Homily 14, on Psalm 81
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).
God stood in the assembly of the gods. There are many postures. For frequently we sit, sometimes we stand, sometimes we lie down, sometimes we run, sometimes we walk. So too God is described according to the variety of human beings, and his posture is introduced as varied. If we are holy, and are like Moses, it is said to us: 'But you, stand here with me.' For this is what God says to Moses. For Moses was standing upon the rock: therefore God too was standing for him. But if we were holy first, and afterwards sinners, God no longer stands for us, but walks: that is, he who before had stood for us moves from his place. After we have been moved, he too is moved together with us. Finally, Adam too, as long as he was in paradise and kept the law, God stood for him. But after he transgressed, he heard the voice of God walking in paradise. Do you want to know that God was walking for him? What did he say to him? 'Adam, where are you?' He who had not fled from God while he stood, afterwards fled from him as he walked.
We have spoken of the one standing, we have spoken of the one walking: let us speak of the one sitting. Whenever God is introduced as sitting, he is introduced in two ways: either as a king, or as a judge. If as a king, one sees him as Isaiah did: 'I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up.' There he is introduced as a king reigning. But when he is introduced as a judge: 'The thrones were set, and the books were opened.' It is written in Daniel. What is said? The thrones were set, and the books were opened: that is, the Lord about to sit as a judge, and about to read over the works of all. The books which are now folded up shall then be opened. Everything that we do, that we speak, that we think — even for an idle word we are going to render an account: it is written in the books of God. Someone thinks there are books in heaven, where our sins are written. I think the books are our consciences, which shall then be opened, and each one shall see what he has done. 'Nothing is hidden, that shall not be revealed.' Therefore the thrones were set, and the books were opened. How many things are written in my book, and I dare not confess even to my brother nor to my friend. The angels know what I have done, the thrones know, the seraphim know: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit know.
We have said concerning God that for some he stands, for others he walks, for others he sits either as a king or as a judge: but for others he sleeps. If ever he abandons us to temptations — even though we may be holy, nevertheless we are left to temptations, that we may be tested — at that time the Lord sleeps for us. Finally, what does the psalmist too say? 'Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?' And when the apostles were in the boat, and the boat was being battered by the waves, the Lord was sleeping for them: for this reason the boat was being battered by the waves. Finally, they rouse him, and he awakes, and immediately the storm grows still.
We have spoken of the four postures of God: that for some he stands, for others he walks, for others he sits, for others he seems to sleep, and for others he wakes and rises up. God stood in the assembly of the gods. Because they were gods, therefore God stood for them. In this very assembly of ours God has different postures: for some he stands, for others he sits, for others he walks, for others he sleeps. Although he himself is unchangeable, according to our variety he is changed. See the dignity of man. God stood in the assembly of the gods. He grants us the name, that he may grant also the merit. And in the midst he judges the gods. Like a commander in the midst of the army he judges the gods. He judges the gods. A fearful thing, a thing full of terror. If he judges the gods, what does he do about the sinner? These two little verses the prophet spoke, as it were. But this which follows, How long will you judge iniquity? — God himself speaks to the judges, that is, to the leaders of the people. Specifically these verses which follow are spoken to the judges. If the judges of the world, it is plain: but if the judges of the church, let us understand it of bishops and presbyters. How long will you judge iniquity? He who judges iniquity is a judge of iniquity. He is the judge of iniquity of whom it is said in the Gospel, that he did not fear God, and did not respect man. How long will you judge iniquity? I have given you power over my flock and over the people of God: you ought to be judges, not wolves.
And you accept the persons of sinners: judge for the needy and the orphan, do justice to the lowly and the poor: rescue the poor and the needy, and the rest. When a case comes to you, you do not consider the cause, you do not consider the judgment, but the persons of those who have the cases. For instance, if a poor man comes having a just case, and a rich man comes having a bad case: you look at the persons, not the case. This so far according to one interpretation. But there is also another, more sacred interpretation. In the theaters one man frequently is accustomed to have different persons. Now he enters into a woman, now into a man, now into a king; and he who had come forward as a king, again comes forward as a slave. I have given the example, so that from the carnal we may be able to come to the spiritual. We too take on different persons. For when I grow angry, I take on the person of a lion: when I seize the goods of others, I take on the person of a wolf: but when I am cruel and kill, I take on the person of a cruel man. But just as those who are sinners have different persons in their sins: so on the contrary those who are holy, they too have different persons, but in the good. When I give alms, I have as it were the person of a merciful man: but when I judge well, I have the person of a good judge: but when I suffer wrong and am humble, I have the person of a humble man. Unhappy is he who has many persons in evil: happy is he who has different persons in the good.
They knew not, neither did they understand, they walk in darkness. Who? The bad judges. Those whom I was calling gods, by their own vice have been called bad judges. They knew me not, neither did they understand my judgment: they walk in darkness. Because they forsook the light, therefore they walk in darkness. I said, you are the light of this world: and you turned aside from the light, and became darkness. Because, then, they have done this, let us see what follows.
All the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. See what kind of recompense the evil princes have: because of bad judges the foundations of the earth are shaken. This so far we have said first according to the letter, that the shaking of the whole world comes because of bad judges. But let us say it also in another way. All the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. I will overturn the bad judges, who have set their foundations on earth, and not in heaven: who ought to have Christ as their foundation, whom the architect Paul laid, but they were unwilling, and set their foundations on earth.
I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. Let Eunomius hear, let Arius hear, who say that the Son of God is a son in the same way as we are. That we are gods, we are so not by nature, but by grace. 'For as many as received him, he gave them power to become sons of God.' Therefore I made man, that out of men gods might be made. I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. See how great the dignity is: we are called both gods and sons. I made you gods, just as I made Moses a god of Pharaoh: that after you have been gods, you may be made worthy to be sons of God. Consider the divine Scripture. 'There is no respect of persons with God.' He did not say: I said: you are gods, the kings and the princes, but all: to whom equally I have given a body and a soul and a spirit, equally I have bestowed both deity and adoption. We are all born equally, both emperors and the poor: equally we also die. For our condition is equal.
But you shall die like men. You see, then, that he who is a man dies. For God does not die. And Adam, as long as he kept the commandment and was a god, did not die. But after he tasted of the forbidden tree, immediately he died. Finally God says to him: 'On whatever day you taste, you shall die the death.' It has it better in the Hebrew: 'But you shall die like Adam.' Just as he was cast out of paradise, so we too have been cast out. And you shall fall like one of the princes. Since he had said 'all of you sons of the Most High'; one cannot be a son of the Most High, unless he too be most high. I said that you should all be most high, as I am most high. But you shall fall like one of the princes. Since we were most high, therefore we are said to have fallen. Where are they who say that the devil was made a devil? Where are they who say that an evil nature was created by God? According to the Hebrew two things are said here. But you shall die like Adam: just as your father was unwilling to hear the commandment of the Lord, and fell, so you too shall die. Therefore that was said concerning Adam. But this which follows, And you shall fall like one of the princes: who is this one of the princes, who fell? If you should wish to say Adam, it was already said in the earlier verses, But you shall die like Adam. And at the same time see the significance of the word. But you shall die like Adam. Since Adam died, we too die. But the devil, who was a prince, and fell, did not die. For angelic dignity cannot receive death, but only ruin. Therefore he said, you shall fall like one of the princes. 'How is Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?' Behold, both here he fell, and there he fell. He fell for this reason, because he always dwelt among the heavenly things. This is he to whom it is said in Ezekiel: 'You are the unsealing of the likeness.' See what he says, the unsealing of the likeness. He did not say, You are the seal of the likeness: but, the unsealing of the likeness. God had sealed you, and had made you like himself: but you afterwards unsealed yourself. After the likeness and image of God you too were formed. Finally it is said in that same prophecy: 'In the midst of the cherubim you were nourished, among the stones of jasper and carbuncle you were in the paradise of God. And you fell,' he says, 'and were wounded from the mountain of the Lord.' This prince of Tyre: now prince of Tyre from the time when he fell: since Tyre in the Hebrew tongue is called sor, that is tribulation. Therefore this prince too, who at first was in heaven, has now been made prince of Tyre, that is, of the tribulation of this world. You shall fall like one of the princes. When he says 'like one,' he shows that there are others also. Read the Apocalypse of John: when the dragon fell from heaven, he drew with him a third part of the stars.
Up to this point God has spoken to men, and again the prophet speaks. Arise, O God, judge the earth. Arise, because our boat is battered by the waves. Arise, O God, judge the earth: since the bad judges do not judge, but overturn your law, and tear your flocks. Do you arise, who are the true judge. Because, then, the bad judges have died like Adam, and have fallen like one of the princes: therefore do you arise, do you judge, do you save your creature. But the hireling, when he sees the wolf, flees, and leaves the sheep: he cannot grieve for another's as one grieves for father and mother. Let us say it also in another way. Arise, you who suffered for us, who died for us: arise, and save us. Let us say it also in another way. You who came humble and despised, come as a judge, and vindicate us. Arise, O God, judge the earth. See the significance and the properties of the words. He did not say, Judge heaven, but the earth. Therefore the earth is judged, not heaven. If, then, the earth is judged, and not heaven, then in heaven sins are not committed. But if sins were committed in heaven, he would say: Arise, O God, judge the earth and heaven. See the mercy of the prophet. He did not say, Slay the earth: but judge, judge and save. He did not say, Judge through angels, judge through your ministers. For they, if they judge, cannot show mercy, because they are executors of your sentence. But you, if you judge, can yourself show mercy. Arise, O God, judge the earth. An emperor can change his sentence, a prefect cannot. Therefore we entreat you as judge, not despising, but praying. For men and angels in comparison with you are cruel: you alone are the most gentle judge. Do you want to know that God is merciful, and every man is cruel? While the master of the house was sleeping, an enemy man oversowed tares. The servants want to pull them up, and the master of the house says: 'Let be, allow them to grow, lest while you pull up the tares, you uproot the wheat also together with them.'
For you shall inherit among all the nations. Therefore we entreat you as judge, because you have had mercy on all the nations. Why did he not say, You shall possess all the nations, but, You shall inherit? Wherever an inheritance is set, there death has gone before. Therefore we are called heirs and coheirs. He said heirs of Christ, because he died for us; coheirs, because he is going to reign with us. You shall inherit. For you sent your servants (let us return to the apostles), one to the circumcision, another to the nations. As long as you had sent Moses, as long as Isaiah, as long as Jeremiah, as long as the other prophets, God was known in Judea, in Israel his name was great. In a small land the knowledge of God's name was carried. You sent Peter, Peter the fisherman, who had left even his net, who from his work had a callused hand. You did not send an orator, you did not send a philosopher: you sent a rustic man, a fisherman. This fisherman, this rustic, went from Jerusalem to Rome: and the rustic captured Rome, which the eloquent could not capture. Again the apostle Paul went, from Jerusalem he preached as far as Illyricum, and preached where the Gospel had not been preached, lest he lay a building upon another's foundation. Then he says that he would go from the city of Rome to Spain. See Paul the persecutor, who in Judea had been a persecutor, preaching among the nations. Where are they who proclaim Alexander the Great, the Macedonian commander, that in a short span he conquered so many nations? He had an army, he had also huge crowds: and he could not do any such thing, but only some small thing. But this Paul, once a persecutor, who said 'Though unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge,' who makes solecisms in speaking, carries the cross of Christ, and as though triumphing captures all. He subdued the whole world from the ocean as far as the Red Sea.
Someone may say: They did all this for the sake of gain. For this is what Porphyry says: Rustic and poor men, since they had nothing, worked certain signs by magic arts. But it is not a great thing to work signs. For the magicians in Egypt too worked signs against Moses. Apollonius worked them too, Apuleius worked them too: and they worked countless signs. I grant you, Porphyry, they worked signs by magic arts, that they might receive riches from the rich little women whom they had led astray: for this is what you say. Why did they die? why were they crucified? Others too worked signs by magic arts: but they did not die for a dead man, for a crucified man. These know that the man is dead, and they die without cause. Happy, then, is our victory, which was consecrated in the blood of the apostles. Our faith is not proven except through their blood. Let us therefore bless God, to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen.