21. (Verse 72.) It follows: The law of your mouth is sweeter to me than thousands of gold and silver. Not just anyone says this, but rather few say it, that is, those who value God's law above gold and silver, who are able to give up everything for the sake of God's law. But even Christ did not find many who said this, except among those whom He Himself deemed worthy to teach. Peter said this and proved it by his actions: that he valued the law more than gold. Therefore he said: I have no gold or silver (Acts 3:6). He who lies with dug-up gold does not say this out of greed. He is not a rich man who anxiously searches for daily profits, who accumulates wealth every day, who pursues the pleasures of inheritance, who tirelessly keeps watch around the sick person's bed.
22. Some people understand the law of God's mouth as the law of the Word of God, just as if you were to say the law of the right hand of God. Therefore, it is fitting that Peter also said this: 'You have the words of eternal life, and we will leave you' (John 6:69). That is, the law of your mouth is worth more than thousands of gold and silver. And can we abandon such a good thing and seek the profits of this world? But the law of God's mouth can also be called the law of Moses, through whom the Lord spoke and gave the Law.
Sermon 10. Iod.
1. The tenth letter among the Hebrew letters is Iod, which in Latin is called 'confession' or certainly 'desolation.' The interpretation does not seem discordant or dissonant. Indeed, those who are desolate confess more quickly, for the mind is accustomed to be uplifted by favorable circumstances; but when one is pressed by adversities, then one implores divine help. For even in human affairs, we know that this is the case: that when good things come, the mind becomes more elated; but when one is beset by the hostile forces of this world, and one encounters the power of some adversary, then one seeks refuge, then one seeks help; either by beseeching the one who is above to moderate their power, or by arming oneself with additional strength; so as not to be overwhelmed by more powerful forces, as if one were inferior to them.
Finally, Jeremiah under this letter says thus: 'He stretches out his hands who is afflicted in all his desires. For he saw the nations entering into his sanctuary; to whom you commanded not to enter into his Church.' (Lam. 1:10). Surely the Prophet says this about Jerusalem, whose misery he deplores, whose desolation and desertion preceded; so that confession would follow afterwards. For the Lord chastises every son whom he receives. Therefore, about to receive Jerusalem, he tormented himself with the hardships of captivity. For he had become too arrogant and had boasted with an inflated heart, so that he could not hold onto the Lord Jesus, that is, humility, grace, justice, wisdom, that is, the teachings of true faith. And therefore the Lord punished her, who as the ruler of all knows how to chastise each individual. For just as a doctor is accustomed to treating more serious wounds with harsher remedies and milder wounds with milder ones, so our God punishes more serious sins with greater severity. But chastisement itself profits for salvation. For the Lord said: I will strike, and I will heal (Deut. XXXII, 39).
3. Finally, Jeremiah the prophet began to promise hope for Jerusalem. For in the later part under this letter, he says: He will give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and he will be satisfied with insults. He will give his mouth to the grave; if there is hope in patience (Lam. III, 30 and 29). In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus, teaching the virtue and remarkable patience, says: If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other (Matt. V, 39). For he desires his disciples to be patient with injuries, not retaliating easily, let alone striking. For patience is an indication of humility. And therefore, because Jerusalem was desolate and abandoned, he says, 'Give your cheek to the one who strikes you, so that you do not submit to the injury, nor turn aside from the pain of the blow, but offer your cheek to the one who strikes.' Both can be understood, either the one who begins to strike or the one who has already struck; so that the Gospel saying is fulfilled: 'If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer him the other as well.' And this was prophetically established, so as to teach Jerusalem, that is, the Church of the Judean people, that it should be saved no other way than through the discipline of the Gospel; so that when it begins to keep the precepts of the Gospel, and to fulfill the command of the Lord Jesus with works, then it may cast off the yoke of captivity from the neck of its soul, when it subjects itself to the yoke of Christ.
4. And he will be satisfied, he says, with reproaches. He did not say: He will endure reproach; for it is easy to bear one or two insults; but he added: He will be satisfied with reproaches; so that the Lord may more easily move mercy, by the pitiful ugliness of many reproaches. You can understand this certainly from the book of Kings. For when Shimei the son of Gera reviled the holy David, calling him a bloody man, and cursed him when he fled from his son Absalom, avoiding for a time the wars of a parricide, the king remained silent, and demonstrated the highest emblem of patience. For when he understood the time of his temptation, that he was about to engage in a deadly battle, he wanted to appear more humble, in order to mitigate the offense of the Lord; he thought that in his temptation, it would be better to provoke his judgment rather than to provoke his anger, in case he sought revenge for his own injuries. Therefore, he said to Abessa, the leader of the people, who wanted to seek vengeance: What is it to me and to you, son of Sarvia? He curses me for this reason; because the Lord commanded him to curse me. Behold, my son who came forth from my womb seeks my life. But if a stranger now curses me, let him curse; for the Lord has commanded him to see my humility. And the Lord will repay me with good for this curse. This was also said by the prophet in the spirit, and proven by the outcome. For when humility is filled, sin is forgiven. Moreover, in the book of Isaiah, you have this from the Lord: 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, priests, console her, for her humiliation is fulfilled, her sin is forgiven, for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.' Therefore, it is advertised that where there is desolation, there is humility. For humility follows desolation in the right order, patience follows humility, testing follows patience, consolation follows testing. And you have it written in the Apostle: Because tribulation produces patience, and patience produces testing, and testing produces hope, and hope does not disappoint; because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. III, 3-5), who is certainly the comforter of our emotions.
But what he says, 'He will give his mouth in the burial' (Lamentations 3:29), shows a certain excessive patience of silence, as if burying his own mouth so that he does not speak; and as if obstructing with a certain mound of virtues, so that he does not emit a voice of pain; asserting only the weight of patience, which hope nourishes; as if burying and enclosing the very voice as in a grave and tomb, which no injury can force out or awaken. We have also provided an interpretation of this letter as best we could; let us now turn to the psalm.
6. (Verse 73.) Therefore the first verse is: Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments. He has used a great commendation in the beginning, so that he may proclaim that it is the work of God; thereby more easily attracting the favor of the author towards the grace of his work. For it is a great prerogative even in human affairs that someone should favor their own works and benefits, without considering the merit of others, but rather focus on the gift of their own grace, so as not to appear to revoke what he himself has given. Therefore, even though the substance of our body is made of clay, and we are clothed in flesh, and our body is interwoven with bones and nerves, no one will doubt that we are the most precious work of God. For if anyone wants to consider the very structure of the human body, they will find nothing more valuable on earth. For man stands in an elevated position, pleasing in appearance, having beautiful hair, not bent over like other animals, but elevated by the right of nature itself, who looks at the sky with a free gaze; not weighed down by the captive servitude of the neck, depressed towards the earth, but as one conscious of his own freedom, a rich witness of himself as the creator.
7. However, in other living creatures, the form of the limbs is praised, in which nothing else is required besides the beauty of the body. Man is more beautiful in that which is not seen, not in the body which is seen: having in himself the grace of eternity and the charm of the present. For what is seen is temporary; for what is not seen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). In this earthly abode, clothed with a heavenly dwelling, in which it is fitting to both appear on earth and be united with God. It is indeed a great gift if one knows oneself; and a certain form of justice, to be born more for the world than for oneself. Hence Solomon says: A great and precious work is a compassionate man: but it is necessary to find a faithful man (Prov. 20:6). And truly great is the one who is both an interpreter of divine work and an imitator of God. For he is a man who could say: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). He cultivates the land, uses the sea as a possession, and admires the ornaments of the sky as a grateful defender. The nature of things would have disappeared unless someone who would use them had been added by divine providence.
8. Finally, after God made the heavens and the earth and the seas, after He made all the creeping things, the flying things, the living things, He made man, whom He preferred to the living creatures: from which rightly followed the heavenly decree: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. I, 26). The rest He spoke, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created (Psal. CXLVIII, 5); so that man may be made, a special exhortation of God approached; so that the operation of the creature in this task of God's work may be signified as if of a laboring God. Indeed, God is devoid of labor: but do not the words of Scripture, unless they show forth your diligent effort of His, reveal something else? Therefore, if God created you with a certain zeal, why do you yourself abandon your zeal? If God worked in you, who does not know how to labor, why do you yourself, fleeing, be averse to labor?
Your hands, he says, have made me and fashioned me (Psalm 138:8). The Prophet cries out to God: Do not forsake your work, Lord, do not abandon it. I acknowledge you as the author, I hold you as the creator; I do not seek the help of strangers. Clothe yourself for assistance, you who are clothed with power to create. Let David himself speak, what do you feel, why do you say: Your hands have made me? But you said further: Lord, you will repay on my behalf: Lord, your mercy endures forever, do not abandon the work of your hands (Psalm 137:8). This means, beasts have not made your hands, but you said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life (Genesis 1:20), and the earth brought forth after its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth. But you, he said, have made me, you have formed me with your hands, that is, you have not formed beasts with your hands, not reptiles, not birds: But your hands have made me and formed me.
10. There is no ordinary work which is prepared: everything is arranged and prepared with wisdom. Finally Wisdom says: When he prepared the heavens, I was there (Prov. VIII, 27). The same Prophet says of men: The voice of the Lord preparing the deer (Psal. XXVIII, 9). What is the voice of the Lord God, if not: Let us make man (Gen. I, 26). Who are these deer, if not the enemies of serpents, who walk over asps and do not feel the venom? Therefore, I do not consider that which God has prepared to be vile or corporeal. Know yourself, O man: it is said of your soul in the Song of Songs: Unless you know yourself to be beautiful among women (Canticles 1:7). Know yourself, O soul, for you are not from the earth, nor from clay; for God has breathed into you and made you a living soul (Genesis 2:6). You are a magnificent work inspired by the generation of God. Pay attention to yourself, as the Law says (Deuteronomy 4:9), this is for you, that is, for your soul. May worldly and secular things not hold you, and may earthly things not die. Hasten to that goal with all your intention, upon which you depend for inspiration. Great, says he, is the work of a merciful man, and precious is the work of a faithful man (Prov. XX, 6). Learn, O man, where you are great, where you are precious. The earth shows you as lowly, but virtue makes you glorious, faith makes you rare, and an image makes you precious. Is there anything more precious than the image of God, which should first infuse faith in you, so that a certain image of the creator may shine forth in your heart: so that anyone who questions your mind may recognize the creator? Is there anything so precious as humility, so that perceiving the nature of body and soul, you humble yourself to another and know how to rule another? The lure of the flesh inclines towards vice, because what you have given to another, you release to yourself: whatever proceeds from you, returns to you: and whatever benefits others, benefits you.
The power of a lively soul includes senses, reason, and understanding, as well as judgment, so that the worthy house may seem to have such a great inhabitant, and may not lose the prerogative of its nature, nor lose the name of human. For Scripture calls him a human who is made in the image and likeness of God, but it is accustomed to call one who sins either a serpent, or a horse neighing at females, or a little fox, or a beast. Do not be like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding. In camo et freno maxillas eorum constringe, qui ad te non appropinquant (Psal. XXXI, 9) . Et: Dicite huic vulpi (Luc. XIII, 32) , de Herode ait. Generatio viperarum vocatur a Joanne plebs hominum (Luc. III, 7) . Magnum ergo opus Dei es, homo, magnum est quod dedit tibi Deus; vide ne quod Deus tribuit, amittas magnum illud munus, quod es ad imaginem Dei; et hoc in te puniatur magis. Deus enim non punit similitudinem suam: sed eum punit qui ad similitudinem Dei factus, hoc quod accepit, servare non potuit. Therefore, what ceases to be in likeness to God is punished, that is, your sin. For God does not condemn His own image, nor does He cast it into eternal fire; but rather, He avenges His image from the one who has done it harm, so that through your wickedness, you would cease to be what you were and become a beast instead of a man. The image is avenged, not condemned. It is avenged as if expelled; it is not condemned as guilty. For after you sinned, you began to be something else: you ceased to be what you were. So how then are you punished for what is found in you? For if the image and likeness of God is found in you, you are not worthy to begin with punishment, but with reward. Thus, that image by which you have been made in the image and likeness of God is not condemned, but crowned. However, you are condemned in that you have changed; so as to become a snake, a mule, a horse, a little fox. For with these names Scripture has already condemned us; because, stripped of the ornament of the heavenly image, we also lose the name of man, since we do not hold the grace of being human.
12. However, in some codices we find: Your hands have made me and fashioned me. This is not unfamiliar; for Job also said: Your hands have fashioned me and made me (Job. X, 8). Therefore, it is stated here so that God may remember that we are dust; may He pour out the gift of more abundant grace and not abandon a weak work. The helmsman exerts more effort when the ship is tossed by waves, than when the oars glide smoothly in calm waters or when the wind's gusts, in proportion to his effort, outstrip him.
13. Your hands, he says, have formed me. He says hands in the plural, not hand. But elsewhere it says: I have stretched out the heavens by my own hand (Isaiah 45:12). And: My hand has made all these things (Isaiah 66:2). In the composition of man, it seems that what was lacking in the whole world, so that it could be made, was not lacking. One hand has established the heavens, as it is written: and both of God's hands have shaped man, as we read. The heavens were not made in the likeness, but man in the likeness. Angels for ministry, humans for image.
14. Be it that angels are also made to the image. Scripture, however, speaks about man being made to the image. For we have something which perhaps the angels do not have; where sin abounded, grace abounded even more. Christ was born for us from the Virgin. For we read: A child is born to us, and a son is given to us (Isaiah 9:6). He took on flesh for us: or rather, he took us in that flesh, for he made the Son of Man sit in the seat of God. I do not read of angels in the seat of God except those who stand, those who minister (Heb. 1:14; Rev. 8:2; Dan. 7:10). I do not read of angels, but of humans buried with Christ and raised in Christ (Rom. 6:4 and 5). Finally, the Apostle says: For he has made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace you have been saved, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:5 and 6). Therefore, the Son of Man sits at the right hand of God, not as an angel, not as an archangel, nor as a cherub or seraph. They praise: the Son of Man is seated. The Son of Man is praised by the mouths of angels for having overcome evil angels, triumphing over the spiritual wickedness that is in the heavens; for having made men like unto angels, in whom there were previously the contagions of the dead.
15. By the word, says he, of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their power (Psalm 32:6). Man also has received the perfection of life and the consummation of virtue by the breath of the Lord. God has breathed into him the breath of life, and man has become a living soul (Genesis 2:7). Therefore, our life began with divine inspiration, but this life is dissolved by the separation of the soul and body, while divine inspiration is not dissolved. And therefore understand that what is figurative is different from what is made or prepared. And rightly you have the script written in two ways about man. First, it is written: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. I, 26 and 27). And: They will have dominion, he says, or they will have authority. And: God made man in the image of God. But in the second place it is written as follows, because God took dust from the earth, and formed man (Gen. II, 7). Where there is dust, there is shaping; but where there is no dust, there is no earth, no matter; but incorporeal, but admirable: there is no matter, but immaterial. For what is according to the likeness of God is not in the body, nor in matter, but in the rational soul. There man operates, there man is shown to be in the likeness and image of God, where justice, where wisdom, where every form of virtue is assumed.
16. If you understand the image, you will see the image; for man is not the image of God, but has been made to the likeness. There is another image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, through whom all things were made. He is not to the image, but the image: you are not the image, but made to the image. Therefore, you have in your substance something of the image and likeness of God, which is like the divine image. Therefore, the image comes to him who is made to the image, and the image seeks him who is made to its likeness; to seal once again, to confirm once again; because you have lost what you have received. For God had breathed into you, so that you might have the grace of his inspiration, which your fault had taken away from you. You had become a living soul: listen to what he says, not to the flesh, but to the living soul. But because the sinner could not hold the seal, and being placed in guilt, he did not have what is God's, but what is of men; therefore our Lord Jesus Christ came, as you have read in the Gospel, and rising from the dead, he found the disciples shut up, and he entered while they remained closed, and he said: Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:21-22).
So you see what sort of man our hands have made, or rather, what sort of man they have remade; the one surely whom we have put on in Christ. Stripping off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of his creator; where there is not . . . slave and free, but all and in all Christ (Colossians 3:9-11). So we put on Christ, as it is also said elsewhere: You have put on Christ (Galatians 3:27). We have received the Holy Spirit, who not only forgives our sins but also makes us his priests to forgive the sins of others. This is why the Prophet says: You have formed me and laid your hand upon me (Psalm 138:5). He formed us from clay and laid his hand upon us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Although many interpret this psalm as spoken from the perspective of the Savior. Listen, for the hand of the Lord is also called the Spirit. Job proclaims: The divine Spirit has made me (Job 33:4). Therefore, these are the hands that created man, Christ and the Spirit. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is the author of our body, who first made man in his image, and then formed him from clay, and desired to save what he had made, to preserve what he had fashioned. He wanted to make the whole man saved, as he himself said in the Gospel: 'You are angry with me, because I have made the whole man saved on the Sabbath' (John 7:23). This is specifically taught by the Church, because not only is our soul preserved, but also our flesh: the soul through knowledge of God, the flesh through resurrection: one of which was taught by the divine authority of his words, the other by the example of his own resurrection.
18. Here is therefore man of two substances. One is the substance of the made, the other of the formed: the former of God's Spirit, the latter of clay. Therefore Job says: My skin will revive (Job 19:26), because that which is made of clay is revived; for earth returns unto earth; but what was made, in order to have dominion over the other living creatures, you understand to be more excellent. For there is a common fellowship of clay even for beasts with us; and therefore the soul has been endowed with a special prerogative. Nevertheless, because he commands other living creatures; in order to be able to command, he must be subject to God. Therefore, he is taught to serve; so that he may deserve to attain the kingdom. For whoever serves Christ, pleases God. Whoever serves Christ, certainly pleases the truth, and must not know falsehood. Whoever serves justice, must reject iniquity. Whoever serves the immaculate, must observe the discipline of chastity. Whoever serves the light, must hate the darkness of sin. Therefore, because the body is weak, let us ask for the visitation of the Lord. Hence the Prophet says: What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him? (Psalm VIII, 5).
And now in the remaining part of the verse he says: Give me understanding, and I will learn your commandments. Recognizing himself to be a spiritual prophet, he asks for the grace of the Holy Spirit. For understanding is given by the Lord, and it is first placed among the gifts of grace, as you have learned in the reading of the Apostle; for to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the benefit (2 Tim. 2:7); and in the first place in the prophet's grace of wisdom and spiritual understanding is required (Isaiah 11:2). Therefore, the gift of God is sought. Then see the order: Give me understanding, he says, so that I may learn your commandments. Understanding is put before knowledge, so that knowledge may follow. For unless someone understands, they cannot be learned. Therefore, understanding makes one learned, not memory. For it is of no use to read many things unless you understand them yourself. And in the Apostle, after the manifestation of the Spirit, you read the word of knowledge afterwards; so that you may know that understanding is to be preferred to memory, and that knowledge can be possessed by the one to whom understanding has previously shone forth (1 Corinthians 12:7).
20. At the same time, consider humility. If a Prophet asks for understanding to be given to him, who is so arrogant as to claim that he has intelligence in his power? He asks for understanding, so that he may know himself and be able to understand the nature of his own being. But those who debate about the nature of things, who study the stars in the sky, who cannot know themselves, think that intelligence can be granted without the gift of God. Therefore, we must also embrace humility, so that we do not become arrogant if perhaps we have come to know a certain parable from the Scriptures, or because sometimes we read plain things according to the letter; if perhaps we have understood something according to the letter, let us consider it knowledge given to us by teaching. That prophet who received the Holy Spirit, after being anointed into the kingdom, was anointed into a prophet, writing the one hundred and eighteenth psalm, asks for understanding to be given to him so that he may understand the commandments of God: and he knows that unless he receives grace from the Lord, he cannot understand his commandments. In the Gospel, I also read that the Lord Jesus presented parables, and the apostles did not understand (Matthew 13:36). Finally, they requested an explanation of the proposed parable.
21. The Lord Jesus Himself, when He said, as you have read in the Gospel according to Matthew: Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matt. 5:3); added afterwards: Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man (Matt. 7:24). Therefore, the one who only hears will not be like him, but the one who does what he hears. So, neither action without hearing, nor hearing without action can be that of a wise man, but rather the one who hears and does. Therefore, let us listen in order to understand: let us do, in order to prove that we have understood what we heard.
22. (Verse 74.) The second verse follows: Those who fear you will see me and rejoice, because I have placed all my hope in your words. Perhaps this may seem contradictory to some, because the just one says: Those who fear you will see me and rejoice; for to many the just one appears burdensome when he is seen. Finally, in the Gospel, many could not see the Lord Jesus: like the Gerasenes who begged him to leave their region (Luke 8:37); and others denied him passage when he did not want to pass through them (Luke 9:52-53). Just as there in Judaeo ungodliness is expressed in form, so here the grace of the Church is revealed. For it prophesies that the entire world will be filled with divine fear; and therefore, it says that the saints rejoice with knowledge as if fearing God; for whoever sees the righteous and rejoices also wants to be righteous himself. For it is beautiful that he delights in others, what he wants to preserve in himself, if he chooses. For it is innate to good people; that the wise person, with piety in his soul, loves the chaste, the modest, and the prudent, while the merciful person loves the generous; and he loves his virtues in others. For most people, the sight of a just person is a reminder of correction, but for the more perfect, it is a source of joy. How beautiful, then, that you may appear and prevail? Therefore, the just man is good.