to do it, or imprudent slip, so that afterward it repents him of his slip? He knows what he does, he knows how far anything proceeds; whence it may be changed into something else, is in the power of the ruler. But by repentance a change of things is signified. For just as you, when something repents you, grieve over a thing you have done: so when God changes anything into something else, beyond the hope of men, that is, beyond what men hope, he is said to repent; even so far that it even repents him of our punishment, if we have repented of our bad life. The Lord swore, then; he swore, he confirmed: it will not repent him, he will not change it. What? You are a priest forever. Therefore forever, because it will not repent him. But a priest, according to what? Will there be those sacrifices, the victims offered by the Patriarchs, the altars of blood and the tabernacle, and those sacraments of the first Old Testament? Far from it. Now those are taken away, the temple now overthrown, that priesthood removed, their victim and sacrifice perishing: these the Jews do not even have. They see that the priesthood according to the order of Aaron has now perished, and they do not recognize the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. I speak to the faithful. If the catechumens do not understand something, let them put away laziness, let them hasten to knowledge. There is no need, then, to bring forth the mysteries; let the Scriptures intimate to you what is the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek.

18. [v. 5.] The Lord at your right hand. The Lord had said: Sit at my right hand; now the Lord is at his right hand, as if they had changed seats. Or is it perhaps rather thus: The Lord swore, and it will not repent him: You are a priest forever, said to Christ? You are a priest forever, the Lord swore. What Lord? He who said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, he himself swore. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek; and to the very Lord who swore, the discourse is directed: The Lord at your right hand. O Lord, who swore and said: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek; that very priest forever, the Lord is at your right hand; that very one, I say, priest forever, of whom you swore: the Lord is at your right hand: because to that same my Lord you said: Sit at my right hand, until I set your enemies as a footstool for your feet. That Lord, then, who is at your right hand, of whom you swore, and to whom you swore, saying: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. He shattered kings in the day of his wrath. He certainly, Christ, the Lord at your right hand, to whom you swore, and it will not repent you: what does the priest forever do? what does he do, who is at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us, as a priest entering into the inner parts or into the holy of holies, into the secrets of the heavens, he alone having no sin, and therefore easily cleansing from sins? He, then, at your right hand shattered kings in the day of his wrath. What kings, do you ask? Has it slipped your mind: The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together into one, against the Lord and against his Christ? (Ps 2:2) These kings his glory shattered, and by the weight of his name made the kings weak, that they could not accomplish what they wished. For they tried much to blot the Christian name out of the earth, and could not; because he who strikes against that stone will be shattered (See Luke 20:18). They struck, then, against the stone of stumbling, and therefore the kings were shattered, when they say: Who is Christ? Some Jew, some Galilean, so killed, so dead. The stone is before your feet, lying as it were cheaply and humbly: therefore by scorning you strike against it, by striking you fall, by falling you are shattered. If, then, so great is the wrath of the hidden one, what will be the judgment of the manifest one? You have heard of the wrath of the hidden one, of which the psalm is inscribed: For the hidden things of the son: the ninth psalm, if I remember well, is inscribed: For the hidden things of the son; and there is shown the hidden judgment of the hidden wrath. With God angry they live who strike against that stone; they are shattered. And what avails it that they are shattered? Hear also concerning the future judgment: Because he who strikes against that stone, he says, will be shattered; but on whomever that stone falls, it will grind him to powder (Luke 20:18). When, then, he is struck against, he lies as it were humble; then he shatters: but when he will grind to powder, he will come from above. See how by these two words, "will shatter" and "will grind to powder," one strikes against him and the other he comes upon, two times are distributed, of the humility and the brightness of Christ, of the hidden punishment and the future judgment. He will not grind to powder, coming, the one he does not shatter, lying. Lying I say, as appearing contemptible. For he is at the right hand of God, and mightily from on high cried out: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 9:4) But yet, although from heaven, he would not say, Why do you persecute me? whom no one was touching, unless he so sat in heaven at the right hand of the Father, that he also as it were lay on earth in us. The Lord at your right hand, shattered kings in the day of his wrath.

19. [v. 6.] He will judge among the nations. But now: For the hidden things; for there will be a manifest judgment too: He will judge among the nations. For now it happens: Their memory perished with a din. In that very psalm it is, For the hidden things: Their memory perished with a din, and the Lord abides forever; he has prepared his seat in judgment, and he himself will judge the world in equity. There it was said: You rebuked the nations, and the impious perished; you blotted out their name forever (Ps 9:5-7 (9:6-8)): this is done in secret. In the day, then, of his wrath he shattered kings. He will judge among the nations. How? Hear what follows: He will fill up the ruins. Now he so judges among the nations that he fills up the ruins: for when at the end he will have judged, he will damn the ruins. He will fill up the ruins: what ruins? Whoever has feared from his name, will fall: when he has fallen, what was will be overthrown, that what was not may be built. He will judge among the nations, he will fill up the ruins. Whoever you are who are obstinate against Christ, you have erected on high a tower that will fall. It is good that you cast yourself down, become humble, fall prostrate at the feet of the one sitting at the right hand of the Father, that there be made in you a ruin to be built up. For if you remain in the bad height, then you will be cast down, when you will not be built up. For of such Scripture says in another place: Destroy them, and you will not build them up (Ps 28:5 (27:5)). Without doubt he would not say of some: Destroy them, and you will not build them up; unless he destroyed some so as to build them up. Which is done at this time, when Christ so judges among the nations that he fills up the ruins. He will shatter many heads upon the earth. Here, upon the earth, in this life, he will shatter many heads. Of the proud he makes the humble: and I dare to say, my brothers, it is useful, with head shattered, to walk humbly here, than with head erect to fall into the judgment of eternal death. He will shatter many heads by making ruins, but by filling up he will build.

20. [v. 7.] From the torrent in the way he will drink; therefore he will lift up his head. Let us see him too drinking from the torrent in the way. First, what is the torrent? The flowing-by of human mortality. For as a torrent is gathered from the rain-waters, overflows, makes a din, runs, and by running runs down, that is, finishes its course; so is all this course of mortality. Men are born; they live, they die; and, others dying, others are born, and again, those dying, others arise: they succeed, they come, they depart, nor will they remain. What is held here? what does not run? what does not, as if gathered from rain, go into the deep? For as a river, suddenly gathered from rain, from the drops of showers, goes into the sea, and does not appear; nor did it appear, before it was gathered from rain: so this human race is gathered from hidden things, and flows forth; by death it again goes into the hidden; in the middle it makes this din, and passes. From this torrent he drank; he did not disdain to drink from this torrent. For to drink from this torrent was for him to be born and to die. This the torrent has, nativity and death: this Christ took up; he was born, he died: so from the torrent in the way he drank. For he exulted as a giant to run the way (Ps 19:5 (18:6)). From the torrent, then, in the way he drank; because he did not stand in the way of sinners (Ps 1:1). Because, then, from the torrent in the way he drank; therefore he lifted up his head: that is, because he was humbled, "and was made subject unto death, even the death of the cross; therefore God exalted him from the dead, and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:8-11).

Exposition of Psalm 110

1. The days have come that we should sing Alleluia: be present in mind, brothers, to receive what the Lord suggests for our exhortation, and for the nourishing of love, by which it is good for us to cling to God (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). Be present in mind, good singers, sons of the praise and everlasting glory of the true and incorrupt God. Be present, intent, who know how to sing and sing psalms in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks in all things (Eph 5:19-20): and praise God; for this is Alleluia. And these days indeed come, about to pass, and pass, about to come, and they signify the day which does not come and pass, because it is neither preceded by a yesterday so that it may come, nor pressed by a tomorrow so that it may pass. To which indeed when we have come, clinging to it, we too will not pass: and as it is sung in a certain place to God, Blessed are those who dwell in your house: for ages of ages they will praise you (Ps 84:4 (83:5)); this will be the business of those at leisure, this the work of those at rest, this the action of the quiet, this the care of the secure. For just as these days solemnly succeed with welcome cheerfulness to the past days of Lent, by which the sorrow of this life before the resurrection of the Lord's body is signified: so that day which will be given after the resurrection to the full body of the Lord, that is, the holy Church, all the hardships and griefs of this life being shut out, will succeed with perpetual blessedness. But this life demands continence of us, that even with labor and struggle groaning, weighed down, and desiring our dwelling which is from heaven to be put on over us; we should temper ourselves from worldly delights: and this is signified by the number forty, by which both Moses and Elijah and the Lord himself fasted. For it is commanded us both from the Law, and from the Prophets, and from the Gospel itself (which has its testimony from the Law and the Prophets; whence too on the mountain the Savior shone in the midst between the two persons), that we restrain our eagerness as it were by the fast of temperance, from all the allurements of the world, by which captive men forget God; as long as the perfection of the Decalogue of the Law, as it were a psaltery of ten strings, is preached through the four parts of the same world, that is, in the whole world, so that ten taken four times signify the number forty. But by the number fifty after the resurrection of the Lord, in which we sing Alleluia, not the end and passing of any time, but that blessed eternity is signified; because, ten being added to forty, to the faithful laboring in this life that reward is paid which the householder prepared equal both for the first and for the last. Let us hear, then, the breast of the people of God full of divine praise. Behold, there sounds in this psalm a certain one exulting with happy exultation, prefiguring too a people gushing in heart in the love of God, namely the body of Christ, freed from all evil.

2. [vv. 1, 2.] I will confess to you, he says, O Lord, with my whole heart. Confession is not always of sins, but the praise of God too is brought forth by the devotion of confession. The former mourns, the latter rejoices; the former shows the wound to the physician, the latter gives thanks for health. This confession signifies a certain one, not only freed from all evil, but even separated from all the malign. And therefore let us see where he confesses to the Lord with his whole heart. In the council, he says, of the upright, and in the congregation: I believe, those who will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. For now no wicked one is among them, the thefts of no Judas are tolerated, no Simon Magus is baptized, wishing to buy the Spirit, while he thinks to sell it; no Alexander the coppersmith shows many evils, no one covered with a sheep's skin creeps in with false brotherhood: among such as now the Church must groan, and such as it then must shut out, when all the just will be gathered. These are the great works of the Lord, sought out into all his wills: through which his mercy deserts no one confessing, no one's iniquity is unpunished; since he scourges even every son whom he receives. But if the just is scarcely saved, where will the sinner and the impious appear? Let a man choose for himself whatever he wills: the works of the Lord are not so constituted that the creature, set in free choice, should overcome the will of the Creator, even if it acts against his will. God does not will that you sin; for he forbids it: yet if you have sinned, do not suppose that the man has done what he willed, and that to God has befallen what he did not will. For just as he wills that man not sin, so he wills to spare the sinner, that he turn back and live; so finally he wills to punish the one persevering in sin, that the obstinate one not escape the power of justice. So whatever you choose, the Almighty will not lack a means by which to fulfill his will concerning you. For great are the works of the Lord, sought out into all his wills.

3. [v. 3.] Confession and magnificence is his work. What is more magnificent than to justify the impious? But perhaps the work of man comes before this magnificence of God, so that, when he has confessed his sins, he may deserve to be justified. For the Publican went down from the temple justified rather than the Pharisee; because he did not dare even to lift his eyes to heaven, but struck his breast, saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13-14). This is the magnificence of the Lord, the justification of the sinner: since he who humbles himself will be exalted; and he who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 18:14). This is the magnificence of the Lord; since to whom much is forgiven, he loves much. This the magnificence of the Lord; since where sin abounded, grace too superabounded (Rom 5:20). But perhaps from works. Not, he says, from works, lest perhaps anyone be exalted. For we are his formation, created in Christ in good works (Eph 2:9-10). For man does not work righteousness except being justified: but believing in him who justifies the impious (Rom 4:5), he begins from faith; so that good works, not preceding what he deserved, but following what he received, may show it. Whence, then, that confession? It is not yet indeed a work of righteousness, but the disapproval of an offense: but however it may be, do not even in that, O man, glory in yourself, that he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31). For what do you have that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7) Not, then, only the magnificence by which the impious is justified, but both confession and magnificence is his work. What, then, do we say? that he has mercy on whom he wills, and hardens whom he wills; is there iniquity with God? Far from it (Rom 9:18, 14). For his righteousness abides for the age of the age. But you, O man of this age, who are you who answer God? (Rom 9:20)

4. [vv. 4, 5.] He made a memorial of his wonders: humbling this one, and exalting that one. He made a memorial of his wonders: reserving opportunely unusual prodigies, which the weakness of man, intent on novelty, may remember, although his daily miracles are greater. He creates so many trees throughout the whole earth, and no one wonders: he dried up one by a word, and the hearts of mortals were stupefied; but he made a memorial of his wonders. For this miracle will most cling to attentive hearts, which constancy has not made cheap.

5. But what did the miracles profit, except that he might be feared? And further, what would fear profit, unless the merciful and compassionate Lord gave food to those who fear him? food which is not corrupted, bread which came down from heaven, which he gave by no merits. For indeed Christ died for the impious. No one, then, would give such food, except the merciful and compassionate Lord. But if he gave so much to this life, if the sinner to be justified received the Word made flesh; what will he, glorified, receive in the age to come? For he will be mindful for the age of his covenant. Nor did he give the whole who gave a pledge.

6. [vv. 6-9.] He will announce to his people the strength of his works. Let not the holy Israelites be saddened, who left all their things and followed him; let them not be saddened, saying: Who, then, will be able to be saved? Because it is easier for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of heaven (Matt 19:24-25). For he announced to them the strength of his works; since the things that are difficult for men are easy for God (See Luke 18:27). That he may give them the inheritance of the nations. For there was a going to the nations too, and it was commanded to the rich of this age not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches; but in the living God, to whom is easy what is difficult for men. For so many were called, so the inheritance of the nations was occupied, so it came to be that even very many who did not leave all their things in this life in order to follow him, even scorned that very life for the confession of his name; and as it were camels, humbling themselves to bear the burdens of afflictions, entered even as through the eye of a needle, through the pricking narrows of passion. He himself did these things, to whom all things are possible.

7. The works of his hands are truth and judgment. Let truth be held by those who are judged here. The martyrs are judged here, and are brought to the judgment, by which they may judge not only those by whom they were judged, but even the angels, against whom they had a wrestling, even when they seemed to be judged by men. Let not tribulation, distress, hunger, nakedness, the sword separate from Christ. For all his commandments are faithful: he does not deceive, he shows forth what he promised. Yet what he promised is not to be awaited here, not to be hoped for here; but they are confirmed for the age of the age, made in truth and justice. This is true and just, that here one labor, there one rest: because: He sent redemption to his people. But whence are they redeemed, except from the captivity of this pilgrimage? Therefore let rest be sought only in the heavenly homeland.

8. God indeed gave to the carnal Israelites the earthly Jerusalem, which is in slavery with her children (Gal 4:25): but this is the Old Testament, pertaining to the old man. But those who there understood the figure, stood forth even then as heirs of the New Testament; since the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother (Gal 4:26), eternal in the heavens. But by that old one, it was proved by the thing itself that he promised transitory things: For he commanded indeed his covenant for the age. But what, except the New? Of which, whoever you wish to be heir, I do not want you to deceive yourself, nor think carnally of a land flowing with milk and honey, do not meditate to attain pleasant estates, fruitful and shady gardens, or any such thing, such as the eye of greed is wont here to covet. For since cupidity is the root of all evils, it must be killed so that it be consumed here, not deferred so that it be satisfied there. First flee the punishments, avoid the Gehennas: before you desire God promising, beware of him threatening. For holy and terrible is his name.

9. [v. 10.] But instead of all the delights of this age, such as you have either experienced, or can increase and multiply by thinking, covet wisdom, the mother of immortal delights: but: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. She will delight, and without doubt will ineffably delight with the chaste and eternal embraces of truth: but first your debts must be granted, before the rewards are demanded. The beginning, then, of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Good is understanding. Who denies it? But to understand and not to do is dangerous. Good, then, for those who do it. Nor let it lift up the mind into pride. For of him whose fear is the beginning of wisdom: His praise abides for the age of the age: and this will be the reward, this the end, this the perpetual station and seat. There are found the faithful commandments, confirmed for the age of the age; this is the inheritance of the New Testament, the commandments for the age. One thing I asked, he says, of the Lord, this I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Ps 27:4 (26:4)). For blessed are those who dwell in the house of the Lord; for ages of ages they will praise him: since his praise abides for the age of the age.

Exposition of Psalm 111

1. [v. 1.] I believe that you attended, brothers, to the title of this psalm, and committed it to memory. The conversion, it says, of Haggai and Zechariah. These prophets were not yet, when these things were sung. For between the time of David, and the transmigration of the people of Israel into Babylon, fourteen generations are counted, as divine Scripture, and especially Matthew the evangelist, attests: but the renewal of the overthrown temple, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, was hoped for from that transmigration after seventy years: which, when they were being fulfilled, under Darius king of Babylon these two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, were filled with the Holy Spirit; and both, one after the other, within one year began to prophesy, which seems to pertain to the renewal of the temple, as was foretold so long before. But whoever fixes the eye of the heart on bodily deeds, and is not from there extended into the grace of spiritual understanding, dwells in thought upon the stones of the temple, by which the visible fabric, constructed by the hands of men, rises; nor is he himself made a living stone, fitted and apt to that temple, which the Lord first figured in his own body, when he said: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). For the body of the Lord is more fully the holy Church itself, whose head ascended into heaven, who is most of all the living stone, the cornerstone, of whom blessed Peter says: To whom coming, a living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and honored by God; you too, then, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual victims acceptable to God through Jesus Christ: because Scripture contains, Behold, I set in Zion a cornerstone, chosen, precious, and he who believes in him will not be confounded (1 Pet 2:4-6). Therefore, that each one may become a living stone fit for such a fabric, let him spiritually understand the renewal of the temple from the old ruin which was made in Adam, the repairing of the new people according to the new and heavenly man: that as we have borne the image of the earthly, we may bear too the image of him who is from heaven, by which we may, after all the ages of this world, as it were after seventy years, which are signified beforehand by a mystical number of perfection, and as it were after the captivity of a far-off pilgrimage, be constructed not into a mass that will fall, but be made solid in eternal immortality. For the spiritual Jerusalem, reckon to be no more the Jews' than yours. For as the Apostle says: You are now no longer strangers and aliens; but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, built up upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom every building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you too are built together into a dwelling of the Lord in the Spirit (Eph 2:19-22). This is the temple of God, to which pertains the sacrament of the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah: to which again the same apostle says: For the temple of God is holy, which you are (1 Cor 3:17). Whoever, then, converts himself to the work of this building-together, and to the hope of the holy and firm structure, as a living stone, from the ruinous downfall of this world; understands the title of the Psalm, understands the conversion of Haggai and Zechariah. Let him, then, sing what follows, not so much with the voice of the tongue, as of the life. For the perfection of the building will be that ineffable peace of wisdom, whose beginning is the fear of the Lord: thence, then, let him begin whom this conversion builds together.

2. [v. 1.] For blessed is the man who fears the Lord, in his commandments he will will exceedingly. Let God see, who alone both truly and mercifully judges, how much that man advances in his commandments: since human life on earth is a temptation (Job 7:1), as holy Job says. And again it is written: For the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind thinking of many things (Wis 9:15). But he who judges us is the Lord: nor ought we to judge before the time, until the Lord comes, and lights up the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart; and then there will be praise for each one from God. Let him, then, see how much each one advances in his commandments: yet he will will exceedingly who has loved the peace of that building-together; nor ought he now to despair, since in his commandments he will will exceedingly, and peace on earth to men of good will.

3. [vv. 2, 3.] Hence: His seed will be powerful on the earth. That the seed of the future harvest is the works of mercy, the Apostle is witness, who says: But let us not fail in doing good; for in our own time we will reap (Gal 6:9): and again: But this, he says, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly (2 Cor 9:6). But what, brothers, is more powerful than that the kingdom of heaven not only Zacchaeus buys with half of his goods, but even the widow with two mites, and each one possesses just as much there? what is more powerful than that the same kingdom avails both to the rich man with his treasures, and to the poor man with a cup of cold water? But there are those who do these things, while they seek earthly things, either hoping here for a reward from the Lord, or desiring to please men: but: The generation of the upright will be blessed, that is, their works, whose God is the good God of Israel, who are upright in heart; but the upright heart is, not to resist the Father correcting, and to believe him promising: not of those whose feet are moved, and their steps are poured out and slip, as is sung in another psalm, while they are zealous over sinners, seeing the peace of sinners, and suppose their works to perish, because a reward that will perish is not rendered to them. But that man who fears the Lord, and is fitted into the holy temple of God by the conversion of an upright heart, neither seeks the glory of men, nor covets earthly riches; and yet: Glory and riches are in his house. For his house is his heart; where, with God praising, he dwells more opulently with the hope of eternal life, than, with men flattering, in marbled and paneled roofs with the fear of eternal death. For his righteousness abides for the age of the age: this is his glory, these his riches. But the other man's purple and fine linen and splendid feasts, both when they are at hand, pass away; and when they have come to the end, his burning tongue will cry out, desiring a drop of water from the dripping finger.

4. [vv. 4-9.] A light has arisen in the darkness for the upright in heart. Rightly they direct their heart to their God, rightly they walk upright with their God, setting his will before themselves; and not proudly presuming anything of their own. For they remember that they were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. Merciful and compassionate and just is the Lord God. It delights that he is merciful and compassionate, but it frightens perhaps that he is a just Lord God. By no despair be afraid, blessed man who fear the Lord and will will exceedingly in his commandments: be sweet, have mercy and lend. For the Lord God is just in such a way that he makes judgment without mercy to him who did not do mercy: but sweet is the man who has mercy and lends; God does not remove him from his mouth, as if unsweet. Forgive, he says, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:37-38). In that you forgive, that it may be forgiven you, you have mercy; in that you give, that it may be given to you, you lend. For although by a general name all mercy is called by which the wretched are relieved, yet there is a difference where you expend neither the cost of money, nor the industry of bodily labor, but by forgiving what each one has sinned against you, freely obtain too pardon of your own sins. These two offices of kindness, of forgiving sins and of expending benefits, as in the Gospel which we commemorated, Forgive, and it will be forgiven you; give, and it will be given to you; so in this verse I think are distinguished: Sweet is the man who has mercy and lends. Let us not be lazy toward these things, brothers. He seeks glory who desires to be avenged; but attend to what is written: Better is he who conquers anger, than he who takes a city (Prov 16:32). He seeks riches who does not wish to give to the poor; attend to what is written: You will have treasure in heaven (Matt 19:21). You will not, then, be inglorious by forgiving; because over conquered anger one triumphs more praiseworthily: nor needy by giving; because the heavenly treasure is more surely possessed. This verse the earlier one was giving birth to: Glory and riches are in his house.

5. Whoever, then, does these things: He will arrange his words in judgment. The very deeds are the words by which he will be defended in judgment; which will not be for him without mercy, because he too did mercy. Since for the age he will not be moved: who, separated to the right, will hear: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the origin of the world (Matt 25:34). For there none of their things are commemorated except the works of mercy. He will hear, then: Come, blessed of my Father; because the generation of the upright will be blessed. So: In eternal memory the just will be: and from an evil hearing he will not fear; which will be said to those who will be on the left: Go into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41).

6. And so he who here does not seek his own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's; endures labors most patiently, awaits the promises trustingly: His heart is ready to hope in the Lord. Nor is he broken by any temptations: His heart is confirmed, he will not be moved, until he look upon his enemies. His enemies here wished to see good things, and when invisible things were promised to them, they said: Who will show us good things? (Ps 4:6 (4:7)) Let our heart, then, be confirmed, and let us not be moved, until we look upon our enemies. For they wish to see the good things of men dying on the earth; we believe we will see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.

7. But it is a great thing to have a confirmed heart and not be moved, when those rejoice who love what they see, and insult the one who hopes for what he does not see: and he will not be moved until he look, he too, not down to where his enemies are, but up upon his enemies, what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ascended into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him. How greatly is this worth which is not seen, and is bought for as much as each one has been able to have! For this that man too scattered, gave to the poor (Ps 112:9 (111:9)): he did not see, and bought; but he was keeping treasure in heaven, who deigned to hunger and thirst in the poor on earth. It is no wonder, then, if his righteousness abides for the age of the age: with that one as guardian who founded the ages. His horn will be exalted in glory: whose lowliness was scorned by the proud.

8. [v. 10.] The sinner will see, and be angry: namely that late and fruitless repentance. For with whom will he be angry more than with himself, when he will say: What did pride profit us? and what did the boasting of riches confer on us? (Wis 5:8) seeing the horn of that man exalted in glory, who scattered and gave to the poor. He will gnash with his teeth, and waste away: because there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For he will not put forth leaves, and grow green, as would happen if he repented at the opportune time; but he will then repent, when the desire of sinners will perish: with no succeeding consolation. The desire of sinners will perish, when all things will pass away like a shadow, when, the hay withering, the flower will fall. But the Word of the Lord, which abides forever, as it was mocked by the vanity of the false blessed, so will it laugh over the perdition of those same true wretched ones.

Exposition of Psalm 112

1. [vv. 1-3.] You know, brothers, and have most often heard the Lord say in the Gospel: Let the children come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven; and again: If anyone does not receive the kingdom of God like a child, he will not enter into it (See Mark 10:14-15): and in many other places our Lord, by the singular example of humility, accuses the pride of the old man, to renew his life humbly, by the likeness of childhood. Wherefore, dearest ones, when you hear it sung in the Psalms, Praise the Lord, you children, do not suppose that this exhortation does not pertain to you, because, having now passed beyond the childhood of the body, you either grow green in youthful beauty, or grow gray in the honor of old age: for to all of you the Apostle says: Do not become children in mind; but in malice be little ones, that in mind you may be perfect (1 Cor 14:20). By what malice most of all, except pride? For it, presuming on a vain greatness, does not allow a man to walk through the narrow way, and to enter through the strait gate: but a child easily enters through the narrow; and therefore no one, except as a child, enters into the kingdom of heaven. And what is worse than the malice of pride, which is unwilling to have even God as its superior? For it is written: The beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God (Sir 10:12). This, raising itself with swollen necks against the divine precepts, and resisting the sweet yoke of the Lord, cast down, break, crush, and consume, and praise the Lord, you children, praise the name of the Lord. For it being laid low and extinguished, praise is perfected out of the mouth of infants and sucklings; it being suppressed and blotted out, he who glories, may glory in the Lord. They do not sing these things who suppose themselves great; they do not sing these things who, knowing God, did not glorify him as God, or give thanks: they praise themselves, not God; for they are not children. They wish rather their own name to be proclaimed, and do not praise the name of the Lord. And so they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened; and saying themselves to be wise, they became fools: they wished their own name to be spread abroad most lengthily and most widely, themselves soon to pass into narrows. It befits God, it befits the Lord, to be proclaimed both always and everywhere. Always, then, let him be proclaimed: Let the name of the Lord be blessed, from now and unto the age. Everywhere let him be proclaimed: From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise the name of the Lord.

2. Let some one of the holy children praising the name of the Lord ask of me, and say to me: Behold, unto the age, I take as unto eternity; but why from now, and not before this and before all ages let the name of the Lord be blessed? I will answer the little one, who does not ask contumaciously: To you it is said, lords and children, to you it is said: Praise the name of the Lord: let the name of the Lord be blessed; let the name of the Lord be blessed by you, from now certainly, from when it is said to you. For you begin to praise, but praise without end. From now, then, and unto the age, praise without end. Do not say: We begin indeed to praise the Lord, because we are children; but when we have grown and become great, we will praise ourselves. Not so, children, not so: therefore the Lord says through Isaiah: I am he; and until you grow old, I am he (See Isa 46:4). He is always to be praised who is. Praise, you children, from now, praise, you old men, and unto the age. For your old age will indeed grow white with the gray hairs of wisdom, but will not wither with the oldness of the flesh. Or because in this place childhood seems rather to signify humility, to which is contrary the vain and false greatness of pride; and therefore none but children praise the Lord, because the proud do not know how to praise him: let your old age be childlike, and your childhood old; that is: that neither your wisdom be with pride, nor your humility without wisdom, that you may praise the Lord from now and unto the age. But wherever the Church of Christ is spread abroad in the holy little ones: Praise the name of the Lord: for this is: From the rising of the sun to its setting, praise the name of the Lord.