HOMILY 16
HOMILY 16
ON PSALM 83 (84)
(I NTO THE END, for the wine presses. A psalm of the sons of Core.'l There are three psalms with the phrase, 'for the wine presses,'2 as part of their title: the eighth, the eightieth, and the eighty-third. The eighth is superscribed with David's name, the eightieth with the name of Asaph, and the eighty-third with the sons of Core.
I am going to give you a rule whereby you may know what to look for in Scripture. Any psalm that has the sons of Core in its title will always be joyful without any note of sadness.
Whereas Core, and Dathan, and Abiram were punished by the Lord for their revolt against Moses,3 the sons of Core, who did not rebel with their father, were blessed with eternal joy. Further, since the name of Core means Calvary [or skull]4 and obviously symbolizes the place of the Resurrection, whoever is a son of Core is a son of the Resurrection. A son of the Resurrection, moreover, can never be sorrowful.
'How lovely are your tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts! My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord.'5 Shortly after this verse, the psalmist cries: 'Happy they who dwell in your housel' Note that there is a triad of dwelling places: tents, courts, and last of all, houses. 'How lovely are your tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts!' What are these tabernacles?
Let us turn to the Gospel and see if it offers a clue to their 1 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).1.
2 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 8.1.
3 Cf. NUll. 16.
4 Cf. Letter 65.4, PL 22.625 (376).
5 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).2, 3.
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identification. The Lord is speaking and says: 'Make for yourselves friends with the mammon of wickedness, so that when it fails they may receive you into the everlasting dwellings.'6 When what fails? The mammon of wickedness. Then those friends will welcome you into everlasting dwellings.
Mark well that the mammon of wickedness fails in this world; nevertheless, be aware that this mammon of iniquity provides a man with alms and prepares beforehand reward or penalty. In the Hebrew language,7 'mammon' is the term for wealth, not gold, as some people think. 'With the mammon of wickedness.' Much truth there is, indeed, in a certain saying of a philosopher: 'Every rich man is either wicked or the heir of wickedness.'8 That is why the Lord and Savior says that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 9 Someone may raise the objection: 'How, then, did the wealthy Zachaeus enter the kingdom of heaven?' He gave away his wealth and replaced it at once with the riches of the heavenly kingdom. The Lord and Savior did not say that the rich will not enter the kingdom of heaven, but that they will enter with difficulty.
'How lovely are your tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts!' The sole ambition of some people is to possess property; others long to be enriched with the wealth of the world; still others wish to hold prominent places at conventions and be esteemed among men. But for me, there is only one longing: to see
Your eternal dwelling places. To me, those are the lovely dwelling places where the virtuous and not the vicious congregate. 'My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord.'
This is my one desire, this my only love, that I may see 6 Cf. Luke 16.9; cf. Letter 54.12, PL 22.556 (289); 71.4, PL 22.671 (433);
77.11, PL 22.697 (466); 79.4, PL 22.726-27 (501); 108.16, PL 22.892 (707);
118.4, PL 22.963 (795); 123.6, PL 22.1050 (904); 130.7, PL 22.1111 (981);
Against Vigilantius 14. PL 23.366 (399).
7 Cf. Letter 121.6, PL 22.1019 (865); 22.31, PL 22.417 (116); Commentary on Matthew 6.24, PL 26.46 (36); cf. Acts 21.40.
8 Cf. Letter 120.1, PL 22.984 (821).
9 Matt. 19.23; cf. Commentary on Matthew 19.23, PL 26.143 (149); Letter
79.4, PL 22.727 (501); 145, PL 22.1192 (1080).
SAINT JEROME
Your courts. Notice the order. First, he longs for the tabernacles, tents without a foundation and easily portable. A tent, moreover, is always on the move, folded up and carried hither and thither. Courts, on the other hand, although certainly not houses, do have a kind of foundation, and from the court we enter the house. Our psalmist, therefore, at first longs for a tabernacle, and then afterwards pines and yearns with love to see Your courts; and when he is in Your court, then he cries out: 'Happy they who dwell in your house!'
'My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.' It is difficult for anyone's body and soul to be in perfect harmony.lo
If it is true, as the Apostle says, that the spirit struggles against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit,n what mean the words: 'My heart and my flesh cry out'? This prayer can be his alone whose whole soul is fixed in the love of God. 'My heart and my flesh'; that is the same thought that another psalm expresses: 'For you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts:12
'My flesh: This is the flesh that longs for the Lord, of which it is written in another place: 'And all mankind shall see the salvation of God:13 But that flesh of which Scripture says:
'All mankind is grass:14 does not desire the Lord. 'My heart and my flesh.' Meditate with me upon any chaste man who deems the death of his flesh gain for his soul. Fasts and harsh treatment are the mortification of his flesh. What is the Apostle's judgment? 'To deliver such a one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved:15
Unless the flesh die, the spirit cannot be enlivened; therefore, the Apostle also says: 'For when I am weak, then I am strong:16 Let each one reflect for himself on how true it is that when he has become weak and faint from fasting, his sou]
10 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 83.3.
II Cf. Gal. 5.17.
12 Ps.62.2.
13 Luke 3.6.
14 Isa.40.6.
15 1 Cor. 5.5.
16 2 Cor. 12.10.
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is vigorous, his thoughts are wholly preoccupied with God, and he repeats over and over again: 'How lovely are your tabernacles, 0 Lord of hosts!'
'Even the sparrow finds a home, and the turtle-dove a nest in which she puts her young.'17 For the present, let us be satisfied with a simple interpretation. Notice all that the verse implies: I long, 0 Lord, for Your, eternal dwelling places; my soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord;
I long for some place to dwell, a nest for my soul and my body. The birds that fly about to and fro with no restraint, nevertheless, after their flight, have a place and a nest in which to rest. How much more ought not my body and soul procure for itself a resting place?
Now let us mount to something higher. 'In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to me, "Flee to the mountain like a sparrow"?'18 Take heed that it is only the sparrow that migrates to the mountains. 'And the turtle-dove a nest.' This is the turtle-dove of which the Canticle of Canticles says:
The voice of the dove is heard in our land.'19 'The turtledove a nest.' The dove is a chaste bird.20 It never makes its abode in low places, but always builds its nest high up in lofty treetops. As the birds of purity, the sparrow and the dove, make their nests in the higher places, so the tabernacles, courts, and houses are not on this lowly earth, but on high in the kingdom of heaven. Note further what the psalm says: 'Happy they who dwell in your house!' We do not stay in tabernacles, we sojourn; in the courts, no matter how long we are there, we do not remain as dwellers, but as pilgrims, for from the courts we move on into the house. When we have come into the house, however, what does the psalmist say? 'Happy they who dwell in your house,' the house that has a foundation, for from that house we shall never depart, though from the courts we may.
17 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).4.
18 Cf. Ps. 10.2.
19 Cant. 2.12.
20 Cf. Against Jovinian 1.30, PL 23.263 (285).
SAINT JEROME
'Happy the man whose strength you are!' Truly, do we long for Your tabernacles, and Your courts, and Your house, but to attain our hearts' desire is not within our power; it does not depend upon our strength, but upon Your help.
'Their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage.' Who have set their hearts upon pilgrimage? The blessed who find their strength in the Lord; they are the ones who determine to ascend step by step. Day by day, the saint reaches out for the better things before him, unmindful of what is past. That is, in fact, why in the Psalter there are fifteen gradual canticles, and the first. song of ascent begins with the words: 'In my distress I call to the Lord, and he answered me';21 the second with: 'I lift up my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall help come to me?';22 the third: 'I rejoiced because they said to me.'Z3 The saint is always moving forward, advancing steadily and ascending to heights ever more sublime; that is the meaning of 'their hearts are set upon the pilgrimage:
Happy the man who makes progress daily, who does not weigh what he did yesterday, but makes his resolution for today and keeps it. The holy man sets his heart on ascending; the sinner, on descending. Just as the saintly man progresses day by day, the sinner regresses day by day. Happy the man who wholeheartedly ascends the highways.
Consider now the logical sequence of Holy Writ. 'Through the vale of tears, in the place that he has set.'24 Where it says,
'through the vale,' we immediately picture a mountain.
Where, then, is the man who has set his heart on mounting upwards step by step? In the valley of tears.25 Let us reflect for a moment that we are in this valley: we are not on the mountain; we are not in the Garden of Eden; we are not on the heights of Paradise; but in the lowliness of earth, of an 21 Ps. 119.1; cf. Letter 7.3, PL 22.340 (19); 53.8, PL 22.546 (277).
22 Ps. 120.1.
23 Ps. 121.1.
24 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).7.
25 Cf. Commentarioli in ps. 83.7; Letter 22.10, PL 22.400 (95); 130.16, PL 22.1120 (993).
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earth, furthermore, over which hangs a curse which brings forth for us thistles and thorns, the food of serpents, and of which it is said to Adam: 'For 'dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.'26 As long as we are in the vale of tears, we must not laugh but weep, for the Lord says: 'Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.'27 For the time being, we are in the valley of tears, and this world is the place for weeping, not for rejoicing. We must not laugh, for this is the world and this is the time for tears; the future world is the world of joy. 'Through the vale of tears, in the place that he has set.' What does the psalmist mean by 'in the place that he has set'? He means in the valley of tears. 'In the place that he has set': God has entered us as contestants in a race course where it is our lot to be always striving.28 This place, then, a valley of tears, is not a condition of peace, not a state of security, but an arena of struggle and of endurance.
'For the lawgiver will give a blessing.'29 Somebody may ask: 'Why in the valley of tears, in the place that God has set for the contest-or for the conflict-why has He placed us as athletes? Why has He willed us to fight?' The psalmist himself gives the answer: He has willed that this place be set for us as an arena that He may reward our victory with a crown.
'For the lawgiver will give a blessing.' This Lawgiver, our President of the contest,30 has willed us to contend only that He may bless us. Just consider what the victory means! What are the blessings of this Master of the Games? 'They go from strength to strength'; they win the victory here that they may receive the crown there. If a man of courage gives evidence of strength here, there he becomes stronger. 'They go from strength to strength'; hence, unless we are strong here, we cannot have greater strength there. The psalmist did not say, they shall go from weakness to strength, but from strength
26 Gen. 3.19.
27 Luke 6.21.
28 Cf. Reb. 12.1-3; Letter 22.3, PL 22.395 (89).
29 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).7.
30 Cf. Letter 71.2, PL 22.670 (432); Against Jovinian 1.12, PL 23.238 (257).
SAINT JEROME
to strength. Do you want to be a man of fortitude there?
Then be one here first. Do you want to be crowned there?
Fight here.
'They go from strength to strength.' We can say this in another way: 'Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.'sl He who has power here, there will possess Power
Himself. 'They go from strength to strength.' What gain will they have when they go from strength to strength?
What will be their reward? 'They shall see the God of gods in Sion.' 'Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see
God.'S2 Reward enough for the victors is the face of Christ, reward enough for those who have fought! To see God is an infinite crown. 'They shall see the God of gods in Sion.'
What joy, what happiness to go from strength to strength and win the sight of Christ as due reward!
'Behold, 0 God, our Protector, and look upon the face of your Christ.'33 Mark what he says: 'And look upon the face of your Christ.' Mind, it is man who is earnestly praying that the Father look upon the face of the Son. Realize what he means. The Apostle asked: 'Do you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me?'34 and the Savior Himself answered: 'He who receives you, receives me';35 therefore, what the psalmist is saying is: Look upon us, for in us You behold Your own
Son who dwells in us.
'I had rather one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.' Notice that he says 'one day.' A certain commentator thinks that this verse must be understood to mean: I had rather have little in the kingdom of heaven than possess everything here that this world offers. That is a true and very good interpretation. Let us say, however: If it were possible for anyone to be in the kingdom of heaven for a single day and after that be cast out, rightly would he say, I had rather one
31 1 Cor. 1.24.
32 Matt. 5.8.
33 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).10.
34 2 Cor. 13.3.
35 Matt. 10.40.
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day in Your courts. Actually, this is the meaning of 'one day': the kingdom of heaven is one day; there is no night, nor darkness, but always light. Whoever is in the kingdom of heaven for one day is there forever.
'I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of the wicked.' This thought is akin to what the Savior says about John: 'Amen I say to you, among those born of women, there has not risen a greater than John the Baptist.'36
Besides this, He even calls John an ange1.37 Then He adds: 'Yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.' Now His meaning is: John is greater than all men, and if you want to know, he is even an angel; nevertheless, he who is an angel [messenger] on earth is the very least in the kingdom of heaven, that is, he is of a lesser rank than the angels. Moreover, he who is a minor in the kingdom of heaven, that is, an angel, 58 is greater than he who is greater than all men on earth. What the prophet means, therefore, by his words: 'I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God,' is: I have chosen to be the least in heaven rather than the first in this world. 'I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of the wicked.' Attend carefully to what he says:
'than dwell in the tents of the wicked.' Tents are without foundations and perishable; the sinner, for all that, is never one who dwells near earth but who dwells in it and holds on to it.
'For God loves mercy and faithfulness.'39 God's love embraces both mercy and fidelity. If He were only merciful, He would be inviting us all to sin; if He loved only faithfulness, no one would have any hope of repentance. God, therefore, has recourse to both and tempers one with the other. If you are a sinner, heed the mercy of God and do not despair, but do penance. If, on the other hand, you are just, do not grow
36 Matt. 11.11.
37 Cf. Matt. 11.10.
38 Cf. Commentary on !vI atthew 11.11, PL 26.74 (70); Against the Luciferians 7, PL 23.170 (178); Against Jovinian 2.27, PL 23.338 (367).
SAINT JEROME
careless because God is clement, for God is just and loves fai thfulness.
'Grace and glory he bestows.' The prophet did not say the Lord gives glory and grace, but what did he say? 'Grace and glory he bestows.' First, He grants pardon to the sinner; then,
He bestows a crown.
The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk in sincerity.' The Hebrew wording, 'in perfection,' is better, for sincerity is not complete virtue. Unless the guileless have wisdom besides, their virtue is incomplete and imperfect; hence, the Lord says in the Gospel: 'Be wise as serpents, and guileless as doves.'4o '0 Lord of hosts.' Grasp the full import of 'Lord of hosts.' Whenever we are guilty of any sin, God who is the Lord of hosts, is not our Lord, for He is not the Lord of sinners but of the just. 'Happy the men who trust in youI' The man who trusts in the Lord is the man whose conscience is free from sin, who lifts his eyes to heaven with assurance. The trustful man is he who knows that he has committed no offense against his Lord.
39 Cf. Ps. 83 (84).12.
40 Matt. 10.16.