Homily 5, on Psalm 14
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Presbyteri Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos , Anecdota Maredsolana III (Maredsoli, 1897) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
The fourteenth psalm has been read at just the right moment; and it has come about in due order in such a way that it almost seems to have been read on purpose. The psalm was read in order: I think it has been brought about by God's dispensation that what was profitable to you should be recited today in the sequence of exposition. The fourteenth psalm has been read, which is titled A Psalm of David. But our David is Christ, as we have often said. Then we read in Exodus that on the fourteenth day the lamb is sacrificed. It is sacrificed on the fourteenth day, when the moon is full, when nothing is lacking to it of its light. See, therefore, that Christ is not sacrificed except in perfect and full light. Since, then, on the fourteenth day the lamb is to be sacrificed for you, now the prophet marvels, and asks:
Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? You, who wish to dwell in the Lord's tabernacle. Or who shall rest on your holy mountain? See what is said. Who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest on your holy mountain? Not first on the mountain, and afterward in the tabernacle; but first in the tabernacle, and so then on the mountain. A tabernacle is not a firm house, a tabernacle has no foundation; but it is moved this way and that, and it migrates along with the one who journeys on. That is why it is called παροικία (a sojourning), not a dwelling. Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? Because it is a tabernacle, therefore it is called παροικία (a sojourning). Let us see, then, what the tabernacle is, and what the mountain is. We have said that the tabernacle has no foundation, but is an uncertain house: whereas a firm house has foundations. The tabernacle seems to me to be the Church of this world. The churches you now see are tabernacles: for we do not remain here as dwellers, but we are going to migrate elsewhere. For if 'the fashion of this world passes away'; and it is said in another place that 'heaven and earth shall pass away': if heaven and earth shall pass away, how much more now also the very stones of the churches, which we see? Now, therefore, the churches are called tabernacles, since we are going to migrate from these to the holy mountain of God. Who is this holy mountain of the Lord? It is said in Ezekiel against the prince of Tyre: 'You have been wounded,' he says, 'from the mountain of the Lord.' And who shall rest on your holy mountain?
Since, then, we are going to migrate from the tabernacles to the mountain, we ought to learn who these are who are going to migrate to the holy mountain of God. This that he said, Who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest on your holy mountain, belongs to one who is asking. What, then, the prophet asked, the Holy Spirit now answers. And what does he say to him? Do you wish to know, O prophet, who shall dwell in my tabernacle, or who shall rest on my holy mountain? Hear what follows: if you do these things which follow, you shall dwell on my holy mountain. You, therefore, who wish to dwell in the tabernacle, and to ascend the holy mountain of God, need not listen to my words. Hear what the Lord answered the prophet; do this that the Lord commanded, and you shall ascend the holy mountain of God. He who enters without stain, and works righteousness. That is why it is also said in the one hundred and eighteenth psalm: 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way.' At once, at the very beginning, it is said, Blessed are the undefiled in the way. As it is said there, undefiled in the way, so here too it is said, He who enters without stain. And he who enters is in the way. He who enters without stain. See what is commanded. He did not say, he who arrives at the end without stain; but he who is still on the journey, and has no stain.
Someone could say: I have no stain, I have done no evil. It is not enough for us not to do evil, unless we also do good. Accordingly there follows, And works righteousness. See what he says, And works righteousness. He did not say, works chastity; he did not say, works wisdom, works fortitude. And these indeed are excellent virtues. For example, wisdom profits us, fortitude profits us, so that we may resist persecutions; then temperance and chastity profit us, that we may not lose our souls. Righteousness alone is a great virtue, and the mother of all. Let someone say: How is righteousness greater than the other virtues? The other virtues delight the one who has them: righteousness does not delight the one who has it, but others. If I am wise, wisdom delights me; if I am brave, my fortitude delights me; if I am chaste, my chastity is my joy: but righteousness does not profit the one who has it, but the other wretched ones who do not have it. Suppose some poor man has a quarrel with my brother; suppose my brother is powerful, and oppresses another — that is, one who is a stranger to me, a poor and wretched man — through his power: what does my wisdom profit the poor man? what does my fortitude profit the poor man? what does my chastity profit the poor man? Righteousness profits him, because I do not accept the person of my brother, but I judge for the truth. Righteousness does not know a brother, does not know a father, does not know a mother; it knows the truth, it does not accept the person, it imitates God. That is why he said And works righteousness, lest he should seem to have excluded the other virtues. He who is angry for another's relief, who does not delight in the miseries of others, this man is righteous.
Let us speak also of the other things that follow. He who speaks the truth in his heart. Many speak the truth with their lips, but not in their heart; who seem to speak truly, but the heart does not agree with the lips. He who has practiced no deceit with his tongue: he who has uttered in speech what he has pondered in his mind. Nor has done evil to his neighbor. Some think that a neighbor is a brother, or a fellow townsman, or a kinsman, or a blood relation. But our Lord teaches in the Gospel in that parable, where a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho: a priest passed by, a Levite passed by, and had no pity: a Samaritan passed by, and had pity. And afterward the Lord asks, and says: Which of these was a neighbor? At once it is answered: He who did well. And the Lord adds: Go and do you likewise. All men, therefore, are neighbors to us, and we ought to do evil to none. But if we understand neighbors to be brothers and kinsmen, then are we permitted to do evil to strangers? But far be it to believe so. We are all men neighbors to men: for we have one Father. And has not accepted reproach against his neighbors. A great thing is said. Never, he says, has a neighbor murmured against him; never, he says, has he found any occasion to disparage him. This virtue exceeds the human condition, it is God's grace. In his sight the malignant man is brought to nothing. See what he says. In his sight the malignant man is brought to nothing. Even if he is an emperor, even if he is a prefect, even if he is a bishop, even if he is a presbyter (for in the church these are the dignities), whoever is evil is counted for nothing in the sight of the holy man. And at once there follows, But he glorifies those who fear the Lord. This holy man, who enters without stain, who despises the powerful who are evil, if he sees anyone fearing God, though he be poor, yet him he glorifies. He who swears to his neighbor, and does not deceive. And here too we ought to understand "neighbor" as above. He who has not given his money at usury. There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out. But since the day before yesterday we spoke about the beginning of the catechesis (κατήχησις), and, with God's favor, you came out of Chaldaea with Abraham, and you remember what we had said: how you came out of Chaldaea, and came into the land of promise — nay rather, the land of promise is promised to you. And indeed, after Abraham came into the land of promise, adversaries were on this side and that, enemies held the land. The Lord came, and led him outside, and set him on a mountain, and showed him the whole land, and said: 'All this I will give to you and to your seed.' To him he promised it, to us he will give it in return.