HOMILY 33
HOMILY 33
ON PSALM 106 (107)
[CB lVE THANKS to the Lord, for he is good, for his kind- . ness endures forever!' Because He is gracious and forgives sin, for that reason confess your sins to Him.
If He were not good, the prophet would not admonish you to confess and give thanks to Him; His kindness is everlasting. Here in this world, He is all clemency; in the next,
He is justice. 'For his kindness endures forever.' As long as you are in this world, confess, and give thanks to Him.
'Thus let the redeemed of the Lord say, those whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe.' The prophet is making a direct reference to the calling of the Gentiles, and their vocation is the mystical theme of the psalm. 'Let the redeemed,' redeemed by the passion of the Lord. 'Thus let the redeemed say': He is Savior, indeed, and Redeemer, and the price of ransom; 'Thus let the redeemed say': He redeems, He pays the price of His blood. Why did He make payment with the price of His blood? To ransom us from the hand of the foe. We were being held captives in the hand of the devil, therefore, the Lord came and redeemed us in order to release us from his grasp.
'Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe.' 'To destroy the hostile and the vengeful.'1 'Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe.' 'The enemy sowed weeds among the wheat,'2 for the enemy is the devil. 'Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe.' The devil is the 1 Cf. Ps. 8.3.
2 Cf. Matt. 13.25-30.
HOMILY 33
foe and he is in possession. He holds us tight within his grip, not because he loves, but because he hates. 'Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the foe.' Great the majesty, great the power of the blood of the Lord that liberated us from the clasp of the devil.
There are, by way of example, some animals that clasp tight to themselves whatever they catch (medical men and naturalists both affirm this) and unless the victim be broken away, it cannot be forced from them, nor do they let go but cling tenaciously to their captive. If, however, oil is applied, all at once, their hold is relaxed, and the creature that had been so securely gripped is suddenly released and completely severed from them. In the same way, the blood of Christ has broken the unyielding clutch of the devil. He did not want to let go of us, but the Lord poured forth His blood as the oil of mercy and through His blood set us free.
'And gathered from the lands.' See how mighty is the hand of the devil! 'Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the foe.'
Those whom He rescued from the enemy's hand, moreover, were being held captive by the devil in every land. 'And gathered from the lands.' Throughout the whole world the hand of the devil was holding us in bondage.
'From the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea.'3 The prophet certainly seems to have indicated four districts-east, west, south, and norththe four quarters of the world, but the psalm does not support this impression. Where it says, 'from the rising and from the setting of the sun,' obviously there are two zones; 'from the north,' that is, from the Little Bear, you see a third zone.
'And from the sea.' The sea, at any rate, is in the west.
Notice, therefore, that the psalmist has named the west twice, but the south not even once. Why did he mention three zones, and not intend to name the fourth? We read in Habacuc: 'God will come from the south, and the Holy One
3 Cf. Ps. 106 (107).3.
SAINT JEROME
from the shady mountain.'4 God will come from the south.
This refers to the Savior, for God was born in the south.
Bethlehem is located south of Jerusalem, consequently, it says God will come from the south. But if God will come from the south, how now does the psalmist say: 'From the rising and from the setting of the sun, from the north'? No mention of the south. 'From the rising and from the setting of the sun.' 'Amen, amen, I say to you, that many will come from the east and from the west, and will feast with Abra· ham: but the children of this generation will be put forth outside.'5
'From the rising and from the setting of the sun.' From heathen lands, of course. 'From the north.' 'The north.'
The strongest of the winds they call, therefore, 'the right wind.'6 'From the north evil will break out upon the land.'7
'The sea.' You meet this term in Numbers and in Exodus and in all Sacred Scripture; and wherever you hear this expression, you should understand by it the regional direction of the west.S That is so, because from the site of Jerusalem, the sea called the great sea is in the west. Note, therefore, the divine secrets in Holy Writ. In the passage we are consider· ing, the west is mentioned twice and the south not even once.
Why is that? Because this psalm does not announce the calling of the Jews, but the calling of the Gentiles. In fact, what does the psalm go on to say?
'They went astray in the desert wilderness; the way to an inhabited city they did not find. Hungry and thirsty.' That you may know that these words foreshadow the call of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews, farther on this same psalm says: 'He changed rivers into desert,'9 thereby indicating the Jews. 'They went astray in the desert wilderness.' Would
4 Cf. Hab. 3.3; cf. Commentary on Habacuc 3.3, PL 25.l311 (637).
5 Cf. Matt. 8.10·12.
6 Cf. Provo 27.16, LXX.
7 Cf. Jer. 1.14.
8 Cf. Hebrew Questions on Genesis 13.14, 15, PL 23.1008 (326); Com· mentary on Ezechiel 46.19·24, PL 25.464 (583).
9 Cf. Ps. 106.33.
HOMILY 33
you have proof that we were· formerly in a parched, desert land? 'They went astray in the desert wilderness.' We have identified the waters and designated the rivers. 'The way to an inhabited city they did not find. Hungry and thirsty.' Let us explain how it happened that the Gentiles were in a desert that was scorched and dry, and why, hungry and thirsty, they missed the road to the inhabited city.
From the words, 'they did not find,' it is evident that they were searching. 'The way to an inhabited city they did not find'; they were looking for the way that would lead them to the city; hungering they searched, and thirsting. 'Their life was wasting away within them.' 'They devise a wicked scheme, and waste away their life in scheming.'lo They are exhausted; they have searched and have gone astray; in their hunger and thirst, they have failed to find the way to the city that was inhabited. There were many, you may be sure, who promised to direct the way that would lead to the city. Socrates promised; Plato promised; Aristotle promised. The woman with the hemorrhagell who was suffering a flow of blood sought many physicians, but none was able to cure her. 'The way to an inhabited city they did not find.' The teachings of the philosophers only intensified hunger for truth rather than satisfied it. The woman with the hemorrhage had spent all that she had on doctors; hungering and thirsting, her spirit died within her. But because she had lost everything that she possessed, because her life was wasting away within her, she-the Church gathered from the Gentiles-cried out to the Lord in anguish. Her touch on the hem of His garment was the cry of a believing heart.
'They cried to the Lord in their distress.' 'In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me';12 the Lord gives us gracious hearing when not simply our voice, but our distress, cries out to Him.
10 Cf. Ps. 63.7.
11 Cf. Luke 8.43-49; Mark 5.25-35; Matt. 9.20-23.
12 Ps. 119.1.
SAINT JEROME
'From their straits he rescued them.' Because they failed to find the way to the inhabited city, He led them into the right way. He showed them the way, because though formerly they had found roads, they were devious, not direct. 'And he led them by a direct way.' The Way led them by a direct way.
The Lord Himself and Savior guided them; the Way led them; He caused them to walk in Him who was both
Guide and Way. 'And he led them by a direct way,' that by this way-through the Lord and Savior-they might enter the city of their home, might enter His Church that He had built upon Himself, the Rock, the Way, the Guide.
At this point, we ought to pause and meditate upon the fact that three times the psalm repeats the following verse: 'Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness and his wondrous deeds to the children of men, because he satisfied the longing soul'; and later in the psalm are the words: 'Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness and his wondrous deeds to the children of men, because he shattered the gates of brass.' Further on, there is again the same doxology; let the intelligent reader find it for hin-,self. Some are saying,
I grant, that even a fourth time this praise recurs in order that open honor to the Trinity may be reserved for the Gospels.
The psalm is long and we cannot delay on every versicle, but this much is clear, that it foreshadows the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews. Let us beseech the Lord, therefore, that since the first branches were broken off and from the wild olive we were grafted13 unto the roots of the good olive, we may bring forth good fruits, lest we, too, be pruned as they were. Our Vinedresser looks for fruits. If it is true that He cut off the first branches because they were sterile, we shall undergo the same treatment if we are unfruitful. Fruits, moreover, are not only of the body, but also of the soul, for surely when the body serves the Lord, both the soul and the body are serving God.
13 Cf. Rom. 11.17-22.
HOMILY 33
'Like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary.'14 'For you my flesh pines, 0 how many ways!,l" Note that it says: How many ways my flesh pines for You! How does it pine in many ways? Let us not read 7rW, a7rAW" but 7rOaa7rAw,-in manifold or various ways. In all manner of ways is my flesh faithful to You; in fasts, in sleeping on the ground, in troubles, in want and poverty, in hunger, in thirst, in cold. 'For you my flesh pines, 0 how many ways!' What is it, then, that serves the Lord in many ways? Earth, parched, lifeless, and without water. Grasp what it says: parched, lifeless, and without water. Mark well that this flesh cannot serve the Lord in many ways except when it is barren earth, lifeless and unwatered, when the flesh is parched and dry, when we have become 'like a leathern flask in the smoke/16 completely dehydrated and cured; when our flesh no longer seeks gratification, but food. When our flesh has dried out and is parched and without humors, it does not look for delicacies, but for food. Moreover, when our arid earth has been irrigated with the waters and rains of delight, it must travail and generate, and the faithful servant brings forth good fruits; but the sinner's earth immediately sends forth thorns.
Why I am saying all this, the prudent hearer understands, for fasting is of great benefit to the Christian soul. It humbles the body and with the humiliation of the body, the soul, too, is humbled;l1 but although the body has been reduced to submission, the soul nevertheless suffers its own passions. Now if to the flame of the soul is added the flame of the body, who is able to endure such twofold burning? Prayer frequently extinguishes the fire of the soul, and likewise does trust in the Lord. On the other hand, the control of the fire of the flesh is within our power; when we want to, we can quench the flame of passion. Although we smother that 14 Ps. 62.3; d. Letter 122.1, PL 22.1040 (892).
15 Cf_ Ps. 62.2.
16 Cf. Ps. 118.83; d. Letter 22.17, PL 22.405 (100).
17 Cf. Commentary on lsaia 58.6, 7, PL 24.565 (690).
SAtN1' ltltOME blaze, nevertheless, fire still burns in the soul. I have men· tioned this because in the soul there is always the spark of concupiscence. Just as, if there is a spark of fire in ashes but nothing to feed it, the spark is there nonetheless but does not burst into flame; so, too, the spark of fire in our thought is checked if it is not fanned into flame by the excesses of the flesh. We all have this spark.
Someone may object. Do not let him; whoever denies it, is a liar. There is one God, the Creator of all things. He who created me created you; He who created the general also created the soldier; He who created the most nobly·born of senators, created the lowly slave. Circumstances may vary, but nature is one. Just as we came into the world naked, we pass out of it naked. On earth we wear different kinds of clothes; we have different customs; but for those coming into the world and for those going out of it, the condition is the same. Why do I say all this? To stress the point that for all men there is one human nature; but just as all faces are faces, nevertheless, each one is different. For instance, one face may have more to it, another less, yet there is only one face of mankind. In other words, I do not have the face of man and you that of a lion or some other wild beast. Let everyone, therefore, heap up his ashes according to the kind of spark that he knows he has. When we eat, when we take the more delicate foods, we are feeding that glimmer of fire that is hiding in our ashes. Let us pray the Lord that this tiny flame be always in a desert land, lifeless and without water, and with no kindling whatever for vices. And let us bless the Lord.