HOMILY 42
HOMILY 42
ON PSALM 127 (128)
GU APPY ARE THEY who fear the Lord.'l What is the reward of those who fear the Lord? What is their crown? Let us see what their glory is, what their reward. 'Happy shall you be, and favored.' I have already granted their happiness; now I am inquiring into its nature.
What is the happiness of the man who fears the Lord? 'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your sons like olive plants around your table.'2
I think that in the merciful kindness of Christ, we all fear the Lord. Then'do we not have this happiness? It is written that he who fears the Lord has a special happiness,s namely:
'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your sons like olive plants around your table.'
The man who has only one son, therefore, and the man who has two sons is really not happy? What does it say? 'Your sons like olive plants around your table.' Unless, therefore, we have so many sons that they fill the places around our table, shall we not have the happiness of the one who fears the Lord? Isaac was not so blessed, for he had only two sons; one the wicked Esau for whom it were better had he never been born, the other, Jacob. Do you take it for granted, therefore, that he had no happiness because one son could not encircle his table? According to such reasoning, virgins do not fear the Lord. Why, then, does it say that he who fears
1 Cf. Ps. 127 (128).1.
2 Cf. Ps. 127 (128).3.
3 Letter 22.21, PL 22.407 (104); 123.13, PL 22.1054 (910); Against Jovinian
1.22, PL 23.252 (272).
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the Lord rightly understands what it means to be happy?
'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your sons like olive plants around your table.' John did not possess that kind of happiness, neither the Evangelist nor the Baptist, for both were virgins. This happiness was not Paul's either who says: 'For I would that you all were as I myseIf.'4 You gather by now that 'wife and sons' must be understood spiritually; otherwise, without a spiritual interpretation, we must admit that angels do not possess such happiness, for they do not have children. Let us go back, therefore, and reread the verses in order.
'Happy are they who fear the Lord.' In the same way that one cannot say: 'My portion is the Lord,'s and still claim another portion in this world, one does not fear the Lord if he fears anything else apart from the Lord. The Savior says in fact: 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in helL'6 You see, then, that he who does not fear the Lord, fears something other than the Lord.
What are the marks of the man who fears the Lord? The stamp of those 'Who walk in his ways.' There are many ways, and the many ways lead to the one Way, wherefore it says in Jeremia: 'Stand beside the ways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal pathways; find the one way, and walk it.'7 Notice that it says: 'Stand beside the pathways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and find the one way; and then walk it.' Through many ways, we find the one Way.
This same thought occurs in the Gospel8 under another form and figure in the parable of the merchant who had many pearls and sold them and bought a single pearl of great price.
4 Cf. I Cor. 7.7; d. Letter 48.4, PL 22.496 (215); Against Jovinian 1.8,
PL 23.232 (249).
5 Lam. 3.24.
6 Matt. 10.28.
7 Cf. Jer. 6.16. Cf. Homily 23 on Ps. 95, p. 183; Letter 54.II, PL 22.555 (289).
8 Cf. Matt. 13.46; Letter 54.11, PL 22.555 (289); 66.8, PL 22.644 (399). ;
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'Stand beside the pathways,' that is, be in possession of many pearls; stand in the pathways and ask for the eternal way of the Lord. Beautiful eternity! Let us not imagine that with the advent of Christ, the law and the prophets have come to an end, but mark well: Stand beside the pathways; do not put complete trust in one way to the exclusion of many; but stand beside the pathways and inquire about the eternal paths of the Lord. Ask for the eternal paths of the Lord; ask what Jeremia said, what Isaia, Ezechiel, what the rest of the prophets said. Ask for the paths. The meaning here of paths is expressed better by the Greek tribous9 for 'semita' is used to denote a path that has been worn down by the tread of feet. Now this is what the prophet has in mind, search for the paths-tribous-that the Lord made with His own feet, inasmuch as the Lord also walked these paths.
When, moreover, you have examined carefully the eternal paths of the Lord and through them have found the one
Way, who says: 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life,'w walk that Way. Study the divine secrets of Holy Writ. See how much mystical connotation there is in the simplest words of Scripture, in such words as ways and paths, in law and prophets. Note especially, too, that the prophet did not say, walk, but stand; do not disregard· the law or the prophets.
Nevertheless, when you have found the paths of the law and the prophets, through their ways walk the one Way.
'For you shall eat the labors of your hands.'ll Many commentators, not understanding this passage, have translated it:12 'You shall eat the labors of your fruits.' As a matter of fact, the Latin copies have: 'You shall eat the labors of your fruits,' but in the Hebrew text, we read: 'You shall eat the labors of your hands.' Who, indeed, eats the labors of his fruits? Certainly, it must be understood the other way around, for one eats the fruit he has won from his toils and 9 Cf. Commentary on Jeremia 6.16, PL 24.725 (886).
10 John 14.6.
11 Cf. Ps. 127 (128).2.
12 Cf. Letter 34.5, PL 22.450 (158).
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not the toils of his hands. We accept, therefore, the other interpretation, for it can be said more truly that one eats the fruit of his labors and not the labors of fruits. Because the Hebrew has: 'You shall eat the labors of your hands,' I think the Greek translators of the Septuagint made a good rendition here. Actually, the word for hand in Hebrew is lAD; this passage of Scripture, however, does not have lAD, but CAPH. CAPH, furthermore, is translated karp6s, not karp6s
-fruit-but karpos meaning some part of the hand,13 because karp6s in Greek means 'arthra,' or joint. So much for the translation. The labors of your hands, therefore, you shall eat, 'for what a man sows, that he will also reap.'14 'See the man and his recompense.'15 We, too, shall eat what we have earned from the work of our hands. By the word 'hands,' works are to be understood: 'For you shall eat the labors of your hands.'
Somebody may raise the question of whether we are going to eat after the resurrection, for Scripture says of the happy man: 'You shall eat the labors of your hands.' My answer is quite simple. Man is composed of two substances: one of the soul, the other of the body; the soul is immortal, the body mortal. What is mortal necessarily requires food that is mortal; what is immortal, the soul, requires immortal food:
Would you have proof that the soul has its own food? Our Lord and Savior says so when He was eating: 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me.'16 Would you know what foods the soul has? The prophet tells us himself: 'Taste and see how good the Lord is.'17 Just as the body dies unless it is given its proper food, even so does the soul if it is not given spiritual food. Why am I making such a point of this? Because there are some who insist on saying, I have no need for Sacred Scripture; the fear of God is enough for 13 Ibid.
14 Gal. 6.7.
15 Cf. Isa. 62.11, LXX.
16 John 4.34.
17 Ps.33.9.
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me. That is, therefore, precisely why we affirm that just as there are foods for the body, so there are, likewise, foods for the soul, namely, the Sacred Scripture.
'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home.' It is Solomon who says that he longed to make wisdom his bride.is In another place, he says again of wisdom:
'Love her, and she will embrace you; embrace her and she will preserve yoU.'19 Let us, too, take her for spouse; let us hold her in our arms; let us never let her go from our embrace, never let her escape from our arms. If this bride is always in our embrace, we shall beget sons from her, not daughters, but sons.20 That is what it says right here: 'Your sons like olive plants around your table.' Why could it not say your daughters, or why not [children] ta tekna sou, so that masculine and feminine might be understood? But it says,
'your sons'; he who has wisdom for wife, does not beget daughters from her, but sons. There is nothing soft, nothing delicate, nothing tender, nothing effeminate in his mind or heart. Do you think it is for any other reason that the saints are recorded to have had not daughters, but sons?
Let us read Genesis, for there the order of generation is preserved. Abraham the holy patriarch had a wife, Sara, and a concubine, Agar; later he had Ceture. From two wives, he procreated sons, not daughters. Let us turn to Isaac.
Isaac also had two sons; he did not have daughters. He was a saint, indeed, with nothing of softness in him, nothing tender and effeminate; he was all virility, every bit of him, and hard, too. Blessed Jacob has twelve patriarchal sons, and one daughter, Dina, meaning law-suit, dispute, strife.21 In a word, he had one daughter and twelve sons, and on account of that one daughter, many a war broke out in Sichem.
Never had Jacob said [except for Dina], '1 fear you have made 18 Cf. Wisdom 8.2.
19 Cf. Provo 4.6, 8; d. Letter 52.3, PL 22.528 (256).
20 Commentary on Ecclesiastes 2.8, PL 23.1080 (400); Commentary on lsaia 66.7, PL 24.657 (805).
21 Cf. Hebrew Questions on Genesis 30.21, PL 23.1034 (352).
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me loathsome.'22 In speaking of Levi and Simeon, he exclaims: 'Simeon and Levi, never be in their assembly, my spirit!'23 Why does he say that? Because the men wanted to plead the cause of a woman. Why have I labored this point?
Because the saints did not have daughters, but sons only.
I am telling you something new, new to the uninformed, but to those who read the Scriptures, and read carefully, it is what they already know. Jacob had twelve sons, patriarchs:
Ruben, Simeon, Juda, Levi, Issachar, Aser, and the rest of the twelve. Read the lists of generation and no where will you find that anyone of these twelve patriarchs had a daughter, but all sons. I am going to tell you something, lest perhaps it escape you. Aser did have a daughter, Sara. Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter; likewise, among the twelve patriarchs, one had only one daughter.
Why have I stressed all this? Because it is necessary that in Holy Writ we discern the spiritual sense of sons and daughters. 'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home.' 'As a fruitful vine.' A fruitful vine has many clusters of grapes, even so our wife, our bride, wisdom who is our spouse. We also find written in another place of Scripture: '0 my sister, my bride, come.'24 Lest you associate anything base with the concept of bride, the word sister is ad-. joined to preclude any dishonorable love. Come, my sister: love is something sacred and for that reason I call you sister.
My bride: I call you my bride that I may have a wife, and from you, my wife, beget sons in number, sons as many as the clusters of grapes on the vine. Now, as the vine has many different clusters and only one root, but spreads its shoots far and wide, thither and hither, and the shoots themselves bring forth their own fruits; and as these fruits are in clusters, one larger and one smaller, some seeds are greater, others are less; so also from wisdom, who is our wife, if we shall never
22 Cf. Gen. 34.30.
23 Cf. Gen. 49.6.
24 Cf. Cant. 5.1; d. Against 10vinian 1.30, PL 23.265 (286).
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let her go, many clusters will be engendered-many virtues, many holy resolutions, many noble deeds.
'Your children like olive plants around your table.' We read in another psalm: 'And wine to gladden men's hearts,'25 and again, in the Canticle of Canticles: 'Come brethren, drink deeply of love.'26 Wine to cheer the heart of men. The wine of the flesh does not cheer the heart of man, but overpowers it and produces madness; it is written, in fact, that it is not for kings to drink wine.27 The Apostle, too, writes that it is good not to eat meat and not to drink wine;28 yet we are told that wine gladdens the heart of man. This means, however, spiritual wine, by which, if one drinks, he immediately becomes inebriated. All of you, in order to detach yourselves from your possessions and your parents, your sons and relations, drank wine, and it began to inebriate you; you became mad for the sake of Christ. Does it not seem to you inebriation-spiritual madness-to scorn pleasures, to seek out the dregs of the people, to shun the city, to pursue solitude with zeal, to despise affections, to ignore a kinsman, and to know Christ only? The apostles had been inebriated with this kind of wine; hence, it is said of them: 'They are full of new wine,'29 for they had not been intoxicated by the old law, but by the Gospel. I think that was Noe's kind of intoxication.
'Your children like olive plants.' Our sons are compared solely to olive plants. The prophet did not liken them to the old olive, but to the new, the olive plants. Just as in the reference to the inebriation of the apostles, Scripture does not say they are full of old wine but of new wine; so here they are like olive plants, new olives, fresh and strong in the youth of the Gospel, new olive plants full of light.
25 Ps. 103.15.
26 Cf. Cant. 5.1.
27 Cf. Provo 31.4.
28 Cf. Rom. 14.21; d. Letter 22.8, PL 22.399 (94); 54.10, PL 22.555 (288);
79.7, PL 22.729 (504); 108.1, PL 22.879 (691).
29 Acts 2.13.
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It is the nature of olive oil to season food, to feed a flame, to refresh the body almost to newness after a long, weary journey; in fact, the worn and weary practically regain their former vigor after anointing with oil. Do you think that Scripture specifies wine and oil in this psalm arbitrarily? No, it could never substitute honey, nor any other spice, nor any other tree, only the vine and the olive. These are the healing remedies of our life, the vine and the olive, wine and oil. In wine there is severity; in oil, there is compassion. It is pertinent to recall that the man who had been wounded on his way coming down from Jerusalem to Jericho, a Samaritana guardian-received no medication save wine and oil. Wine, the austerity of the commandments; wine, the astringent, that any bad fluid may be boiled down and burned out. Since, moreover, human frailty is unable to bear the truth-'if you, o Lord, mark iniquities, Lord who can stand?'SO-we could not live if the Lord were only just; hence, to His justice, to His wine, is added the oil of clemency.
'Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord.' We have been speaking at great length; let us hasten the end.
'The Lord bless you from Sion.' From this Sion? If so, how does another prophet say: 'Sion shall become a plowed field'?31
The Lord, too, says: 'Jerusalem, Jerusaleml thou who killest the prophets, and stonest those who are sent to theel'S2
When He had drawn near Jerusalem and had seen the city, He wept over it,S3 but when He wept, surely He wept because it was going to fall into ruins, to perish. In fact, what does He say? 'Arise, let us go from here';34 and again: 'Your house is left to you desolate.'35 When, therefore, the psalmist says: 'The Lord bless you from Sion,' he does not mean this
Sion that we see so desolate; the very gates, the very plain 30 Ps. 129.3.
31 Jer.26.18.
32 Matt. 23.37.
33 Cf. Luke 19.41.
34 John 14.31.
35 Matt. 23.38; d. Letter 46.4, PL 22.485 (201); 58.3, PL 22.581 (320).
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and the ruins, bespeak the wrath of God. Even if we are ignorant of the facts, our very eyes proclaim their witness to the wrath of the Lord. 'The Lord bless you from Sion.'
Sion means watchtower; Jerusalem symbolizes vision of peace.
If our soul had a watchtower, if it were high aloft, if it gave no thought to the things of earth but only to things of heaven, if our soul possessed the vision of peace, if Christ who is true peace dwelt in it, He would bless us with happiness.
If Christ shall dwell in us, we shall be Sion, and we shall be Jerusalem.
'May you see your children's children.' I am preaching to you. If I have taught you anything from my sermon, I have looked upon my sons; if you have taught others, I have seen the sons of my sons. Let us pray the Lord that we may have sons, that we may have grandsons, that our progeny be always more numerous.
Let us hasten to procreate such sons.
That is a holy union. I am telling you something strange; without wife, many such sons are born. 'Peace be upon Israel!' Israel means, 'man seeing God,' therefore, 'Peace be upon Israel,' means 'upon those who discern God.' If my mind always has the vision of God, if I always see Christ, I shall not see others. Whoever has Christ within him, has peace within him. 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to YOU.'36 Granted there are many persecutions, granted that many are being persecuted, nevertheless, the man in whom
Christ dwells, always has Christ.
36 John 14.27; d. Letter 13, PL 22.347 (28).