Yet the face of God is illuminated according to how his eyes are regarded by the righteous. And while this is to be proven spiritually, because the story of the illumination of Moses' face is mentioned, so that no one may think that it could not have happened corporally, let them know. Indeed, with the use of the sun, the appearance of the whole body is changed even for those who are pale from sickness, and the appearance of a glowing face is shown to those warmed by the heat of fire or by vapor. At dawn, the earth, dyed with a saffron color, reflects an image borrowed from the benefits of gemstones, and also the neighboring lands shine with shimmering necklaces, because they themselves radiate; and do you marvel if the face of Moses was imbued with the divine brightness of presence? Do you wonder if a righteous mind is enlightened by the shining grace of God? The prophet did not doubt, as he first asked to be illuminated, so that he could learn the justice of the Lord.
30. (Verse 136.) The eighth verse follows: The courses of waters have fallen my eyes; because I have not kept thy law. He expressed the greatly affected penitence, saying that the courses of waters have fallen his eyes: either because through them, like the paths of flowing streams, a certain flow of abundant tears has poured forth, and a continuous and constant outpouring of watery weeping: or because his eyes themselves have descended. For it has this property of the highest pain, that with tears the eyes themselves seem to descend in a certain way; because there is such a force of tears, that it is thought the eyes are dissolved into weeping, and poured out into tears.
31. Therefore, the eyes themselves seemed to descend as if in the course of running waters, by which word the strong and more express force of those who weep bitterly is declared, according to what is written in the Songs of Solomon: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams coming down from Lebanon (Song 4:15). The Church has led these streams down from Lebanon: by this force sins are washed away; by this force the pure font and the breath of the Holy Spirit flow from Lebanon to the Bride; and by the beginning of faith she has passed through the age and has crossed over to the kingdom. For some, there is a fountain, for others a well, for our sake a spiritual spring. Some have a closed garden, a sealed fountain; others have the fountain of gardens, which is counted as part of the Church's dowry. Some have a descending impulse from Lebanon, and a great force that never fails. For the breasts do not fail to produce milk from the rock, nor does snow from Lebanon, nor does the water that is carried by the strong wind of the Virgin Jerusalem. The impulse descends from Lebanon, when the apostles and many believers gathered together, there suddenly came a sound from heaven, as if a great wind were being carried by the Spirit, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, giving them diverse tongues. A good impulse, which knows not how to harm, knows how to fulfill.
32. Therefore, if anyone wishes to earn this impact of descending grace from heaven, let him also himself descend with his eyes into the courses of the waters. Whoever pours forth this initial impact will merit it. He descended with his eyes into these channels of water, which she irrigated with tears on the feet of the Lord in the Gospel (Luke 7:38): and so he purchased the health of his soul and body with the price of his faith, no longer flowing with blood, but with spiritual grace (Luke 8:44).
33. Therefore, the prophet David descended; therefore, he brought back grace from sin. He descended into the channels of water, that is, he filled them up, and he accumulated the flowing streams of tears: either he filled the empty channels of the sun with weeping: or, as some moral interpretation suggests, he descended into the channels of water, he passed through them. And we could say: He transcended them, and he surpassed them: but the power of speech is diminished, in which the greater force of descending abundance is expressed, compared to ascending. See, I ask, what purpose words have, so that the Prophetic discourse does not lose its impact; although usage itself has customarily served the meaning of the writers with greater elegance. It has signified this in various ways and has almost always taken on additions. For it first said: I will wash my bed every night; I will water my couch with tears (Psalm 6:7). It said again: My tears have been my bread (Psalm 42:4). He also said: And I mixed my drink with tears (Psalm 101, 10). Here he added, saying: The coursing of the waters descended my eyes.
Following this, in the Lamentations Jeremiah expressed the emotion of sorrow, imitating the force of descending tears; for this is what he says: My eyes have run out with tears; my heart is troubled (Lam. 2:11). Like descending eyes that run out with tears. And elsewhere: My eye has been swallowed up (Lam. 3:49). But it is harder to conquer waters with tears than for eyes to be swallowed up by weeping. And again Jeremiah says the same thing: Their heart cried out to the Lord: let the walls of the daughter of Zion bring forth streams, let tears flow day and night. Do not give yourself rest, let not the pupil of your eye be silent (Thren. II, 18). Therefore, the eyes that lead down with their tears, the same led waters descend, that is, they gather themselves; so that they, increasing with their own weeping, might make themselves overflow with the force of torrents.
However, there are manuscripts that have: διεξόδοις ὑδάτων κατεβίβασαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου, which means, The channels of water directed my eyes. But I read in my Greek manuscript κατέβησαν, which means, they descended: in which it is possible that the scribe made an error in either adding or subtracting letters in either direction.
36. He indeed had many things to weep for, either the incest of his daughter or the death of his sons: but he says that he did not weep for these things, but because he did not keep the law of the Lord. A holy man is more to blame than to be pitied for his misfortunes. He wept, therefore, when Nathan announced to him the anger of the Lord for the death of Uriah, and he acknowledged his sin of breaking the law. Finally, when his son was in distress, he neither took food nor ascended the royal throne or bed, but lay on the ground, bathing his fasting mouth with tears, desiring to alleviate not so much the death of his son as the punishment of his own sin in him (2 Samuel 12:16 et seq.). He wept, when the people were numbered, suddenly stricken in heart. Finally he said, 'I have sinned greatly, I have foolishly sinned' (2 Kings 24:10). Therefore he wept at first, because, exalted by royal power, by seeking the number of the people, he exceeded the measure of human condition. Then because he was avenged for his own error upon the people. But this punishment had been set by the Lord, not demanded by the King. Yet by committing himself to the mercy of the Lord, he proved the cause of election: at the same time, because the people suffered on account of him, he resolved the injury by offering himself for the people, thus proving his affection for piety.
Sermon 18. Sade.
Next comes the eighteenth letter, which is called in Latin consolatio. After the floods of tears flowing, and the heavy lamentations of sorrow, consolation was necessary to follow. For those who are in pain need consolation, and those who have suffered the punishments of serious crimes hope for forgiveness, and those who have cleansed their own sins with tears and weeping deserve rest.
All these things, whoever seeks in the divine Scriptures, finds. For first, it teaches that we should console those who are in sorrow, by the words uttered in the book of Jeremiah, when he mournfully cries out to the captives and exiles of the Jews: 'Go forth, depart, ye children; for I am forsaken, desolate. I have put off the garment of peace, and put on the garment of my supplication; and I will cry unto the Most High in my days.' Be of good courage, ye children; cry unto the Lord; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the princes of your enemies. For I have hoped in Him, who will bring you eternal salvation (Baruch 4:19 et seq.). Therefore, to those who believe in the Lord, there is consolation in the mercy of the Lord. There is also another type of consolation for those who have paid heavy penalties, as it is written in the book of Isaiah: 'Comfort, comfort my people,' says the Lord. 'Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.' (Isaiah 40:1 et 2). Even if faith was lacking, punishment was satisfied. The penalties are mitigated for those who are acquitted by commendation of their merits. The third is when the crime is washed away with tears, as in the saying: Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. This is also easily found in this passage, as well as in many other places in the book of Psalms.
3. Therefore, the first consolation in order (On Penance, Distinction 3, Chapter First Consolation), is that God does not forget to show mercy, nor does he cast away those whom he deems worthy of correction. The second consolation is that after enduring the punishments we have suffered on account of our sins, we attain forgiveness. Hence, some philosophers have argued that absolution is harmful to the wicked, while death is beneficial, because in absolution there is an incentive to sin, but in death there is an end to sin. However, it is clear that this is not the case, for it is written in the Proverbs of Solomon: 'He who spares the rod hates his son' (Prov. XIII, 24); but the Lord corrects those whom he loves (Prov. III, 12); And further: 'A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools' (Prov. XXVI, 3); for punishment corrects and improves the one who strays. If someone is unable to be corrected, they are removed from the midst so that they do not commit worse things; for a dead person no longer knows how to err. And therefore the Ecclesiastes says: I praised the dead more than the living: and the one who is not yet born is better than both, who has not seen the evil work (Eccl. IV, 2 and 3). The dead is preferred to the living; because they have ceased to sin. The dead is preferred to the one who is not yet born, because they do not know how to sin.
Now let us also speak about those who have paid the penalty for their crimes. Have not these people already paid the price for their fault, and is the punishment no longer owed to them in full? The Lord proclaims through Isaiah: Comfort my people...because they have received from the hand of the Lord double for their sins (Isaiah 40:1 and 35). Learn where Plato has obtained these things. For the sake of education, he journeyed to Egypt to learn about the deeds of Moses, the utterances of the Law, the sayings of the prophets. He heard about the consolation of the people, who seemed to have been punished beyond the measure of their sin. And he translated this passage, presented in a certain rich style of words, into the Dialogue he wrote about Virtue. But the Lord explains more fully and openly the place which He designates in the Gospel, saying, By means of the person of Abraham He speaks thus to the rich man of this world, who recognizes Lazarus though he is now in his bosom: Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And in all these things a great gulf is fixed between us and you, so that those who would pass hence to you cannot, neither can they cross over from thence to us. But now let us hear what the righteous man says in consoling himself.
5. (Verse 137.) You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and in exceeding faithfulness. Truly, a just man, flowing with tears, wrapped in afflictions, paying for his sins with severe punishment, is not overcome by weariness, is not broken by fear, is not tired by labor, is not ungrateful or sad. For often the common people, not considering their own faults, think unjustly that they are enduring what they suffer: but the truly just man, who immediately accuses himself at the beginning of his speech, proclaims the justice of the Lord, that he may suffer worthy things according to his merits. But speaking of the just God, He indeed pronounces about His own injustice: but about the justice of the Lord He hopes and forgiveness. For the just one is not always angry, just as He is the avenger of fault, so He is the moderator of punishment: just as He is the defender of sins, so He is the recompenser of virtues and the best merits. Whoever wants to give a reward should consider the contest; because no one is crowned without a contest. Therefore, He often allows us to be tempted, willing to justly give rewards to one who is struggling, not to one who is asleep. A crown adorned with flowers does not suit, but one covered in dust; victory adorns not with soft pleasures, but with the hard labor of exercise.
Therefore, the just person praises the justice of God in their adversities. But a parent who has lost their tender children does not feel this, nor does one who has been deprived of the companionship of a prematurely deceased spouse, nor does a sick person in pain, nor does a shipwrecked person in danger, nor does a defendant in a trial, nor does a captive in chains. However, Jeremiah cried out, proclaiming the future calamity of the people's captivity, that he would be swallowed up in a shameful pit and be drowned in filthy filth: 'You are just, O Lord.' (Jeremiah 12:1) He cried out again when he was tormented by the pitiful servitude of the conquered people. The Lord is just; for His mouth has angered... He has made desolate the city from without, and inside there is death (Lamentations 1:18 and 20). The Hebrews cried out because of the power of their devotion, and the grace of their faith desired to be consumed by the fires of the burning furnace: You are just, O Lord, in all that You have done (Daniel 3:27); and therefore they deserved to be unharmed by the fires, proclaiming the righteousness of the Lord. Daniel the prophet also, when he was cast into the den of lions, and surrounded by the ferocity and horror of savage beasts, boldly declared that everything is right before the Lord with an undaunted shout (Daniel 6:22). Jonah, shut up inside the belly of a savage beast, barely able to catch his breath, condemned to the fate of the unjust, cried out from the belly of the whale in the sea: With a voice of praise and confession, I beg you... (Jonah 2:10). David, when fleeing from the face of Absalom with treacherous arms and driven from the land, and leaving the kingdom behind; when he offered himself for the destruction of the whole people, he said: You are just, Lord, and your judgment is right. What has this innocent flock done? I, as a shepherd, have committed evil, before the just God, let the punishment be taken by the author of the crime. The father of faith, Abraham, when asked to sacrifice his only son by the elderly, tempered the affection of paternal piety with a confession of divine justice, saying: You are just, Lord; for you do not demand another, but you require your own: I restore to you the one whom you have given. Job, imitating him, after losing his children and being stripped of his wealth, tearing his body's garment, says: Naked I came into the world, naked, he said, and I will die. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away.... Blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21-22)
7. Therefore, let us all praise the just Lord: both he who arranges his own dying limbs in the tomb, and he who is struck by harm, or by the death of his children, let him say: You are just, O Lord. For what do we lose? The Apostle cries out: What do you have that you did not receive (1 Cor. 4:7)? Therefore, what we have, we have received; therefore, what we lose, we give back, we do not lose. The Lord is just in dangers, just in losses, just in vengeance, not only because each person justly pays the price for his own fault; but also because while one is punished, many are corrected. Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles committed the crime of withholding the price that he had received from the sale of his land (Acts 5:1ff): he could have offered nothing and escaped the crime. But so that no one would think that the apostles could be defrauded with impunity, or that the office of his mercy would be contaminated by the fraud of betrayal, he, condemned to eternal death, terrified everyone with just fear so that they would be devoted to the study of faith. Pharaoh, drowned in the waves with his people, is an example of worldly conversation; let no one persecute God's people. Finally, God was able to make him obedient to His will, but He wanted to correct everyone through his punishment. Therefore, the Lord said to him: 'I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.' (Exodus IX, 16). The Lord was not seeking His own praise, but the improvement of us.
Therefore, all wise men say: You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right; for we are not delivered to our adversaries without your judgment, nor do we come into tribulations without your judgment. This is the consolation of the just: this is the judgment of the Lord. Finally, you also have: I have remembered your judgments, which are from the beginning, and have been comforted (Psalm 118:52). Therefore, take notice that the judgments of the Lord are consolations.
9. (Verse 138.) You have commanded justice and your truth excessively. Did you command excessively, or excessive truth? But excessive truth is full of praise, and to command excessively is a provision of providence and caution. For indeed he knew the weak; therefore he often reminded them not to forget.
10. (Verse 139.) The third verse follows: Your house has consumed me with zeal; because your enemies have forgotten your words. There is zeal for life, and there is zeal for death. Zeal for life means to keep divine commandments and to guard the Lord's mandates with love, as Phinehas did, of whom we read in Numbers, when the Lord said to Moses: Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, appeased my anger towards the sons of Israel, because he was zealous for my sake among them; and I did not consume the sons of Israel in my zeal, as I said. Behold, I give him a covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his seed after him a covenant of everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. (Num. 25:11 et seq.). Twenty-four thousand of the people were slain: the punishment extended to all, and there was no end to the destruction. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, seized a javelin, killed two persons who had joined themselves to Baal, appeased the wrath of the Lord, obtained a victory for those to whom he had denied salvation. How salutary, therefore, is the zeal of God!
11. That vice was not limited to one time: even now the vice of the Midianites is mixed with that of the Jews. The Midianite is one who is not joined in legitimate marriage to any wife, not united in the partnership of faith. The Midianite is the perfidy of heretics, tempting the people of God. How many nations has that fatal harlot insidiously infiltrated, who with a public funeral buried the whole people in a common death! Come now, Phinehas, take up the sword of the word, kill perfidy, slay heresy; lest the entire people perish because of her. The anger of heaven presses on, strike the very womb of impiety and the generator of treachery; lest an unhappy birth be formed, lest an illegitimate conception spread the seed of deceit and wickedness; so that the Lord may establish with you a covenant of peace, and a covenant of grace, a covenant of heavenly promises. The priest, who strives to preserve the incorruptible chastity of the Church, should have zeal; and therefore the Prince of priests said: Zeal for your house has consumed me (John 2:17). Phinehas was a priest, the grandson of a priest, and the son of a priest. He had a fervent zeal and was useful in his priestly role, particularly diligent to ensure that nothing was overlooked. It is better for many to be freed by the condemnation of one or two than for many to be endangered by the acquittal of two.
12. He said, 'Zeal for your house has consumed me.' You see that zeal is the grace of God, which investigates, which intervenes, which pours itself into a just heart. Zeal for God is life. Finally, the Lord says: Zeal for your house has consumed me. Just as before in Adam, prevailing death had consumed man: so zeal has consumed, which has been brought to life in Christ. Elijah had zeal, and therefore he was taken up to heaven. He said, 'I have been zealous for the Lord.' Mathathias Butanus had zeal, who aroused the people of God against the sacrileges of Antioch. Those who have zeal consider all their enemies to be the enemies of God, even their fathers, brothers, and sisters. Concerning everyone, they say: They have become my enemies (Psalm 138:22), as David says. What more? The Apostle of the Lord was also declared by this name, so that he would be called Judas the Zealot, as we read in the Gospel (Luke 6:15).
13. The people of the Gentiles obtained eternal life through zeal for faith, which the people of the Jews lost due to negligence and laziness. Therefore it is written: 'Zeal has taken hold of an unlearned people' (Isaiah 26:11); for the people who were learned in the Law had no fervor of faith. Zeal turned towards the Gentiles, of which the grace is so great that it surpassed the prerogative of election and the industry of learning. Finally, by taking hold of an uneducated people, it made them better. Therefore, this grace has operated in the people of the nations, so that they would merit the inheritance of the Lord, with which the Lord has worked to join the Church to Himself from the nations. Therefore, zeal is love. Indeed, love is as powerful as death, and zeal is as harsh as the grave. Harsh is the zeal that no enticement of this life overcomes. Harsh as the grave, through which we die to sin, so that we may live to God.
14. Angels without zeal are nothing, and they lose the prerogative of their substance unless they sustain it with the ardor of zeal. Finally, in the Apocalypse of John, the Lord says to the Angel of Laodicea: I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth; for you say: I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing; and you do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire (Rev. III, 15-18). This is the zeal of God, this is the vapor of faith, and the fervor of devotion, which softens and shapes us like sweet food in Christ. How great is the grace of the Lord, that He may establish us in His mouth, and partake of some of the merits of our meal, and, if we deserve it, devour us if He delights in the sweetness of our food. Blessed is the one whom wisdom devours, whom virtue drinks, whom justice receives; guilt cannot have a share in him whom forgiveness of sins absorbs; for where will error find a place when spotless integrity has received him?
15. And why should we be surprised if the Angels have such zeal for Him? God the Father Himself says: 'I will be jealous for Jerusalem with great zeal' (Zach. VIII, 2). Because God is great, therefore His zeal is great: and according to the quality of each person's power, so is their zeal either moderate or great. Jerusalem is avenged by zeal, the Church is gathered by zeal, faith is acquired by zeal, and purity is possessed by zeal. The Lord Jesus also says: 'Zeal for your house will consume me' (John II, 17); rebuking the Jews for making the house of prayer a den of thieves, and making it a house of trade as well.
16. But not only should we care for the place of the Church, but also for this inner house of God within us; lest it be a house of commerce or a den of thieves. For if we pursue gains, profits, financial benefits, we have made a house of commerce. If we invade the possessions of others, the boundaries of widows or minors, we have made a den of thieves. Therefore, let the Word of God come and cast out thieves, plunderers, and innkeepers from this house; so that your heart, your chest, may be a clean place.