Homily 18, on Psalm 86
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).
A psalm of a canticle, for the sons of Korah. The difference between a psalm and a canticle I have often stated. A psalm is spoken from the psaltery, but a canticle is uttered from the voice. A psalm has to do with the hands, that is, with works; a canticle with contemplation (theoria).
Its foundations are in the holy mountains. He did not say beforehand whose, yet he said, Its foundations are in the holy mountains. The one who speaks is the prophet: the sons are of Korah. What Korah means, I have often stated: a skull, that is, the sons of the resurrection. Its foundations: whether of God, or certainly of the Church. And what are the foundations, if not the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? These foundations, then, are not in the valleys, but are in the mountains: and not on any mountains whatever, but on the holy mountains. Paul says: 'As a wise architect I have laid the foundation'—that is, faith in the Trinity. Then he also says in another place: 'For he was awaiting the city having foundations, whose builder and maker is God.' Its foundations are in the holy mountains. He said, In the holy mountains, because there are also other mountains that are not holy. Then it is also said in Isaiah: 'Upon the dark mountain lift up a sign.' And in another place it is said: 'Who are you, corrupt mountain?' It is also said in Jeremiah: 'Give glory to the Lord your God, before your feet stumble against the dark mountains.' You see, then, that there are also dark mountains: and it is said to us by Jeremiah that we should give glory to God before our feet stumble against the dark mountains. For if our feet strike against those mountains, we cannot give glory to the Lord. Its foundations are in the holy mountains. Whom can we call the foundations? The apostles. In them were the foundations: where the faith of the Church was first laid, there too the foundations were laid.
And because each one builds upon the foundation—one gold, another silver, another precious stones—The Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. Does he love those gates which we see have collapsed? Does he love those gates, and does he love that Zion, which has been plowed like a field? And see what he says, The Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. See what he says: above all the cities of Jacob, that is of Judea, he loves this city alone. And how is it that we see the others in part still standing, while this one has utterly collapsed? Let us read the Apocalypse of John, let us also read Isaiah, where the city of Jerusalem is built, and its twelve gates are said to be constructed of precious stones, and the city itself descends from heaven, and its walls are said to be of gold, and its streets are said to be paved with emerald, and each of the gates is said to be constructed of a single precious stone. These are all the riches of the Lord, and does the Lord love these the way men do too? He forbids us from avarice, and does he himself build a city out of avarice? Therefore the Lord loves the gates of Zion, those twelve gates of Zion: it is clear that he wrote of the apostles. Above all the tabernacles of Jacob: above all the ancient saints.
This much we have said so far according to one figure. But let us speak also in another way. The Lord loves the gates of Zion. To me the gates of Zion seem to be the virtues. For just as the gates of death are the vices and sins, so the gates of Zion seem to me to be the virtues. Then he says in another place: 'You who lift me up from the gates of death.' But if the gates of death are sins, then the gates of Jerusalem are virtues. Above all the tabernacles of Jacob. See that Jacob, that is the old people, has no foundation, nor a house set upon foundations, but tabernacles which quickly pass away.
Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Therefore that which was said, Its foundations are in the holy mountains, we can also say of God. But we can also say this. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. What is this city? Where were glorious things spoken? In all the prophets it was spoken of this city. Isaiah says: 'Arise, arise, O Jerusalem, put on the strength of your arm.' Again Isaiah himself: 'I am the strong city, the city that is besieged.' David too says: 'The rushing of the river gladdens the city of God.' And in another place: 'O Lord, in your city you will bring their images to nothing.' And the Savior spoke glorious things of this city: 'A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.'
I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. Since he said, Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, and yet we understand that very city as the Church gathered from the nations: therefore now it is said concerning the calling of the nations, I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. Whoever is a sinner, let him be secure: the Lord was mindful of Rahab. I said secure, if he returns to the Lord: for otherwise security without tears has no remedy. I will be mindful of Rahab: of that harlot Rahab, who received the spies of Jesus, who was in Jericho, where Jesus had come, and he sent two spies. Jericho, this world, which is overturned in seven days, wishes to kill the spies. And while it desires to kill the spies, the harlot Rahab alone received them. And she received them, not in a lower place, but in an upper room, on the housetop, that is, in the height of her faith, and she hid them in flax, that is, in tow of flax.
This much we have said so far according to the historical sense, and you see how from the history itself we gradually ascend to the mystical sacraments. Jesus the leader, who had led the people out of Egypt: Jesus, who is interpreted as Savior, after Moses had died and been buried in the land of Moab, in the land of Arabia, that is, after the Law was dead, desires to lead his people into the gospel, and sends two spies to Jericho: two spies, one to the circumcision, another to the nations, Peter and Paul. Jericho seeks to kill them; that harlot receives them, the Church gathered from the nations. She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho wished to kill, she herself saves on her housetop. And she places them on the housetop, in her lofty faith, and hides them in the flax of the reed. Though she is a harlot, yet she places them in flax. Flax comes to whiteness through much toil and diligence. You yourselves know that flax is born from the earth, and when it has been born in the earth, it is black, has no beauty, no use. First then it is taken from the earth, it is broken, then it is twisted, afterward it is washed, then it is beaten, then it is combed, and with much care and toil it scarcely comes to whiteness. Therefore this is said, that this harlot indeed received the spies in her flax, so that those spies might turn her flax into whiteness. What then? She gives them counsel, and says: 'Wait here three days.' It was not one day, not two, but three days. See what she says, Wait three days. She does not name three nights, but three days, because she had an enlightened heart. And then she says, and after three days: and what does she say? 'Do not,' she says, 'go through the plains, but climb up into the mountains.' For the faith of the Church is not established in the valleys, but in the mountains. Jericho then is afterward overturned by Jesus, and this harlot alone is preserved unharmed. Therefore this is said. I will be mindful of Rahab: that is, of her who received my spies, and I on the day of judgment will be mindful of her.
I will be mindful of Rahab. What does Rahab mean? We have spoken according to the history: let us speak also according to the interpretation of the name and according to the anagogy. Rahab is interpreted in two ways: either it is interpreted as breadth, or certainly it is interpreted as pride. So see what he says. She who once walked in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, she who was proud and had a rush toward ruin, was afterward converted into humility. I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon. Babylon is interpreted as confusion. See what he says. Not only will I be mindful of Rahab, but also of Babylon, whatever soul is confounded by vices and sins. And of Babylon among those who know me. See what he says. Though someone may have been Rahab, though he may have been Babylon: yet I will be mindful, whoever will have known me. Therefore if we have been Rahab and Babylon, we too ought to be secure, and to say: God said, I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon. But see what follows. Among those who know me. They were Rahab and Babylon, but afterward they were converted to me. I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. She who once was in the breadth of sins, afterward ascended into the remembrance of God.
Thus far he has spoken as if through riddles: but now he speaks more openly of the calling of the nations. For see what he says. Behold, the foreigners and Tyre and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there. He calls them foreigners to distinguish them from Israel: for we are the foreigners. And Tyre. Tyre is interpreted as tribulation, that is, sor. And the people of the Ethiopians: black, and wrapped up in the filth of sins. And the people of the Ethiopians. This is what is said: 'Ethiopia will stretch out her hand before God.' Behold, the foreigners and Tyre and the people of the Ethiopians. What is said is this: Those who before were strangers, those who before were in tribulation, who were set in the heart of the sea (for it is said of Tyre 'Tyre set in the heart of the sea'): those, then, who first were in the sea, and were beaten by the waves, were afterward found in the Church. And the people of the Ethiopians. We were once Ethiopians, Ethiopians in vices and sins. Why? Because sins had made us black. But afterward we heard 'Wash yourselves, be clean,' and we said 'You will wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.' We Ethiopians, then, were turned into whiteness. Behold, the foreigners and Tyre and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there. Where were they? Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. These were there: that is, in the city of God.
Will a man say to Zion, and a man is born in her? The Seventy translators rendered it thus: Will a man say to Zion? Many, then, expected, and did not understand what μήτη Σιὼν is: and they added a ρ, and they read μήτηρ Σιὼν ἐρεῖ ἄνθρωπος (mother Zion will a man say). And they say this because there follows, And a man is born in her: they expect that it also ought to be said in this way, Mother Zion will a man say. Because a son is said to be born, therefore they err in the word "mother." Let us then speak first according to what is commonly said (for neither ought we to dismiss that interpretation), let us then say also ourselves: Mother Zion will a man say, and a man is born in her. These are they who had been born in the Church, the foreigners, Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians: these are they who are born in the Church. They believe in the Church, and are born in the Church. For unless they have been baptized, they will not be sons of the Church. But those who have been baptized in the Church, they call the Church mother.
Let us also speak according to the Hebrew truth. Will a man say to Zion, and a man is born in her? What he says is this. Who will be able to announce to Zion, who will be able to announce to her of men, that a man will be born in her, and he himself will save her? That is, no man can announce to her that Zion will be saved in the man who will be born in her. And a man is born in her. Who is this man? He himself, the Most High, founded her. Let the Arians answer: for they say that the Father alone is the Most High. Behold, here it is said of the Son, And he himself, the Most High, founded her. He did not say, The Son of God who was in the beginning with the Father. But what did he say? A man is born in her, and he himself, the Most High, founded her. But if he is called the Most High, how much more the Word of God?
The Lord will tell in the writing of the peoples and of the princes, of these who have been in her. He did not say, who are in her; but, who have been in her. The Lord will tell. And how will he tell? not by word, but by writing. In whose writing? in that of the peoples. That is not enough, but he also says, of the princes. And of which princes? who are in her? He did not say this; but, who have been in her. See, then, how holy Scripture is full of sacraments. We read the apostle Paul, we read Peter, and we read him saying 'Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?' And what Paul speaks, Christ speaks. 'For whoever receives you, receives me.' Therefore our Lord and Savior tells us and speaks in the writings of his princes. The Lord will tell in the writing of the peoples, in the holy Scriptures: which Scripture is read to all peoples, that is, so that all may understand. What he says is this. So the apostles wrote, so the Lord himself spoke in his gospels, not so that few might understand, but that all. Plato wrote in writing: but he did not write among the peoples, but among the few. For scarcely three men understand him. But these, that is the princes of the Church and the princes of Christ, did not write for the few, but for the whole people. And of the princes, that is, of the apostles and of the gospels. Of these who have been in her. See what he says, Who have been, not who are: so that, apart from the apostles, whatever else is said afterward may be cut off, may have no authority thereafter. Therefore, however holy someone may be after the apostles, however eloquent he may be, he has no authority: because the Lord tells in the writing of the peoples and of the princes, of these who have been in her.
As it were the dwelling of all who rejoice is in you. The prophet speaks to the Church, and says to her: As it were the dwelling of all who rejoice is in you. Why did he not say, The dwelling of all who rejoice is in you, but said, As it were of those who rejoice? It is said in another psalm: 'When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion, we became as those who are consoled'; and he did not say, consoled. So also in this place he says, As it were the dwelling of all who rejoice is in you. Why did he say all this? Because in the present age, however holy someone may be, however much he renounces the world, he does not have perfect victory. Then it is said in the gospel: 'Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be consoled.' But if it was said 'Blessed are they who weep, for they shall laugh': it is clear that in the present age there is no certain joy. Therefore our joy is as it were joy. The dwelling is in you. See what he says: that someone may never withdraw from the Church.
We ought to know that what we have interpreted of the Church can be understood also of our soul. For if Zion is interpreted as a watchtower, and our soul in no other way but always considers higher things: the true church, the true temple of Christ is nothing other than the human soul. The Church of Christ is nothing else but the souls of those who believe in Christ. 'You,' he says, 'are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.' Its foundations are in the holy mountains: that is, the foundations of God are nowhere but in the holy mountains, in the doctrines of the believing soul. The Lord loves the gates of Zion. Our Zion has very many gates: which, if we open them, the bridegroom enters in to us, and sleeps with us. Then he himself says: 'Behold, I stand before the door and knock: if anyone opens to me, I will enter and dine with him.' Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. A city is not one building, but consists of many buildings: so the Church and our Zion, unless it has many virtues, will not be the city of God. I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. She who once was in the breadth of sins, afterward ascended into the remembrance of God. Will a man say to Zion, and a man is born in her? I speak to you a wondrous thing, but a true one. Our Zion, in which at times there are foreigners, and Tyre, and the Ethiopian: that watchtower, that harlot, that Rahab, that Babylon, she who spread apart her feet to everyone passing by, according to Ezekiel: that harlot, if she wills, suddenly becomes a virgin. She becomes a virgin, and conceives the Son of God, and gives birth. 'From the fear of you, O Lord, we conceived and were in labor; we brought forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth.' See, then, that the harlot conceives from God and gives birth, and brings forth the Savior. We brought forth the spirit of your salvation upon the earth. Therefore our soul, that Rahab, that harlot, can conceive and bring forth the Savior. And a man is born in her. If we will, Christ is born daily: through each single virtue Christ is born. For if 'Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God,' whoever does a virtuous deed generates virtue. And he himself, the Most High, founded her. He who is born in you, he himself gives the foundation to your Zion. The Lord will tell in the writing of the peoples. It is clear that what the Lord speaks in Scripture, he speaks to no one as he does to Zion. And yet, when all these things have come to pass, when Christ has been born in her, the victory is not certain and secure, but we are always in danger. As it were the dwelling of all who rejoice is in you. He who is joyful, from that very cheerfulness is secure: but he who is secure is quickly deceived. But he who dreads ambushes can quickly escape: with the Lord granting it, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.