HOMILY 10
HOMILY 10
ON PSALM 76 (77)
TO THE Lord I cry; aloud to God, and he hears me; on the day of my distress I seek my God.'1 See how troubled he is, for he cries in loud appeal to God, God, God; yet there is but one God. 'Aloud to the Lord
I cry.' A loud cry is all the more necessary when the troubled heart is far away. This is what he is saying: because of my sins I am far away from You, and so I must cry out loud that in Your gracious mercy You may hear me. 'Aloud to God, and he hears me.' Another psalm echoes this same appeal: 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me.'2
'On the day of my distress I seek my God.' It is not always easy to do that. When we are in trouble we are dejected and think of nothing but our trouble; yet the best recourse in time of affliction is to pray earnestly to God. For example, I have lost a son, my house has burned down, I am reduced to beggary. I do not go around looking for what I have lost; I look for God. If I find Him, in Him I shall regain everything. 'Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be given you besides.'a 'By night my hands stretched out, and I am not deceived.'4
There is a variation here in the Hebrew: 'By night my hand is stretched out without flagging.' 'By night my hands stretched out': I cry aloud is understood. Notice that our good works cry out to the Lord even when we are silent. On that account,
1 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).2, 3.
2 Ps. 119.1.
3 Cf. Matt. 6.33.
4 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).3.
HOMILY 10
it says in Holy Writ: 'the Lord came by thj:! hand of Aggai the prophet.'5 The word did not come by his mouth-his speech-but by his hand through his deeds. 'For the kingdom of God is not in word'6 but in the hand-in works. 'By night my hands stretched out': I cried out, I cried out with my hands. Under similar circumstances the Lord said to Moses:
'Why are you crying out to me?'1 Certainly, it is not written that Moses cried to God; but just as the heart of the Apostle cried, 'Abba, Father,'S so did Moses' heart cry out. For that reason God says, Why do you cry out to Me? It is in this same spirit that Jeremia says: 'Let there be no repose for my eyes.'9 See, not even the pupil of our eye is silent; actually, we cry to God with our hands as many times as we cry to Him with our tears. 'By night stretched out.'
Again in another psalm, it says: 'During the hours of night lift up your hands toward the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.'l0
In the night of this world and in its darkness, while others were hurrying to their vices, I was offering up my deeds to You alone. 'And I am not deceived.'l1 Because it is thus that I have cried, with my works, I am not deceived. Two explanations are possible here: either my prayer has been answered, or I am not at all being deceived by the snares into which the devil tries to lure me. The Hebrew text says moreover:
'By night my hand is stretched out without flagging.' My hand is always stretched out to virtuous deeds; never is it drawn backward to sins.
'My soul refuses comfort.' My soul is so immersed in sin; I cannot console myself with any hope. 'When I remember
God, my spirits rise.'12.So deep is my soul in sin, I have not been able to find any comfort; but I turn my thoughts back
5 Cf. Ag. 1.1.
6 1 Cor. 4.20.
7 Exod. 14.15.
8 Gal. 4.7.
9 Cf. Lam. 2.18.
10 Ps. 133.1, 2.
11 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).3.
12 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).4.
SAINT JEROME
to God, and take heart again in His compassionate kindness.
The Hebrew reverses this phrase, saying: 'When I remember God, I moan.' I have reflected upon the merciful compassion of God; I have meditated on His faithfulness, His loving kindness; I have considered His purity; and seeing myself so impure, I am exceedingly grieved. 'And I am exercised, and my spirit grows faint.'13 The Hebrew is better: 'When I ponder, my spirit grows faint,' either with despair or with longing for God.
'My eyes prevent the watches.'14 The Hebrew again is different: 'I keep my eyes cast down; I am as one paralysed and cannot speak: This is what it means: when I ponder over my sins, I do not dare raise my eyes to heaven, for: 'to the wicked man God says: "Why do you recite my statutes?" '15 That is why I am paralyzed, why I am afraid, why I cannot utter a word. This, then, is in conformity with the Hebrew. 'My eyes prevent the watches'; before anyone else wakes up, I am awake.
We read also in Daniel:16 'And behold,' he says, 'ir,' that is, 'a sentinel: 'Indeed he neither slumbers nor sleeps, the guardian of Israel.'17 And so the monk who is not watchful cannot say that verse. 'I am troubled and cannot speak.' This is the teaching of the Apostle: 'Do not let the sun go down upon your anger:18 I am upset because I am human; I control my tongue because I am a Christian. Anger surges up in my heart, but I do not give vent to it.
'I consider the days of old; the years long past I remember.'
As far as my sins are concerned, I despair and my soul refuses to be comforted. I begin to muse over the beginning of the world, when God made man, and all the way down to my years, from Adam down to my time.
13 Ibid.
14 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).5.
15 Ps. 49.16.
16 Cf. Dan. 4.10; cf. Commentary on Daniel 4.10, PL 25.515 (647); Letter
75.5, PL 22.688-89 (455); 109.3, PL 22.909 (728).
17 Ps. 120.4.
18 Eph. 4.26; d. Letter 79.9, PL 22.731 (506); 130.111, PL 22.1118 (989).
HOMILY 10
'In the night I meditate in my heart; I ponder, and my spirit broods.' I am not brooding over my anger, nor over my enemy; all my musing is of God. The night that is wont to be a time for rest, or for lust, is for me a time of pondering deeply upon virtue. 'I meditate in my heart, I ponder, and my spirit broods'; I am like one digging a field19 to plant in it the seed of the Lord's teachings.
'Will God reject forever?'20 This is the whole burden of my meditation. God made man from clay and promised him eternal life. How, then, is he cast off from Paradise? From the kingdom of God? 'And nevermore be favorable? Will his kindness utterly cease, his promise fail for all generations?'
Will he reject both generations, the chosen people and their successors? Granted that He rejected the Jews; will He also reject the Gentiles? 'Does he in anger withhold his compassion?'
This could not be better expressed. No matter how long He restrains His compassionate mercy, nevertheless, His kindness will always triumph.
'And I say, "Now I have begun." '21 The Hebrew says by contrast: 'And I say, "This is my weakness.'" In other words, my suffering is not from the cruelty of God, but from my own sins. The right hand of the Most High is changed.'22 That the Lord is merciful and grants His grace to the whole universe and does not in anger withhold His clemency, that is the change of the right hand of the Most High. Unless His right hand, that is, His Son, has changed and taken upon Himself the human body of man, we cannot receive His mercy. 'And I say, "Now I have begun. The right hand of the Most High is changed.'" 'Who though he was by nature God, did not consider being equal to God a thing to be clung to, but emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave.'23
'I remember the deeds of the Lord': His wonderful deeds 19 Cf. Letter 106.49, PL 22.854 (661).
20 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).8.
21 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).11.
22 Ibid.
23 Phil. 2.6, 7.
SAINT JEROME
for Moses, the deeds He had performed for His saints. 'Yes, I remember your wonders of old. And I meditate on your works; your exploits I ponder.' I occupy all my thoughts with Your wondrous deeds., Meditating upon the compassionate kindness You have shown toward Your saints, I am no longer wi thou t hope.
'0 God, your way is in holiness.'24 If you are not holy, the way of God is not in you. What is the way of God? 'I am the way, and the truth and the life.'25 It is the Savior who says this. The way, therefore, is the Son of God. The way of God, moreover, is only in the saintly man. If we want Christ to dwell in us, let us be saints, for the way of God is holiness.
'What great god is there like our God?' Just as 'there are many gods and many lords,'26 the saints are called gods. (This is from the Apostle. 'God arises in the divine assembly';27 and 'I said, You are gods: all of you sons of the Most High';28 and God said to Moses, 'I have made you as God to Pharao.'29)
They are gods by grace, but You are God by nature. 'You are the God who works wonders.' The psalmist did not say, who 'worked,' but who 'works.' Every day God works wonders;
He works,30 and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 'You are the God who works wonders.' Yesterday a thief, today a Christian; yesterday a fornicator, today continent; yesterday you were plundering the goods of others; today you are offering your own.
'Among the peoples you have made known your power:
'Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God';31 'the mystery which has been hidden for ages';32 now You have made
Your power known among the peoples. 'With your strong 24 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).14.
25 John 14.6.
26 1 Cor. 8.5.
27 Ps, 81.6.
28 Ibid.
29 Exod. 7.1.
30 Cf. John 5-17.
31 1 Cor. 1.24; cf. Letter 53.4, PL 22.543 (274).
32 Col. 1.26.
HOMILY 10
arm you redeemed your people: 'Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?'33
'With your strong arm you redeemed your people,' in Christ, of course. The sons of Jacob and Joseph': of both peoples, of Jews and of Christians; the sons of Jacob in the Jews, of Joseph in the Gentiles. Joseph, furthermore, means 'increase: in Hebrew.34 The Jews came first and we have followed; hence, the saying 'the sons of Jacob and Joseph.'
'The waters saw you, 0 God; the waters saw you and shuddered.' First, let us consider the literal meaning; let us stay close to earth for the sake of the less experienced. When the people crossed the Red Sea and the River Jordan, the waters recognized their creator, but the people did not. 'The very depths were troubled'; 'The sea beheld and fled; Jordan turned back.'35 'Mighty was the roar of the waters';36 'the clouds poured down their waters,' as the Hebrew has it. 'The clouds gave forth their voice.'37 They say this refers to God when
He was seen in Mount Sinai. 'Your arrows also sped abroad.
Your thunder resounded in a wheel.'38 This they interpret as thunder and lightning: 'When God thunders, He rolls His voice along like a wheel.' You notice how, up to this point,
I am hugging the ground and speak in the manner of the literal West.
'Your lightning illumined the world.' What do you gather from this, my Jew? 'Through the sea was your way, and your path through the deep waters.' Grant that this refers either to the sea or to the Jordan. Though your footsteps were not seen.' What does this mean literally? For the benefit of the unsophisticated, we have been giving you a literal interpretation; let us go back now for the spiritual message.
The waters saw you, 0 God.' Let us quote from John'S 33 Cf. Isa. 53.1.
34 Cf. On Hebrew Names PL 23.825 (12).
35 Ps. 113.3.
36 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).18.
37 Ibid.
38 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).19.
SAINT JEROME
Revelation. 'The many waters,' he says, 'are many peoples.'s9 'The waters saw you, a God.' What waters? 'And you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord.'40
'The waters saw you, a God?' What waters? Pure minds and hearts. 'The waters saw you and shuddered.' They feared, not from hatred, but from faith. 'The very depths were troubled.'
Let us digress a bit for the sake of the spiritual implications.
In the beginning of Genesis, it is written: 'And the spirit was stirring above the waters.'41 It says also that 'darkness covered the abyss.'42 You see, then, what it says in the beginning of Genesis; now for its mystical meaning. 'The spirit was stirring above the waters'; already at that time baptism was being foreshadowed. It could not be true baptism, to be sure, without the Spirit.43 Over the abyss there certainly was darkness.
This is the abyss44 into which the devils implored Jesus not to send them. Over the abyss there was darkness. In the waters there was cleanliness; in the unfathomable depths, darkness.
You know what the abysses are without my telling youseeing that the demons were in dread of them.
'The clouds gave forth their voice.' The clouds, or prophets; they who were silent to the Jews spoke to us. 'The clouds gave forth their voice; your arrows also sped abroad': the preaching of the word of Christ has sped throughout the world. 'Your thunder resounded in a wheel.'45 Thunder is the proper word for a mighty voice; in fact, at the time that God said: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,'46 His voice sounded like a peal of thunder. It is written, furthermore:
'Deep calls unto deep in the roar of our cataracts,'47 this signifying the two Testaments, the New and the Old. 'Your
39 Cf. Apoc. 17.15.
40 Ps. 148.4. 5.
41 Cf. Gen. 1.2.
42 Gen. 1.2.
43 Cf. Letter 69.6. PL 22.660 (420); Against the Luciferians 6·7. PL 23.169 (177).
44 Cf. Luke 8.31.
45 Cf. Ps. 76 (77).19.
46 Matt. lI.l7; 17.5; cf. John 12.28, 29; cf. Letter 78. PL 22.701 (470).
47 Ps. 41.8.
HOMILY 10
thunder resounded in a wheel.' Your teaching resounded in a wheel; the voice is majestic, for the teaching is sublime.
'Your thunder resounded in a wheel': throughout the world it rolls along in an orbit. Not only is it heard in Judea, but You speak and Your voice resounds throughout the world.
We have been speaking in a general way; let us now speak in particular about the interior man. A wheel, as you know, rests upon the ground with a very slight base. Nor does it merely rest; it rolls along; it does not stand still but barely touches the ground and passes on. Further, when it rolls onward, it always mounts higher. So the saintly man, because he has a human body, has to give some thought to earthly matters; and when it comes to food and clothing and other such things, he is content48 with what he has, and merely touching the ground with them, hastens on to higher things. He who runs in haste to higher things carries within himself Your word. We read in the prophet: 'Holy stones roll over the land;'49 Notice what he said: 'Holy stones roll over the land.'
Because they are wheels, they roll over the land and speed on to higher places. Do you want to hear about more wheels?
We read: 'And one wheel within another';5o and again in Ezechiel: 'The wheels move one within the other.' The two wheels are the New and the Old Testament; the Old moves within the New and the New within the Old. And Ezechiel goes on: 'Wherever the spirit wished to go, there the wheels went.'51 Ecclesiastes, moreover, says of the end of the world:
'And the broken wheel falls into the well.'52 Much more could be said about wheels;53 but our sermon speeds on to the rest of the psalm.
'Your lightning illumined the world' refers to apostolic preaching. 'The earth quivered and quaked.' If our earth had
48 Cf. 1 Tim. 6.8; d. Commentarioli on ps. 76.19.
49 Cf. Zach. 9.16, LXX; d. Letter 22.19, PL 22.406 (102).
50 Ezech. 1,16, 17; d. Letter 53.9, PL 22.548 (280).
51 Ezech. 1.20.
52 Cf. Eccles. 12.6; d. Commentary on Ecclesiastes 12.6, PL 23.1168 (492).
53 Cf. Commentary on Ezechiel 1.15·19, PL 25.27 (17).
SAINT JEROME
not been thoroughly shaken and troubled, we would not be ClIristians. 'The earth quivered and quaked.' The Spirit of the Lord rests only upon the lowly, the peaceful, and those who tremble at His words. 54
'Through the sea was your way,' through waves, through bitter waters, where the dragon dwells, where tiny fish cling.
'Through the sea was your way: You who were in heaven descended upon earth. Following the literal sense we may say: At the time when Moses led forth, You were the one who led the way. 'Through the seas was your way.' Then again, and also in agreement with history, we may say: The seas were Your way. But that is history past and gone; on the other hand, He says to the sea every day: 'Peace, be sti1l!'55 The Lord calms you, 0 sea, to give us passage through this world.
'Through the sea was your way.' He came as the fountain of life to sweeten the sea, the bitter sea, the Dead Sea. That is why, according to Ezechiel,56 a spring of living water issues out from the temple of the Lord and flows to the Dead Sea that contained in it no living creature. Not even tiny fish could live in it; nothing with life. From the temple of the Lord, that is, from His bosom, the Savior came forth and sweetened the Dead Sea and the bitter waters. 'Through the sea was your way, and your path through the deep waters.'
Your way was through the sea, so that You might lead the way and Your apostles follow You. 'And your path through the deep waters:
'Though your footsteps were not seen. You led your people like a flock: The Good Shepherd led His people like a flock,
'under the care of Moses and Aaron.' This He did in actual fact and He does it also for us every day. 'Under the care of Moses,' that is, under the law, under the spiritual law. (We know, moreover, that the law is spirituaI.57) 'And Aaron':
54 Cf. Isa. 66.2; cf. Letter 14.9, PL 22.353 (36).
55 Mark 4.39.
56 Cf. Ezech. 47.1-12.
57 Rom. 7.14.
HOMILY 10
that is, under the priesthood.58 Under Your spiritual law and under Your spiritual priesthood, You have guided us,
Your people. We may understand this historically of Moses and Aaron. Moses-and Aaron, also--was conducted, but not inducted, into the promised land. Jesus took Moses' place.
Be sure that you grasp the significance of what is written.
Moses died in the desert; Aaron died; Mary died; and hear now what is written in the prophet: 'In a single month I did away with three shepherds.'59 They died, for they could not enter the promised land. They merely looked over toward the land of promise, but enter it they could not. The Jews beheld the promised land but could not enter it. They died in the desert and their dead bodies lie in the wilderness, the corpses of those who died in the desert.6o We, their children, under the leadership of Jesus, have come to the Jordan and have entered the promised land; we have come to Galgala and have been circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, and have been cleansed of the reproach of Egypt. Even now Jesus Himself, our leader, holds the sword and always goes before us and fights for us a!ld conquers our adversaries; and for seven days, we march around the city of Jericho, in other words, this world. We sound the priestly trumpets and march around
Jericho, this world, and the walls fall and we enter, and consider ourselves victors. Next, we conquer the city Gai; then go to Jebus, to Azor, to other cities; we conquer the enemies that we were unable to vanquish under Moses.
Let us, therefore, thank our leader, Jesus, for with Him as leader, with Him fighting for us, we are victorious. Josue it was who commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed, and he was a great type of the Lord; he gave the commands, but the Lord brought them to pass. He is outstanding as a conqueror; he, as I have said so many times, killed five kings in the cave; he led us into the land of promise. Let us thank
58 Cf. Letter 78.2, PL 22.700 (469).
59 Zach. 11.8; d. Commentary on Zacharia n.8, PL 25.1503 (888).
60 Cf. Heb. 3.17.
SAINT JEROME
him; he is the son of Nun (we read Nave); he is the one who was called Osee (we read Ause).61 According to the Hebrew truth, he is not called Ause, but Osee, that is, savior, truly a savior, for he saved us and led us out of the desert into the land of promise.
61 Cf. Num. 13.8, 16; cf. Against Jovinian 1.21, PL 23.250 (270).