18. Therefore, whoever asks, let him always ask; and if he does not always pray, let him always have the disposition of one praying. The Lord Jesus spent the night in prayer (Luke 6:12), not needing the help of prayer, but setting an example of imitation for you. He spent the night praying for you, so that you would learn how to pray for yourself. Therefore, repay him for what he brought to you. Listen to the prophet saying above: At midnight, I rise to praise you (Sermon 8, verse 63). And you, rise up in the middle of the night, if you are not able to watch all night long; so that while you pray at night, the splendor of the true sun may illuminate your heart; for every soul that thinks of Christ is always in light: the day shines, Christ always breathes upon you. But since the following verse clearly expresses the time of prayer, in this verse I think it is more about the actions and works to be understood, rather than the time of prayer.
19. Whoever in youth assumes the gravity of old age hastens to the maturity of life, and governs his youthful years with a certain veteran self-restraint, and adjusts the ardor of his vigorous body with the mature character of gray hairs. For what praise can he have if he turns his exhausted body, cooled by the icy chill of old age, to the late duties of devotion, having already laid aside his former vigor? There is no crown unless there has been a struggle in a more difficult contest: to which only a few can attain, not all who have entered the stadium. He is praiseworthy, who before the contest is within himself, who restrains his reluctant flesh with the power of his mind, disciplines it with frugal parsimony, and reduces it to servitude; lest it indulge in unrestrained freedom and break the reins of the governing soul with unbridled and burning desire. Therefore, he is an old man in his hour, if he exercises the duties of sober maturity: a young man surpassing his hour, if he compresses the incentives of pleasure with the weight of old age, and extinguishes the allurements of fervent desire: For the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, as Jeremiah says (Lamentations 3:25). And it is good for a man who has borne the heavy yoke from youth: he shall sit alone, and be silent; because he has borne the yoke of the word (Ibid. 27). For whoever has borne the yoke from youth, and willingly subjected the more tender necks of mature moderation to the reins, shall sit alone, removed from the clamor of interrupting passions, and shall be silent: it shall no longer be necessary for him to quarrel with the body, to contend with various desires; for he has borne the yoke of the word, the soul that seeks God, which has made all the pleasures of youth captive to itself. And perhaps this saying of the Lord can also refer not only to the silence of defense, the contempt of absolution, and the endurance of suffering, but also to the suppression of all bodily pleasures. Hence it is written elsewhere: 'He committed no sin' (1 Peter 2:22). Therefore, he rightly remained silent, though facing the danger of death, because he did not fear the sting of death.
20. 'In verba, inquit, tua speravi.' The Greek said, 'I have hoped in what you have said,' which is to always increase in hope and to join hope with hope. The righteous always hopes, and in adversity and frequent afflictions, he does not know how to despair. But the more he has endured heavier things, the more he hopes and takes progress in hoping, according to that oracle: 'Comfort, comfort my people,' says the Lord. 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and console her; for her humiliation is complete, and her sin is forgiven, for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.' (Isaiah LX, 1 and 2). How quickly he said that the fullness of dejection is the remedy for sin, and he repeated that the cause of consolation is even greater than the sign of reconciliation, to the extent that the punishment is more numerous than the fault.
Job, burdened by many afflictions and bitterness, filled his pious hope with affection, asserting a distinct cause for the impious from the pious, whose light will be extinguished (Job. XVIII, 5). But according to Solomon, light is always for the righteous (Prov. XIII, 9). From this it is gathered that the righteous always hope in the words of God, and add hope to hope. This is expressed more clearly by Isaiah, saying: Expect tribulation upon tribulation, hope upon hope (Isa. XXVIII, 10). He spoke of those who had been nourished and carried away from the breasts, that is, those who had already passed the first nourishment of infancy and were now ready for stronger food. Let there be an example in that Isaac, having been weaned, became so great a patriarch; that even though he was still in the early stages of his life, he did not shrink from wielding the sword of his father, who was about to sacrifice him (Gen. 22:10). Abraham had many sons, but he weaned none of them; however, it is recorded that he prepared a great feast in celebration of this weaning (Gen. 21:8). And well did Scripture say that a great feast was prepared, for it was a type of that which the hearts of the saints always feast upon.
(22. Vers. 148.) The fourth verse follows: My eyes anticipated the morning to meditate on your words. On top of that (verse 147) it says: I anticipated at the dawn, which means before the hours, before the time; here it says, in the morning: signifying another time for praying and singing to the Lord; so that may be the first, according to what it says: At midnight I rise (Sermon 8, verse 63); but in accordance with that: I anticipated the rising sun; for it is burdensome if, while you are idle on your bed, the ray of the rising sun should come upon you with unabashed impudence, and the bright light should strike your eyes still weighed down with drowsiness. He accuses us of having passed such a great amount of time on a holiday night without any act of devotion or spiritual sacrifice. Do you not know, O man, that you owe God the first fruits of your heart and voice every day? Your harvest is daily, and your fruit is daily. Therefore, go out to meet the rising sun, so that it may find you already prepared; lest the brilliance of the first day, awakening, raises your eyes, still immersed in damp sleep.
23. In my bed, in the nights, the Church says that she sought the one whom her soul loves (Song of Songs 3:1). Therefore, she deserved to find Him, to merit His grace; because she sought Him even in her bed, sought Him in the nights. Therefore, having obtained His abundance, she speaks to the Bridegroom in the subsequent verses: Come, my brother, let us go out to the field, let us rest in the villages, let us rise up early to the vineyards (Song of Songs 7:11). Notice how the Bride invites the Word of God; that He would come to the earth and take away the sins of the world. This field was previously deserted, squalid with the thorns of our sins, and horribly prickly. There was a castle, in which the exiled Adam forever bound the heirs of his progeny to exile. Therefore, the Church leads Christ to that place in order to free Adam. Then, with the exiles absolved, the field of this world began to have suitable cultivators: and he who was previously barren became fruitful through the planting of the eternal vine. Yet, it does not rejoice solely in spiritual branches: but it calls Christ to these vineyards, where there may be psalm-singing and prayer, where the harmless fruit may persist both day and night.
There, he said, I will give you my breasts, the mandrakes have given off their odor. Many people distinguish a certain difference in the sex of mandrakes; they think that they can be both male and female, but the females have a strong odor. Therefore, it signifies that the nations, which used to be weak and crippled by a certain infirmity of treachery, began to bear the fruit of good odor after they believed in the coming of the Lord. We also read that the holy Rachel received mandrakes from her sister Leah, so that she would let her sleep with the holy Jacob that night. Ruben, the firstborn son of Lia, brought Mandrakes to his mother. Lia, whose eyes were dim, received the figure of the Synagogue; for she could not see the grace of Christ with her dull and weak sight. By this, it is shown that the fruits which the firstborn Son of God had received before the Synagogue, he granted to the Church. But because Lia, in the embrace of that night, bore the heir of her posterity, she fulfilled the mystery, since, by the belief of the apostles, the remnant of the Jews was saved by the election of grace.
25. Therefore, as the Church says: 'I have kept both new and old things for you, my brother,' (Song of Songs 7:13). Who will give you as a brother the breast of my mother? Finding you outside, I will kiss you, and indeed they will not reject me. I will take you and bring you into the house of my mother, and into the secret place of her who conceived me; there you will teach me' (Song of Songs 8:1-2). Therefore, having knowledge of the new and old Scriptures and considering himself not insignificant, he not only holds the Word in the prayers of his heart in secret, but also embraces it with the singing voices of the choir, as it were with the kisses of grace.
Therefore, the Bridegroom, supported by the holy souls of praising congregations, awakens Christ with the applause of various and innumerable fruits, and especially with the fragrances of faith, grace, wisdom, and glory, supported by the riches of eternal life, which are to the left and right of the Bridegroom. He says, 'I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, not to arouse or awaken love until it pleases.' (Ibid. 4)
27. Hence the daughters of Jerusalem, the holy souls of the patriarchs and prophets, the ancients and the celestial powers, marvel at her, saying: Who is this that ascends, adorned in white, leaning upon her beloved brother? (Ibid., 5). This means that the Church shines brightly in such solemnities and that which was dark before in the daytime, now glows in the night and shines forth.
28. The Lord Himself, delighted by such a great gift of psalmody, says: 'Place me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, and jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it' (Song of Solomon 8:6-7). Because He has seen such devotion in the Church, He deems the people worthy who can carry His seal in their hearts and on their arms. For the Father himself has marked God with a sign; and he who has received his testimony has also been marked, because God is true. And therefore those who work for eternal life have been marked in the image and likeness of Christ, who is the invisible image of God. Therefore, just as God is true, you also sign the truth in your thoughts and actions, so that your mouth does not speak falsehood and your hands do not perform the works of men, which belong to this deceitful world, but rather the works of God; so that you may give generously to the poor, support the weak, and honor the dead with proper burial. In His works, charity is sought, so that no one can be separated from Christ or be in danger of death. Hence He says: Who will separate us from Christ? Tribulation or distress . . . or persecution (Rom. VIII, 35) ? And further: For I am confident that neither death, nor life, nor angels (Ibid., 38) .
In this form, zeal is also a hard charity, and its wings, the wings of fire. It has wings like a dove; for the feathers of the dove are silvered, with which he flies who loves, saying: Behold, I have fled far away, and have remained in solitude (Psalm 54:8): but the wings of charity, the wings of fire, with which the ardor of love is inflamed. With this fervent vapor, the Lord made his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire, but not consuming. We read about the pinnacle of the temple, upon which the devil tempted the Savior to ascend (Matt. IV, 5). Therefore, there are the heights of the wing, there are the peaks of charity, which are accustomed to kindle the vapor of grace in human hearts; so that much water cannot extinguish or exclude charity, and no rivers of worldly storms can contain it.
30. Therefore, since the grace of the Church and the rewards of devotion invite us so strongly, let us anticipate the rising sun, let us hasten to meet its dawning before it says, 'Here I am' (Isaiah 58:9). The Sun of Justice desires to be anticipated, and in order to be anticipated, it waits. Hear how it waits and desires to be anticipated: To the angel of the Church in Pergamum He says... Repent, otherwise I will come to you quickly (Revelation 2:12, 16). To the angel of the Laodicean Church He says... . . . Therefore, strive and repent: Behold, I stand at the door and knock; and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him (Rev. III, 14, 19 and 20). He could enter: indeed, not even the closed valves and bolts of the resurrected body could hold him back; suddenly he poured himself into the apostolic chambers (John XX, 19): but he desires to experience the zeal of your devotion; he already had approved apostles. Perhaps, in persecution it comes first: where there is tranquility, it desires to come first. Certainly come first this sun that you see. Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead; so that Christ may shine upon you (Ephes. XV, 14). If you come first to this sun before it rises, you will see Christ illuminating. He himself first shines in the secret of your heart: he himself says to you: My spirit keeps watch for you from the night (Esai. XXVI, 9), it will make the morning light shine in the nighttime, if you contemplate the words of God. For when you meditate, there is light: and seeing the light not of time, but of grace, you will say that the Light is your precepts. But when the divine words find you meditating, and the pleasant work of prayer and singing delights your mind, you will again say to the Lord Jesus: In the morning you will delight in outcomes, and in the evening (Psalm 64:9).
31. But if the Jewish people, under the leadership of Moses, use the Scriptures every day among their elders, who have been chosen for this duty, without ceasing day and night: and if you ask anything else of the elder, he knows nothing except the series of divine Scriptures (Exodus 18:14ff). Conversation about the world is absent there, only the Scriptures are discussed, each one taking his turn to read aloud. Lest that sacred sound of heavenly commands be neglected. And you, Christian, are you sleeping, with Christ as your teacher? And do you not fear that it might be said of you: This people honors me with their lips? Jew or Greek, but not of lips. If someone honors with lips, their heart is far from God: how can your heart be near, if you do not even honor with lips? How long will sleep hold you, how long will worldly things hold you, how long will the worries of this life, how long will earthly things?
32. Divide your time between God and the world: even when you cannot engage in the affairs of this world in public, and darkness prevents the night, devote yourself to God with prayers; and lest you fall asleep, sing psalms: cheat your sleep with good intention. Hasten in the morning and bring the firstfruits of your pious vow to the Church; and afterwards, if secular necessity calls, do not hesitate to say: In the morning my eyes anticipate you, meditating on your words: you will proceed confidently to your tasks. How delightful to begin with hymns and songs, about the blessings that you read in the Gospel (Matthew 5)! How fortunate that the word of Christ blesses you, and while you sing the blessings of the Lord, you take up the study of some virtue; so that you may also recognize the merit of divine blessing in yourself.
33. (Verse 149.) The fifth verse follows: Hear my voice according to your mercy, O Lord, and revive me according to your judgment. Always, even if a person is holy and just, he must pray; so that the Lord may hear him according to his mercy and not according to the merits of any virtue; because virtue is rare, but sins are many; and according to his judgment, so that he may help the weak. And especially we must pray when we are pressed by adversity with some. Hence, not in vain is the divine plea for mercy preceded by Saint David.
34. (Verse 150.) For it follows: They come near who persecute me unjustly: but they have moved far away from your law. The Greek version puts it thus: They come near who persecute me with wickedness, that is, those who persecute me with wickedness. The more they come near to me, the more they separate themselves from your law; for one who persecutes his brother is separated from the law. For the law says: You shall love the Lord your God . . . Love your neighbor (Deuteronomy 6:5). Therefore, do not hate your brother, lest it be said to you: If you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love God whom you do not see (1 John 4:20)? Do you not know that your brother is the price of the blood of Christ? Therefore, if you do not love your brother, you do not love the price of Christ.
So the persecutor approaches me to do harm: but he separates himself from the law; for what part of justice is there with injustice? But he who separates himself from the law of God separates himself from eternal life; for the law is life. Finally, the Prophet, showing the law of God, says: Behold, this is life, because he who does what the laws are, will live by them (Leviticus 18:5): which certainly belongs to the spiritual law. And perhaps he who approaches me to harm me, while he separates himself from the law, separates himself from Christ; for Christ is life. But if I were to adhere to Christ, He does not approach me; for even if He has power over my body, He cannot harm my soul. Indeed, how far separated the persecutors of the martyrs are from their merits!
36. (Verse 151.) But perhaps you may say: How do the saints cling to God? And for this reason it follows: You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truth. The Lord is near to all, who is everywhere present: we cannot flee from Him if we offend Him, nor deceive Him if we sin, nor lose Him if we worship Him. God sees all things, sees everything, attends to each individual, saying: I am a God who is near (Jeremiah 23:23)? And how can God be absent anywhere, when you read about the Spirit of God: The Spirit of the Lord fills the earth (Wisdom 1:7)? For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the Lord God. I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord (Jeremiah 23:24). So where is the lack of the one who fills all things? Or how can we all receive from his fullness, unless he draw near to everyone?
Finally, David, knowing that He is everywhere and fills the heaven, and the earth, and the seas, says: Where shall I go from Your Spirit, and where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me (Psalm 139:7-10). As soon as he has signified that God is everywhere, and where God is, there His Spirit is present, and wherever the Spirit of God is, there God is. In what place the indivisible connection of the Trinity is expressed. For indeed, the Son of God spoke these words through the mouth of the Prophet, speaking in the person of a man, who descended to the earth through the Incarnation, ascended to heaven through the Resurrection, and penetrated into hell through the death of the body, in order to release those who were bound. Or if you refer to the Prophet, you are informed that it is expressly stated that Christ, the Son of God, is present wherever the hand and right hand of God are, where God the Father is, and the Holy Spirit of God.
38. But when can we doubt about the sun, which, as the day progresses, spreads its rays throughout the world and bestows light upon all, even those who cannot see? Yet they feel its presence by the warmth of the air. For where is the heat of the sun lacking? Where do its rays not reach, as they illuminate the earth after the darkness of night or the obscurity of clouds? It shines in the sky, glistens on the sea, and burns on the land. Therefore, you do not doubt about the sun, because it shines everywhere. Do you doubt about God, who shines the splendor of his glory and the image of his essence everywhere? What does not the Word of God penetrate, eternal splendor, which also illuminates the hidden depths of the mind, which the sun cannot penetrate; For the Word of God is a spiritual sword, reaching even to the divisions of the soul, and of the joints, and of the marrow. Of which, the righteous Simeon says to Mary: And your own soul a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. (Luke II, 35).
Therefore, it penetrates the soul and, like the radiance of eternal light, illuminates. But even though it diffuses through all, and in all, and surpasses all powers; because it is born of the Virgin for all, both good and evil (just as the sun rises on the good and evil), it nourishes those who draw near to it. Just as one excludes the radiance of the sun by closing the windows of their house and chooses a dark place to dwell in, so too, the one who turns away from the sun of righteousness cannot see its splendor: they walk in darkness, and in the light of all, they themselves are the cause of their blindness. Open, therefore, your windows to let the whole house shine with the true brightness of the sun: open your eyes, to see the rising sun of justice for yourself. But beware that no straw or splinter disturbs them. If there is any dirt in the eye of your mind, you will not be able to see: if there is any sickness, it will weigh you down even more; the light strikes the confused gaze of the eyes and causes greater pain. Therefore, let your eye be simple; lest your whole body becomes dark, and stagger in the light, like the footsteps of blind people.
40. If someone closes the doors of their house, is it the fault of the sun that it does not illuminate their house? Therefore, if someone considers their own mind to be locked by the bars of their sins, and foolishly turns away from the splendor of the Word, and brings upon themselves the darkness of foolishness, can they blame the sun of justice for not entering, or accuse the weakness of celestial light? The Word of God knocks at your door. 'If anyone opens to me,' He says, 'I will come in' (Apocalypse 3:20). If someone, therefore, does not open, is it not the fault of the one who does not enter, and even more so of the one who does not open? Certainly, nothing is hidden from God, nothing is closed to eternal light. But He refuses to open the gates of evil, He does not want to enter the chambers of wickedness.
41. But when the strength of our soul withdraws from the decaying portion of the body, can any member of the corrupt soul have the privilege of feeling its grace? However, the strength of the soul is diffused throughout the whole body, whether the hand, foot, or finger participates in sensation: can the wisdom of God be absent in one place and his majesty in another? Certainly, he does not detain those who flee or force those who are unwilling, but he does not disdain those who approach him. Indeed, his power, his Word, is near to everyone: for in him all things consist, and he is the head of the body, the Church, in whom all the fullness dwells. But he separates most people from himself because of their sins, of which it is said: Behold those who distance themselves from you, shall perish (Psalm 72:27). Therefore the holy Prophet says: It is good for me to cling to God (ibid., 28). And the Apostle, showing that God is not far from each of us, says: In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:27-28). For he supplies the vital grace to everyone, and is present to all with the gift of his great goodness, but he is closer to those who have a contrite heart.
42. Which also the old history teaches in enigmas. Moses was on the top of Mount Sinai, and he was alone: the people were in the valley, at the bottom of the mountain: the elders were on the side of the mountain above the merits of the people, but separated by a great distance from the merits of Moses (Exod. XIX, 20 et seq.). Not all on the top, nor all on the bottom, but the people: Moses alone on the top of Mount Sinai, which in the Latin interpretation is called temptation. And if you ascend above the temptations, and with a contrite heart offer prayer, you will be near to God: if you are pure in heart, you will see God; Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God (Matth V, 8).