HOMILY 32
HOMILY 32
ON PSALM 105 (106)
LLELUIA, Alleluia.'! It is necessary to bear in mind the rule that whenever there are two alleluias in the prescription of a psalm, one marks the end of the preceding psalm; the other, the beginning of the following one.
'Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.' 0 you who sin grievously and despair of salvation, and think that because of the magnitude of your sins you cannot obtain pardon, I admonish you-rather the prophet admonishes you-to give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Great are your sins, but great is the Lord who has pity on you. Confess your sins to the Lord; do penance and do not despair of your salvation, for the Lord is compassionate. Give thanks to the Lord, you who have very great sins. Do not trust in your own strength, but trust in the mercy of the Lord.
'For his kindness endures forever.' Grasp that the psalmist says: 'forever.' 'In the nether world who gives you thanks?'2
It is not possible for anyone in hell to be sorry for his sins.
While you are still in this world, I beg of you to repent.
Confess and give thanks to the Lord, for in this world only is He merciful. Here, He is able to compassionate the penitent, but because there He is judge, He is not merciful. Here, He is compassionate kindness; there, He is judge. Here, He reaches out His hand to the falling; there, He presides as 1 Cf. Ps. 105 (106).1; d. Commentarioli in ps. 104.1.
2 Ps.6.6.
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judge. Now, I have said all this for the benefit of those who maintain that in hell there is contrition for sin.
'Who can tell the mighty deeds of the Lord?' No one is . worthy to proclaim the great deeds of the Father except the Son; no one is able to express the might of the Father except
Him who is Himself mighty. He who is Himself omnipotent, who is in the bosom of the Father, is able to tell and proclaim the almighty works of Omnipotens. 'Or proclaim all his praises?' Before our Lord spread abroad the praises of the Father in the Gospel, the Father's praise was unheard of in the world. If taken spiritually, everything that is written in the old law can be understood of the Father.
'Happy are they who observe what is right, who do always what is just.' Right it is for David to utter this prayer. He himself had obeyed the Lord's decrees and had done what was right; but because he did not obey and do justice at all times, he fell; for what does he say? 'Happy are they who observe what is right, who do always what is just; but be cognizant that to be happy is to do the right at all times.
After all, what does it profit a man if for twenty years he preserves continence but afterwards falls? That is the message of the following words of the prophets: 'The virtue which a man has practiced will not save him on the day that he sins; neither will the wickedness that a man has done bring about his downfall on the day that he turns from his wickedness.'3 Neither should the virtuous man be secure nor the sinner despair of his salvation, for in each of them there should be both fear and hope. 'Who do always what is just.'
Our Lord is justice, for He is called the justice of the Lord.
Happy is he, therefore, who does what is just, who brings forth Christ. How do we bring Christ forth-or justice? If we live justly, justice is conceived in us, and justice is begotten of us, and we are the mother of justice. Happy and blessed is he who at all times is both father and mother of justice.
3 Ezech. 33.12; cf. Letter 54.6, PL 22.553 (285); 122.3, PL 22.1045 (898).
SAINT JEROME
'Remember me, 0 Lord, as you favor your people.' What blessed David is saying is this: 'I know the old law, 0 Lord; perfect happiness is not in the old law but in the Gospel; I know that the first people has offended You and that a new people is being prepared who will serve You; I know that Your Son will come, that He will redeem the whole human race, and that they who have been chosen will believe in Him.
Because I have been born earlier in the old law, that is why I implore You to reckon me in the reward with Your new people.' Logically, this seems to be the thought. Let us read the versicles with this in mind ,and we shall find that they agree with our reflections.
-'Visit me with your saving help,' with Your Son, when He shall come. 'That I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones.' In other words, grant us fellowship with the apostles, for although we have preceded them in time, they, indeed, precede us in the things of the spirit. What we are asking is that we may see the works of Your tender love that You are going to bring to pass in Your chosen ones. 'Rejoice in the joy of your people.' We are the Lord's people, if only we are truly His people. 'To a people yet to be born,' Scripture says, 'which the Lord has made.'4 'And glory with your inheritance': that we, too, may share in the Gospel, we who were made under the old law, for our Father Abraham saw
Your day and was glad.5 Let us see it, too, and rejoice with Your inheritance.
'We have sinned, we and our fathers.' As sons we have followed the example of our fathers; we have participated in their sins. 'For God has shut up all in sin, that he may have mercy upon all.'6 'We have committed crimes; we have done wrong: Pay close attention to what it says. We have sinned with our fathers; we have committed crimes; we have done wrong. Why did not the prophet say: we have acted im4 Cf. Ps. 21.32.
5 John 8.56.
6 Cf. Rom. 11.32.
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piously? It is one thing to be a sinner and do wrong, another to be impious. 7 A sinner frequently is overcome by the very weakness of his body, but the blasphemous repudiate God.
Because I am not blasphemQus, but a sinner, that is why I dare to entreat God's mercy.
'Our fathers in Egypt considered not your wonders.' They saw and yet they did not see; they saw with the eyes of the flesh, but not with the eyes of the spirit. The prophet did not say that they did not see, but that they did not understand, for just as our fathers saw wonderful deeds but did not fathom their mystical significance, even so it is true in reading the Gospel that one is spiritually blind if he sees and hears physically to be sure, but without spiritual insight. Blessed, therefore, are we who have not seen and have believed, rather than they who have seen but have not believed. They saw the Red Sea, they saw Pharao drown, and all they understood was only what they saw. We who did not see him have a better comprehension. We apprehend the devil in Pharao; in his army we perceive demons; in the sea we discern baptism. They know from experience the bitter waters at Mara, and they travel through Mara; but every day we identify those bitter waters in the baptism of heretics. They mount a bronze serpent on a pole in the desert. Let the anchorites take heed, let the hermits who live in the desert give attention. And what have we done? We, too, have hanged the old serpent in the desert.
Granted that the Apostle's8 explanation with reference to our Lord is not the same as ours. What does he say? On the cross of the Lord, the devil was suspended and fixed there.
The Lord, yes, was crucified, but the devil died. The Lord fulfilled the divine mystery and the Victor was visible; the devil was not visible but was slain spiritually, just as the Apostle intimates.
7 Cf. Homily 1 on Ps. 1, p. 3.
8 Cf. Eph. 2.16; d. Commentary on Ephesians 2.16, PL 26.504 (581).