HOMILY 54
HOMILY 54
ON PSALM 143 (144)
1I:""'!=:TllVEN THOUGH we have preached at length on the Gospel, nevertheless, for the sake of those who do not know
Latin, we must make a few comments on the psalter, some may not go away starving while others are well satisfied. Since, moreover, the psalm is long and we would be here a whole day if we lingered over each verse, we ought to reflect briefly upon a few thoughts, rather than spend our time unfolding the meaning of words.
'Blessed be the Lord, my God, who trains my hands for battle.'t One who attempts a brief explanation of Holy Writ forfeits all grounds for praise; nevertheless, those who listen do retain something from the exposition. 'Blessed be the Lord, my God, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.' Let us lift up our hands in prayer without distractions, without contentions,2 and on every occasion, for when we raise our hands to God, our prayer is our weapon against the devil. 'Who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.' Prayer is our harp, prayer our either; to its accompaniment, we sing our hymn to God.
'My mercy and my refuge, my stronghold, my deliverer, my protector:a With such titles as these the psalmist addresses
God whose names are as many as His kindnesses. 'Who subdues people under me.' These words may be uttered in the name of Christ with reference, of course, to His Incarnation;
I Cf. Ps. 143 (144).1.
2 Cf. I Tim. 2.8.
3 Cf. Ps. 143 (144).2.
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they may be said also by the apostles. In like manner, the abbot in the monastery gives thanks to God and says: Blessed be the Lord, my God, who subjects people to me, for they are not subject to me, but to You; they obey me that they may serve You.
'Lord, what is man, that you notice him; the son of man, that you take thought of him?' This same reflection occurs in the eighth psalm: 'What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him?'4
Lord, what is man that You notice him? The psalmist is speaking here of the frailty of the body and of human weakness, and what does he say? If you consider his flesh, what is man? If you consider his spirit, he is noble. Let us by no means scorn the flesh,5 but let us reject its works. Let us not despise the body that will reign in heaven with Christ.
'Flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God';6 no, not flesh and blood of themselves, but the works of the flesh. 'Flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God: How, then, are they going to reign together with Christ; how shall we be seated together in heaven in Christ?7
'Lord, what is man, that you notice him; the son of man, that you take thought of him?' The prophet is giving thanks to God and this is the import of what he says. As far as man's human estate is concerned, he is nothing. 'Vanity of vanities! all things are vanity!' said Ecclesiastes.s If all things are vanity, heaven, too, is vanity, and are the angels. If heaven and the angels are vanity, how much more vain is man? If the angels are vanity, if heaven is vanity, why has
God fashioned vanity? Vanity, yes, in comparison to God, but in itself, not vanity.9 Lord, what is man that You notice him, that You have deigned to notice him? Sublime happi4 Ps.8.5.
5 Cf. Commentary on lsaia 52.2, 3, PL 24.497 (603).
6 1 Cor. 15.50; cf. Against John of Jerusalem 36, PL 23.406 (446).
7 Cf. Eph. 2.6.
8 Cf. Eccles. 1.2; cf. Letter 48.14, PL 22.503 (224).
9 Cf. Commentary on Ecclesiastes 1.2, PL 23.1065 (385).
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ness of man, to know his Creator! That is the very distinction that separates us from brutes and beasts-that we recognize our Creator; brute beasts have 110 understanding. By the very posture and constitution of his body, man seeks his
Maker. Animals, for the most part, have their eyes fixed on the ground, and their belly is there where their eyes are; our eyes are raised to heaven, so that even if our mind should become darkened, we would, despite our reluctant eyes, behold the heavens.
'Man is like a breath; his days, like a passing shadow.'
Truly, our days are like a shadow. I was an infant; I was a lad; I was an adolescent; I was a youth; I was a mature man;
I reached middle life; then, before I realize it, I am an old man. Death creeps up on old age. I am changing every day, and I do not perceive that I am nothing. Never for a moment do we mark time as we pass through life, but we are always either growing or shrinking. Man, then, alters from moment to moment; all unaware of it he is dying. As an old man,
I recall my infancy: what I was, what I did, how I played, how I ran about hither and thither; now I see myself weighed down under too great a burden. 'His days like a passing shadow.' Our life is a shadow; it does not seem to have any substance. What existence it does have quickly passes away.
Because, therefore, man is so miserable, because he is so weak, what is our entreaty? For what do we plead? What does the prophet say here? For what does he pray?
'Incline your heavens, 0 Lord, and come down.' You cannot save this worthless thing that is man, unless You Yourself assume his worthlessness. 'Incline your heavens, 0 Lord, and come down.' Your wandering sheep cannot be cured of its waywardness unless You carry it upon Your shoulders. 'Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.' 'Amen I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Remove from here"; and it will remove.'lO That was said in reference to the boy that was possessed. The moun10 Matt. 17.19.
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tain that they could not remove is written of in Jeremia:
'Give glory to the Lord, your God, before it grows dark; before your feet stumble on the darkening mountains.'l1 Now why have we said all this? Because of the words of the psalm:
'Touch the mountains and they shall smoke,' mountains that dominate the earth, mountains that are haughty with pride, that say: 'The rivers are mine; it is I who made them.'12
'Touch the mountains and they shall smoke.' The prophet did not say, 'they shall burn,' but 'they shall smoke.' May they be marked by the sign of their punishment, not by divine resplendence and sublimity.
'Flash forth lightning, and put them to flight.' Note that the prophet did not say: You will destroy them, but, You will scatter them. We read in Genesis that when they were building the tower of Babel, God says: 'Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech';13 it is for their own good that they be scattered.
'Reach out your hand from on high.' 'Who would believe what we have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'14 Reach down Your hand from above; Lord, incline Your heavens and come down. This is said to the Son:
Incline Your heavens and descend. How, now, does the psalmist say: Reach out Your hand from on high? Granted
He is on earth; He, nevertheless, reaches out His hand from heaven; for He does not depart from there. 'Deliver me and rescue me from many waters.' Because You have descended, inclined the heavens, reached down Your hand from on high, and deigned to assume a human body, and many have believed in You, in the place of one water, there have begun to be many waters. You may observe that many different heresies have spread throughout the world. 'Deliver me and rescue me from many waters': rescue me from many
11 Jer. 13.16.
12 Cf. Ezech. 29.9.
13 Cf. Gen. 11.7.
14 Isa. 53.1.
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waters, and show me the living fountain. There is only one baptism: 'one faith, one Baptism.'15 Deliver me from many waters, for these waters do not generate Your sons, but the sons of strangers. Then the psalmist continues: 'Rescue me from many waters, from the hands of alien children,'16 for they are not Your children that are born in many waters, but the children of aliens.
'Whose mouths swear false promises.' They assure themselves of knowledge, and yet they set their mouth against their Creator. 'They set their mouthings in place of heaven,'l1 whose mouths swear false promises. Their science is the science of false promises. 'While their right hands are the right hand of iniquity.'18 The prophet denounces both their mouths and their hands, their science and their works: 'Whose mouths swear false promises' pertains to their science; 'Their right hands are the right hand of iniquity,' to their works. They say they are right-handed, but they are all left-handed. Their right hand is the hand of iniquity and not of equity. Of their left hand, Scripture says: 'Let the devil stand at his right hand.'19 The man who has that kind of right hand-the right hand of iniquity-has the devil standing at his right hand.
'0 God, I will sing a new song to you'; a new man, a new song. To You, my God, I will sing a new song. 'Sing to the Lord a new song.'20 How appropriately the psalmist said,
I will sing, and not, I sing. His promise is for the future, for how well he realizes that the present life is a contest, not a canticle. An army never sings unless it is on its way to victory; consequently, I am not free to sing in the present combat. When I win the victory, then, I shall sing. 'With a ten-stringed lyre I will chant your praise.' Then, I will stretch
15 Eph.4.5.
16 Cf. Ps. 143 (144).7.
17 Ps.72.9.
18 Cf. Ps. 143 (144).8.
19 Cf. Ps. 108.6.
20 Ps.95.1.
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out both hands and on such chords I will sing to You. My prayer is Your psaltery.
'You who give victory to kings.' To which kings? 'The king's heart is in the hand of God.'21 The heart of Julian, the persecutor, of Nero, of Decius, are their hearts in the hand of God? No, the hearts in the hand of God are those who govern their body, who bring it into subjection and compel it to servitude, lest preaching to others they themselves should be rejected.22 These are the kings of whom
Wisdom says in Proverbs: 'He gives kingship to kings.'23
'Deliver me; and rescue me from the hands of alien children.' These versicles are a repetition of those above. 'Whose mouths swear false promises while their right hands are the right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like new plants wellnurtured in their youth.'24 Deliver me from the hands of alien children. Let us see what kind of sons heretics have:
Whose sons are like new plants in their youth. Note very carefully what follows about heretics.
'Their daughters clothed with finery, adorned like a temple.
Their garners fulI, overflowing with every kind of store.
Their sheep fruitful, thronging in their going forth; their oxen fat. There is no breach in the walls, no passage, no outcry in their streets. They have called the people happy, for whom things are thus.'25 Heretics say this. What do I say? 'Happy the people whose God is the Lord.' Let us take each versicle separately and briefly examine it with the help of your prayers.
'Whose sons are like new plants wellnurtured in their youth.' Their crop is not old but new; it is not from the old law, nor from the prophets nor apostles, but from new teachers. Their sons are like new plants wellnurtured in their youth. They are ever youths. Granted that 21 Cf. Provo 21.1; d. Homily 9 on Ps. 75, p. 62; Homily 49 on Ps. 137, p. 361.
22 Cf. 1 Cor. 9.27.
23 Cf. Provo 8.15.
24 Cf. Ps. 143 (144).12.
25 Cf. Ps. 143 (144).12-15.
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many heresies are old, nevertheless, since they change daily and are discovered anew each day, they are new; even though they are old stories, because their doctrine is retold, they are new. As a matter of fact, heretics are not content with the errors of ancient teachers; they must find new ones. Their sons are like young saplings. Now, what does Holy Writ say about the Church on the fear of the Lord? 'Happy are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!,26 What does it say about those who walk in His ways? 'Your sons like olive plants around your table:27 These sons are around the table of Christ, not away from it. No girls are mentioned, only sons. Heretics, on the other hand, have daughters, also; the weaker sex, the delights of pleasure. 'Their daughters clothed with finery'; their speech is full of adornment, but its sense is sordid. In Holy Writ, thoughts and reflections are always spoken of as sons, words as daughters. See, now, what the psalmist means? Their ideas, their sons, are new; their words
-of the heretics-are borrowed from worldly wisdom and well ordered; their speech is facile and elegant. 'Their daughters clothed with finery: Indeed, do their words seem apt, but because they are daughters, not sons, they are without strength or force. 'Adorned like a temple: A neat saying,
'like a temple'; they do not have the true Church, but only an image of a church.
'Their garners full, overflowing with every kind of store.'
They are well stocked for debate. If you refute them in one proof, they turn to another. If you contradict them by Scripture, they take refuge in Aristotle; if you rebut them in Aristotle, they by-pass to Plato. Their garners are full, overflowing with every kind of store. 'Garners' is well chosen because it implies a wealth of material ready for use. The heretics possess storehouses, for they have words hoarded for disputation. On the other hand, churchmen are undesigning; they do not anticipate their arguments. They open their
26 Cf. Ps. 127.1.
27 Cf. Ps. 127.3.
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mouths and the Lord fills them just as He promised: 'Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it';28 'do not be anxious how or what you are to speak; for what you are to speak will be given you in that hour.'29 You see, we do not have storehouses all stocked up, but our plenty abounds at that moment.
Someone may ask, what proof have you that the saints do not have granaries? 'Look at the birds of the air: for they have neither storehouses nor granaries. Yet your heavenly
Father feeds them.'30 Monks, especially, are birds of this kind; they do not have storehouses or depositories, but they have the Lord of provisions and storehouses, Christ Himself.
They do not have granaries, but the Lord of granaries; they do not have the wealth of the devil, but they have the poverty of Christ. What does the devil say? 'All these things are mine. I will give them to thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.'31 What does Christ say to His followers? 'He who doth not sell all that he hath, and give to the poor, cannot be my disciple.'32 The devil promises a kingdom and wealth in order to destroy life; the Lord promises poverty in order to preserve it. We do nothing so very great if we renounce our possessions; Christ left His Father and the kingdom of heaven for our sake. Let no one think me blasphemous because I said He left His Father. I am speaking in terms of the Christian dispensation, in terms of His mission, in accordance with which He says: 'The Father who sent me is greater than 1.'33 God is not sent; God is not made subject; He does not serve; but the Divine Dispensation is sent. If God is everywhere and all things are in God, how is
God sent to anything, since all things are of God? Christ, I say, was made a pauper for us. Why have we said all this?
Because it says here in the psalm: Their garners full, over28 Ps. 80.11.
29 Matt. 10.19.
Cf. Matt. 6.26; d. Letter 22.31, PI. 22.417 (1 Hi).
31 Cf. Matt. 4.8, 9.
32 Cf. Matt. 19.21; I.uke 14.33; d. Against .Jm,iniall 2.6, PI. 23.307 (333).
33 Cf. John 14.28.
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flowing with every kind of store. Quite right, 'overflowing' with superabundance. They eructate from gorging themselves and perish; from fasting, we win salvation.
'Their sheep fruitful.' They have many sons, for the number 'of heretics is legion. 'Their sheep fruitful.' Osee, the prophet, says: 'Give them, a Lordl give them what? Give them an unfruitful womb, and dry breastsl'34 For whom are these words intended? For the teachers of heretics who plume themselves in the number of their disciples. 'Their sheep fruitful, thronging in their going forth.' The psalmist did not say, in their coming in, but in their going out, for they are not coming into the Church, but going out of it. 'They have gone forth from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would surely have continued with US.'35
'Thronging in their going forth'; every day they are going forth from the Church. 'Thronging in their going forth.'
What does the psalmist say about the Church? 'All glorious , is the king's daughter as she enters.'36 'Their oxen fat.'
Pharao in a dream saw fat Egyptian oxen. 'Their oxen fat.'
The Israelite people are slender; the Egyptians are fat. You should see the teachers of heretics doing nothing but ogling their treasures. They gaze fondly at their possessions and scorn Christ the pauper. 'Their oxen fat.' Well said, 'fat oxen'; 'their god is the belly, their glory is in their shame.'37
'There is no breach in the wall, no passage.' Do these words seem obscure to you: 'There is no breach in the wall, no passage, no outcry in their streets'? Rarely do you find an inexperienced heretic, for all heretical teachers are trained in secular science. They have not the nets of the apostles, but they possess the little chains of dialectics. 'There is no breach in the walls, no passage.' Whenever they engage in disputation, whenever they begin to argue with you, their words are so concise, so compressed in masterly language,
34 Osee 9.14; d. Letter 133.11, PL 22.1159 (1040).
35 1 John 2.19.
36 Ps. 44.14.
37 Phil. 3.19.
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that it is difficult to escape their cogency. When they hold you tied up in their syllogisms and, as it were, weave a web of them and build a wall about you, you cannot break down the wall nor break through the web, and there you are a prisoner. Their walls are without breach, without exit, and when they keep you imprisoned in their gyrations, you are not on the narrow way that leads to life, but on the broad way that leads to death. as 'No outcry in their streets.' Jesus cries out and calls, saying: 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.'39 Jesus' outcry is in the narrow way, not in the avenues of the heretics.
'Happy the people for whom things are thus.' Many in their ignorance think that this sort of happiness is theirs.
Christian simplicity is ours; we have no desire for Platonic eloquence, we want only the apostolic simplicity of fishermen.
This simplicity holds a net; it has muddy feet and working hands, hard and calloused from work. 'Happy the people whose God is the Lord'; happy the people who possess Christ in the place of all riches. The others have sons and daughters; they have granaries, fruitful sheep, fat oxen, sleek and well bUilt. We, on the contrary, do not have their multitudes, but we know and have experienced that saying in the Gospel:
'Where two or three are gathered together for my sake, there am I in the midst of them.'40 Do not be afraid, little flock,41 for it has pleased God to dwell in your midst. Monks have no right to say: 'Look at the great crowds, the cities are filled, the whole world is filled; but do you think no one is saved except the monk in the monastery? Just look at the multitudes; but are we only to be saved?'42 When such thoughts tempt and trouble you, listen to the Lord saying: Do not be afraid, little flock, because it has pleased your Father to dwell among you.
38 Cf. Matt. 7.13. 14.
39 John 7.37.
40 Matt. 18.20.
41 Cf. Luke 12.32.
42 Cf. Letter 125.17. PL 22.1082 (944); 58.5. PL 22.582·83 (322).
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We have read in the Gospel43 how two thousand swine perish because one soul is saved. Why do I say all this? To prove that the soul of one saint is more precious than an infinite number of sinners. From the whole world He chose twelve apostles. On.e of twelve deserted; eleven remained loyal. The cross came; they fled; one remained-Peter, one with One. This one himself fled, and would that he had!
He denied Christ. We may say, then, that the entire human race was lost. Because it had perished, the complaint of the Lord crucified is: 'The wine press I have trodden alone, and of my people there was no one with me.'44 Then was the . psalm fulfilled: 'Help, a Lord! for no one now is dutiful.'45
'There is none who does good, no not even one.'46 He who had promised: 'Even if I should have to die with thee, or be imprisoned, I will not deny thee,'47 denied Him. Why am I making such a point of all this? Because it behooves the monk not to look at the crowd of sinners, but to reflect upon the way of life and the fewness of the saints. The whole of Judea was led into captivity. Nabuchodonosor had come, and thousands of men were displaced into Babylonia as prisoners.
Jeremia alone was left praising God and they threw him into a muddy cistern;48 nevertheless, the soul of this one man was more precious than. that of all the people. Would you know what one man can do? Jesus, son of Nave, was alone, although the whole world was inhabited. There were, to be sure, countless multitudes, but he was alone. Alone he commanded the sun and the moon, and they stood still; a man gives an order, and heaven gives heed. Heaven listened to him because he was listening to the Lord. Jeremia was III captivity, but there were, also, with him great numbers of 43 Mark 5.2·14.
44 Cf. Isa. 63.3; d. Against ]ovinian 2.36, PL 23.349 (380).
45 Ps. 11.2.
46 Rom. 3.12; d. Ps. 13.1; cf. Letter 60.3, PL 22.591 (333).
47 Cf. Mark 14.31.
48 Cf. Jer. 38.6.
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exiles. What does he say? '1 .sat alone, because you filled me with indignation.'49 How were you alone in the city? 1 say,
I was alone because I had no one with whom to share my purpose.
49 Cf. Jer. 15.17; cf. Letter 128.2, PL 22.1097 (962).