7. Why do you not have silver and gold, Peter, tell us: tell also what it is that you say you have, since you said you have left everything you had. For thus you spoke to the Lord: Behold, we have left everything, and have followed you (Matthew 19:27), that is, we have not sought the things of this world, we have not sought a share of possessions: but we have chosen you as our portion. Therefore, Peter, you have left everything you had before; where do you have what you say you have? A lame man rises up, and is lifted by the sound of your voice. You give health to others, who yourself needed the help of your salvation. Therefore, you have left what you had, and you have taken what you did not have. Christ is your portion, Christ is your possession. His name is abundant to you, His name is fruitful to you, His name bestows gifts upon you, and the gifts are not of money, but of grace. Your portion is not dried by drought, not diluted by rain, not burned by cold, not shaken by storms. Let the sun not burn you by day, nor the moon by night. Keep the portion you have chosen; it is a portion that earthly parts cannot equal. For what can be compared to those things of which God says: 'And I will dwell in them' (Leviticus 26:12)? What is more magnificent than heavenly hospitality? What is more blessed than divine possession? And He says, 'I will walk among them' (2 Corinthians 6:16). Others complain about the narrowness of their own land: for you, God is a spacious possession, in whom He says He walks, that is, finding wide spaces of habitation, who enclosed the earth in His hand; for it is written: 'Who has measured the waters with His hand, and marked off the heavens with His palm, and enclosed the entire earth in His hand' (Isaiah 40:12)? To whom the world is narrow, to him you are a spacious house. 'You are my portion,' says the Lord. This is what the martyr says. Therefore let us live, to whom death is glorious. In other words, how well Paul said this, showing that he has no share in this world! For it is written: Until this hour we hunger and thirst, we are naked, and beaten with fists, and unstable, and work with our own hands. We are cursed, and we bless; we endure persecution, and we bear; we are blasphemed, and we entreat. We have become as the refuse of this world, the off-scouring of all until now (1 Corinthians 4:11-13).
Perhaps it may move them that he said he was rubbish. He is not. But this seems to be to those who think that the highest glory or beauty is in wealth. Do not those people think that all who serve them for the sake of riches are rubbish and admire them for their wealth, fear them for their power, and praise them for their nobility? But Paul considered all these things to be more disadvantages than advantages. Therefore, he says: What were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). He thinks: This is not my opinion, but another's. For often that poor man is judged worthy of ridicule and hatred because of the filth of his clothing or the scars of wounds; because he possesses no portion of land; and yet his portion is in heaven. His soul has placed its inheritance there, because he heard Jesus saying: Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth... but store up treasures for yourselves in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20).
9. But the rich cannot hear this. They have closed ears, and they are deaf to the sound of the air: a coin resonates with them more than divine words. Finally, a certain rich man approached the Lord, who did not have the Lord as his portion. For he had many possessions: but the Lord is not counted among many, for he does not deign to have fellowship with the world. What portion of justice is there with iniquity? Therefore, this rich man says: What must I do to possess eternal life? (Luke XVIII, 18)? The Lord responded to him: Do you know the commandments? You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness (Ibid., 20-21), showing that eternal life is in these commandments. But the man, wanting to justify himself, said: I have done all these things, what remains for me? To this the Lord said, wanting him to become a disciple of the Lord, not money, not possessions, but the true God: If you want to be perfect, go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me (Ibid., 22). But he, whose portion was gold and silver, without which he could not exist, and with which the Lord could not be his portion, was saddened. Whereupon the Lord pronounced it impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, except through divine grace alone, which is able to make possible what is impossible through human desires.
10. He also says: Whoever leaves father or mother, house, or brothers, or sisters... will receive a hundredfold in this age, and possess eternal life (Matthew XIX, 29). But perhaps you will say: Certainly, the one who, by leaving his home (by home, understand all his possessions), has followed God, has a share of the Lord, and the Lord has a share in him; he also has eternal life; and because he receives a hundredfold in this age, he becomes rich, you will say, and enters the kingdom of heaven. Then if the Lord gives a hundredfold of what they are accustomed to receiving as a simple impediment to the perception of eternal inheritance: therefore, he gives a hundred possessions for one possession, a hundred pounds of gold for one pound.
Indeed, we know that many in this world who have given their possessions to the poor have been enriched with a more abundant treasure. And it is a beautiful place, that even stirs up compassion. But they should not demand a worldly reward of this kind from the Lord, nor hope for what belongs to the world. Rather, because they have left everything behind, God is their portion. He is truly the perfect reward of virtues, who is considered not by the enumeration of a hundredfold, but by the estimation of perfect fullness. I am your God, he says (Gen. XVII, 1). He did not say, 'I will be,' but 'I already am, I already dwell, I already possess.' He removes delay when he finds the confession of the just. Indeed, elsewhere he says, 'Today you will be with me in paradise' (Luke XXIII, 43). He promises the future, but what is future cannot be postponed by even a single day. Finally, he could have said, 'You will be with me in paradise,' but he added 'today,' so that grace would not be diminished by delay.
But not only does the Lord Jesus say to them, 'Today you will be with me in paradise'; but He also says to you, 'You will be with me in paradise,' if you confess the Lord Jesus, if you ask for His patronage, if you yourself say: 'Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your kingdom' (cf. Lk 23:42). He does not say to you, 'Today you will be with me': He says to the martyr, 'Today you will be with me in paradise.' He does not say this to you because you are still in this feverish body, in this desiring body, in this still earthly desiring body. But when you can say: 'You have broken my bonds' (Ps 116:16), that is, you have completed the course of this mortal life, you have delivered me from this deathly body, then He says to you: 'Today you will be with me in paradise.'
Therefore, human, you have among many things even this portion. The Lord has proposed to you possessions in a portion, gold in a portion, silver in a portion, honors in a portion, nobility in a portion; He has also proposed Himself in a portion. You have very many portions, choose which you think. Let not number disturb you, but let grace excite you; let not labor turn you away, but let fruit invite you. In the divine portion there are groans and labors. And so the holy Apostle, to whom God allotted a share, says: We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him (Rom. 8:17). You see that where the inheritance of Christ is, there ought to be compassion. But whoever suffers, does not suffer superficially, but rather fills up the afflictions of Christ in his own body, as both Paul and Jeremiah filled up. For Jeremiah said under this very letter: It is the mercy of the Lord that we have not been consumed; for his mercies are not yet exhausted; he will renew them like the morning light (Coloss. 1:24). My groanings are many, and my heart is faint. My lot is the Lord, I said; therefore I will hope in him (Lamentations 3:22-24). So, whoever relies on the Lord, has the Lord as their portion. Therefore, David also declares in this place that he has made the Lord his portion, saying: I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me (Psalm 40:1).
14. How rare it is for someone to claim this for themselves: it is not claimed by nobility, nor by wealth. Finally even that rich king said, 'Indeed, I too am a mortal human, like everyone else, and from the earthly race of him who came before, and in the womb of my mother I was formed as flesh: for ten months I was coagulated in blood, from the seed of man, and through the pleasure of sleep: and I, when born, inhaled the common air, and similarly fell onto the earth, and emitted the first cry, like everyone else, crying: I was nurtured in swaddling cloths, and with great cares.' And he added: For no king had a different beginning of birth. Therefore, the entrance into life is the same for all and the exit is similar. (Wis. VII, 1 and following). And because he saw that the beginning of birth is common, he considered himself a part of God, and he called upon him, and the spirit of wisdom came into him (Ibid., 7). But the luxurious choose another part, who say: Let us fill ourselves with precious wine and ointments, and let the flower of time not pass us by. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they wither (Wisdom II, 7, 8). And below: For this is our portion, and this is our lot (Ibid., 9).
15. How great it is to despise riches: but how rare is this itself! Certainly Moses could have been the successor of the king, being nurtured by the king's daughter. Therefore, he could have been not only like Pharaoh, but even Pharaoh himself, and Pharaoh could have been like Moses; for both are human beings: but all human power lies in desire. Moses did not want to be a king, when he could: but he considered the reproach of Christ preferable to the treasures of Egypt: but by fleeing power, he became more powerful; for he became like a god to the king Pharaoh. The king was Pharaoh, but he was not a god: Moses became to him a god, that is, terrible to the king himself, whom the king would fear and dread. But this was the power of holiness. In the assembly of such gods, God stands and discerns. And if you want to be a god to sinners, a terror to kings, and a source of reverence to others; so that they may seem to be subject to you as to God, because you work in the name of God: despise the things of the world, and strive to prefer the reproach of the Lord's Passion to all riches. I say reproach, because it seems shameful to them, that is, a scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles, but to us the power of God and wisdom. But Pharaoh, thinking this reproach, that is, poverty, ignobility, insults, preferred to be of the devil rather than a portion of God: and therefore he who did not want to be subject to God, made himself subject to the intervention of man. Therefore, because David was a portion of God, the holy prophet rightly says: I said to keep your law: he certainly speaks of the spiritual law, as Paul also shows. For those who interpret the Law corporally, do not keep the Law, but pervert it.
16. (Verse 58.) Let us come to the second verse, which is as follows: I will seek your face, O Lord, with all my heart; show me mercy according to your word. We read in the Old Testament that Moses prayed to see the face of God, and it was answered to him: No one can see my face and live (Exodus 33:20). Let us first understand this mystically. Moses received the figure of the Law: the Law announces Christ through hidden mysteries, but does not demonstrate him face to face, as the Gospel does. For in the very face He spoke face to face; although in the Gospel the man born of the Virgin appeared, yet the Word showed Himself through His works. And perhaps this was declared to Moses, that the Jewish people would die, and that they would see Christ face to face and not believe. And if you refer to the Law, Christ is also the end of the Law, according to the saying of the Apostle: For Christ is the end of the Law to everyone who believes (Rom. X, 4). And the interpretation of the Law in the flesh is dead, where the Lord Christ Jesus showed its spiritual grace. Or certainly because all of us who have seen Christ, and have been baptized in Christ, have died to sin; because while living, we were held by the bonds of the Law. But where we have died in Christ, we have certainly been crucified to the Law through the body of Christ; so that we may be of another who has risen from the dead. But this is a mystery.
However, the morale of ancient history reminds us that we should remember the story of Moses, who asked God to show Himself to him and to see Him face to face. The holy prophet of the Lord knew that a visible God cannot be seen face to face, but holy devotion transcends measure, and he thought that it was even possible for God to make the incorporeal be seen with bodily eyes and understood. This error is not reprehensible, but rather a pleasing and insatiable desire, because he desired to hold his Lord as if with his own hand and see him with the gaze of his eyes. He knew that man was made in the image and likeness of God. For when he was chosen by the Lord God to deliver the people, he was filled with the spirit of wisdom. He had seen that angel and his face in glory. Finally, in the shining light of that angel, he was struck with awe and saw the burning bush, which was not consumed. He began to see a vision and was amazed at the brightness: he was drawn by desire and grace to examine that brightness more closely in the bush. Therefore, when he experienced such great ardor, he felt such great desire, when he saw an angel in the flame of the fire from the bush, that although he was seized with fear, he dared not examine it, but he still desired to examine it: how much more did he desire to see the face of the Lord in a physical form, saying within himself, that face full of light, full of glory, full of power, full of divinity. I am unable to say or understand anything about God; for when man has reached his perfection, he begins, and when he has come to an end, he will be at a loss, as it is written, for the eternal majesty of God is incomprehensible.
Indeed, the result of the request was in vain, but the probable effect on the slave was stirring; because, by progressing beyond his own nature through devotion, he estimated the measure of the Lord's angels, as much as he desired to fulfill his own desire by gazing upon the countenance of the Lord. He knew that there was another glory, another splendor for man after death. Just as one star is in brightness with another star, so too is the resurrection of the dead: which, although it is sown in corruption, will rise in incorruption, will rise in glory, will rise in power, will rise as a spiritual body. Therefore, whoever could know these things rightly presumed that he wished to see the face of God, which he would see after the death of the body. Certainly, he had received such a form, and the Lord approved it, so that he did not differ from the angels, the minister and executor of the heavenly oracle. And therefore, since he knew that the angels daily see the face of the Father who is in heaven, he thought that he should already see it, as if forgetting his body and putting aside his flesh, just as he who was still in the body, when he was caught up to paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, said that he did not know (II Cor. XII, 3). For even when the saints have the body, they are not in the flesh, but in the spirit; for those who are in carnal desire and behavior cannot please God. But the conversation of the saints was not in the flesh, but in heaven, as Paul shows (Philippians 3:20).
And what can we say about the probable desire for the divine countenance? Even men, when they hear of someone being noble, brave, or wise, desire to see them as if considering them to be above human. The emperor advances, to whom a part of the world has been entrusted with royal authority, and everyone comes running and eagerly desires to behold only him in such a great multitude, and they believe there is something more in the emperor's countenance than the brilliance of purple. Do you wonder if the face of God is desirable, when every human affection marvels at a reflection of itself? Hence it is understood that each person desires to be acquitted of any crime before the emperor. For even if there is a conscience of guilt, they hide it in the secret depths of their heart, as long as it is not enveloped in public accusation and there is no explicit mention of any crime. Finally, when someone has advocates for their case, they are prohibited from presenting themselves to the emperor and the judges: just as shameful persons, such as pimps and prostitutes, are kept away from the sight of either judge or emperor, so as not to taint the radiance of the royal countenance. But he who is well conscious of himself, guilty of no crime, appears in public as if innocent.
20. Therefore, from these things, let us understand the sentiment of holy Moses. He desired to see the face of God as if innocent, as if with a certain face of conscience: he desired to open the face of his inner mind and to know more fully. And Moses himself, and the holy David, who elsewhere says: Examine me, O Lord, and test me (Psalm 25:2). For he would not want to be examined if he recognized a fault in himself: nor to be tested, if he knew himself subject to serious passions. Therefore, being free from sin, he eagerly offered himself to God. But perhaps because the world had not yet been tainted with more frequent visitations of God, it was not perfect in the beginning, as it had just been said a little before: Take off the sandals from your feet (Exodus 3:5); certainly that sandal which he had taken from Egypt, that is, the covering of earthly conversation; therefore, the Lord says to him: No one shall see my face and live.
21. But when this was said, consider. It had not yet been said: I will make you a god to Pharaoh (Exodus VII, 1). He was still a man, and therefore it was said to him: a process was necessary for him to become a god; and therefore it was said to him: I have said to you, stop having the sins of man, and you will see my face. For whoever sees my face must be without sin. But because man cannot be without sin, he is warned in order to be able to grow into the name of god. And what shall I say about the appellation of God? Let it be angel, that is, the divine minister of authority, obeying the commands of the Lord. When you are an angel, you will see the face of the Lord. It is a great thing to see the face of God. The law tells you to present yourself three times in Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus himself says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). Tell me what is required of you to see God; what is the purpose of life that grants the privilege of seeing God? Therefore, cleanse your heart so that you may be created anew with a renewed spirit. Cast out all polluted thoughts from your heart, let nothing defile your affections: let your mind be simple, let purity be your sincerity. When they have taken off the veil of the body, the Lord deigns to reveal Himself to such individuals.
22. Now let us speak about the remaining part of the verse. 'Have mercy on me,' he says, 'according to thy word.' Mercy is indeed a portion of justice; for if you desire to give to the poor, this mercy is justice, according to that: 'He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever' (Psalm 111:9). Furthermore, it is unjust that your fellow man should not be helped; especially since our Lord God has willed this land to be a possession common to all men, and to provide fruits for all: but greed distributes the rights of possessions. Therefore, it is just that if you claim something as private for yourself, which has been shared in common with the human race, indeed with all living creatures, you should at least sprinkle something from it onto the poor, so that you do not deprive those to whom you owe a share of your rights of sustenance.
23. It is also an act of mercy to forgive sin: it is both an act of mercy and an act of justice. In fact, Scripture attributes the forgiveness of sins to divine justice, as it was read today: Blessed is the tree that is made through justice, but cursed is the tree that is made by the hands of men (Wisdom 14:7-8). The passage refers to the cross of the Lord, which is connected to the worship of idols by the Gentiles. However, the justice of the cross is that the Lord Jesus Christ, by ascending that scaffold, crucified the handwriting of our sins and cleansed the sin of the whole world with his own blood. Therefore, in whom is God just, unless in Him who knew that He fashioned man from the clay of the earth, which earth is certainly subject to corruption and the fault of slippery passion? Therefore, the Lord, who made you according to His own image and likeness, that is, rational, just, and modest (for in Him you are in the image of God if you are just, so that you may be the image of justice; if you are chaste, so that the figure of the immaculate may shine forth in you), knowing that man, by the frailty of the body, is subject to corruption, as a just one, He forgave the sins of the frail and slippery nature.
24. And so that someone may not say: Why then did Adam fall under the curse and sentence? Is God unjust? Not at all. But because He prescribed what should be avoided for someone who is as if fragile and weak (for the weak should not use, but obey commands), therefore He held the transgression more accountable than the falling. Therefore, a just judgment was passed on him; because He wanted him to know what he was not able to know. But we, who are bound by the inherited bond, who are in this flesh, which could not emerge from the prej
25. Therefore, there is just mercy, but there is also unjust mercy (23, question 4, chapter It is unjust). Finally, in the Law, it is written about someone: You shall not show pity for him (Deuteronomy 19:13). And in the books of the Kings of the Law, it is said that Saul incurred an offense because he showed mercy to Agag, the king of the enemy, whom divine judgment had commanded to be killed (1 Samuel 15:9). So, if someone, moved by the pleas of robbers and swayed by the tears of his wife, thinks he should be acquitted, even though he still desires to commit robbery, will he not deliver the innocent to destruction, while sparing the one who thinks of bringing destruction to many? Certainly, if he restrains the sword, he loosens the shackles, he releases from exile? Why does he not take away the opportunity for robbery through a more merciful way, he who could not extort the will? Then, between the two, that is, the accuser and the defendant, deciding on equal danger of death, if he did not prove the one, if the other is convicted by the accuser, the judge does not follow what is just, but while pitying the accused, condemns the one proving; or while favoring the accuser, who cannot prove, he assigns the innocent. Therefore, this cannot be called just mercy.
26. In the very Church, where it is most fitting for mercy to be shown, the form of justice must be upheld to the greatest extent possible; lest anyone, abstaining from communion for a short time, and with ready tears, or even with more abundant weeping, should force the priest to grant communion at many times, by means of facility. Moreover, does he not also grant indulgence to the unworthy, and cause many to be tempted by the contagion of backsliding? For the facility of pardon provides an incentive for wrongdoing. This is said so that we may know that mercy must be dispensed to debtors according to the word of God and according to reason. Even the doctor, if he finds a scar on the inside of a serpent's wound, when he should cut away the defect of the ulcer so that it does not spread further, still, moved by the tears of the sick person, he covers with medicine what should have been opened by a knife: is not this useless mercy, if because of the brief pain of the incision or cauterization, the entire body decays and the use of life is lost? Therefore, the priest, like a good doctor, must cut off and expose the serious wound so that it does not spread further throughout the body of the Church, and not nurture the virus of crime that was hidden; lest, thinking that one must not be excluded, he make more worthy ones who should be excluded from the Church.
27. Therefore, the Apostle urges us by divine example, saying: See therefore the goodness and severity of God: on those indeed who have fallen, severity; but on you, goodness, if you remain in goodness (Rom. 11:22), showing that the Jewish people are rightly separated from the body of the Church so that the virus of unbelief does not contaminate the Church; but the people of the nations, received by the goodness of the Lord, glory in the gift of obedience. Therefore, divine goodness supports him as long as he remains in divine goodness. But if he himself falls away, he will be condemned according to the quality of his crime. By this grace, the Lord is described as both light and fire, so that he may shine as a light to those who walk in darkness; that the one who seeks the clarity of light may not wander any longer. However, for the one who has done many things that should not endure but burn, the Lord is fire; so that he may consume the hay and stubble of our works, and make us safe through loss, just as gold is tested more when it is refined.
Perhaps someone may ask by what reason did the Prophet write: Have mercy on me according to your word? For the word of God is righteousness. If, therefore, he relied on righteousness, why did he precede mercy? Or if he sought mercy, why did he consider it necessary to seek it in accordance with justice? For he who does good and lives well has no need of mercy; for mercy frees from sin. In conclusion, mercy is not accustomed to be bestowed by us on the rich, the powerful, and those supported by good fortune, but on the needy, the weak, and those who have fallen from wealth into poverty, captivity, or some other necessity. Therefore, he who needs mercy is a sinner; but he who is not a sinner is certainly just, and does not need the mercy of God.
29. Therefore, each person must be considered according to their circumstances, that is, according to the state in which they need mercy or possess justice. For justice is necessary for an angel in a different way than for a human. Mercy is necessary for an archangel in a different way than for a human. For the nature of angels is not subject to corruption in the same way as the nature of the human race; and therefore an angel requires God's mercy so that they cannot err and, turning away from God's grace, fall into vice. However, even though a human being may have a more steadfast resolve, they still seek the mercy of God because of the series of sins they have contracted. Therefore, even though both the angel and man are in need of God's mercy, mercy is owed to the angel in a different way than to man; for a slight fault is judged more severely in an angel. Likewise, the sin of youth in man is bound by a milder sentence compared to the sin of old age, and is relaxed more quickly.
Therefore, the prophet in this verse divides the causes, as if a man were to ask for mercy, because no one is without the stain of sin; and as if a prophet were to ask for justice; or certainly, because even though he has sinned like a man, and like a sinner he needs mercy; nevertheless, he corrected his error, performed repentance, abstained from the wrongdoing of drunkenness, and pursued the virtue of sobriety. Therefore, he asks for justice according to the word of God, because it is the judgment of the word of God that forgiveness be given to those who have turned back; if, however, the conversion has been done legitimately (Ezekiel 18:21 and 33:12).
31. (Verse 59.) I have considered my ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies. Dual sense: either because I have thought about my higher ways, full of slips and sins, and therefore, that I may be able to merit the forgiveness of sins by the conversion of morals and the pursuit of virtues. I have turned my feet to your testimonies, so that I may no longer walk in the same steps in which I have previously stumbled, but in the paths of your testimonies, where your commandments would not allow me to wander, nor would I veer off the path into crooked and winding ways. For frequently, those who are ignorant of the way, if they follow the paved roads, arrive where they desire to arrive, and are without the detour of error. But if they pretend to know what they do not know, and think that some shortcuts must be followed, frequently deviating from the public path, they often incur the mazes of error; so that they repent of having diverted from the path: and therefore, after many labors and expenses, they strive to return to the journey which they had abandoned.