Homily 23, on Psalm 95
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 ninety-fifth psalm is headed with this title: When the house was being built after the captivity, a song of David. The whole mystery is in the title: the whole sacrament of our life and our salvation is in the title. When the house was being built after the captivity, a song of David. The Jews understand this passage thus: When, after the Babylonian captivity, under Ezra and Zerubbabel and Jeshua the son of Josedech, the temple was built again, a song of David. David, they say, knew in the spirit, five hundred years beforehand, that the temple was to be built again. So they say. But if this is so, O Jew, as you interpret it, what does it mean, what follows: Sing to the Lord a new song? And then, Declare his glory among the nations? What is this new song? Who are these nations? You see, then, that according to the letter that kills it cannot stand at all. Therefore it must be interpreted mystically: When the house was being built after the captivity. Would that my house too might be built after captivity! Many of us have been taken captive, many have been led away into Babylon, many have borne the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar on their own necks; many have been cast into his furnace and have burned, many have lost the temple of the Lord, and in them the house of God has been overthrown. The unhappy Judas, while he was an apostle, was the house of God. The devil came, and Judas took the morsel, and at once Satan entered into him, and his house was overthrown, and it was not restored, because he did not do penance. But if anyone does penance after sin, his house is rebuilt after captivity. Let us therefore pray, we also, to the Lord — first, indeed, that our house may not be overthrown; that the Chaldean and the Assyrian may not come and overthrow the temple of Christ within us. But if it has been overthrown, then, as in a shipwreck, by a second consolation, by means of a plank we can be saved. When the house was being built after the captivity. Daily this house of Christ is being built up in those who do penance. Indeed, he did not say, When the house had been built, lest it should seem only to have been, to be a thing of the past; but was being built, to show that this is happening daily. Thus far we have spoken concerning our soul. But we can also put it another way: when the Church of Christ was being built up after its ruin. Let us see, then, what follows after this title.
Sing to the Lord a new song. Happy penance! Though you have fallen, yet if you do penance, you are called the new house of Christ. Sing to the Lord a new song. A new house deserves a new song. Sing to the Lord a new song. Who are to sing? Sing to the Lord, all the earth. If it is said of the temple at Jerusalem, O Jew, how is all the earth summoned to praise? Sing to the Lord, all the earth. This passage defeats both the Jew and the Novatian. Sing to the Lord, all the earth: not Jerusalem, but the whole world. Here the Jew is slain. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. The Novatian is slain. How? For the Novatian says: There are certain sins for which we ought to do penance — for instance, for lying, for perjury, for theft; but the man who has committed fornication, the man who has done murder, that man cannot do penance. Hear what it says: Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Now all the earth — the adulterer too, and the murderer — and all sins are earthly. But if all sins are earthly, whatever sin you have, do penance, and in all things you shall be saved.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name. The name of the Lord is Savior, from the fact that he was made for us. Sing to the Lord. Proclaim day from day his salvation. What does it mean to say: Proclaim day from day his salvation? The simple man understands it thus: On all days praise the Lord — that is, let day succeed to day — that is, you have praised today, praise tomorrow also. The sense indeed seems simple; but to me it seems that something else of the mystery lies hidden. Proclaim day from day his salvation. The Savior cannot be praised except in the day. For it ought to have said: Praise the Lord day and night, if it were speaking of this ordinary day. For we should have to say this, if we understand it according to the letter. If then we praise the Lord in the day, can we not again praise him in the night? See, therefore, what it says: Whenever you praise the Lord, always praise him in the light — not in the darkness of sins, but in the light of virtues. Let the sun of Christ always rise in your soul, that a new light may always be born in you. Proclaim day from day his salvation. Let us put it another way as well. There are two days, not three, not four, not five: there are two days, the Old Testament and the New. In the one Christ shines, and in the other Christ shines. Do not praise him only in the Old Testament, lest you be Jews; do not praise him only in the New Testament, lest you be Manichaeans. Praise him day from day, that is, in the Old and in the New Testament: which two days make one light. For this reason it is also written in Leviticus: 'Every animal that divides the hoof and chews the cud is clean.' That is, if it has two hooves and chews the cud, it is clean. If therefore it has one hoof, it is not clean. The Jew has one hoof, and therefore is unclean. The Manichaean has one hoof, and therefore is unclean. And because it has one hoof, it does not chew over its food, and what it has once sent down into the belly it brings back up again to the throat, and chews it, and makes it fine, so that what had been coarse may be sent down again fine into the belly — this, indeed, pertains to the speaking of the divine mysteries. Every animal that divides the hoof and chews the cud is clean. The Jew has one hoof: for he believes in only one testament, and does not chew the cud. For he reads only the letter, and considers nothing, seeks nothing within. But the churchman divides the hoof and chews the cud, that is, he believes in both testaments, and in both testaments he often searches; and whatever lies hidden in the letter, he brings forth in the spirit. Why have I said all this? Because it is written: Proclaim day from day his salvation. For this reason the apostles too are sent two by two; for this reason we have not one eye but two; for this reason we have two ears, for this reason two nostrils, for this reason two lips, for this reason two hands, two feet. We have nothing single in us except what is shameful: and the members of our body bear witness to the mysteries of the two testaments.
Bring to the Lord, you families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor. If it is said of the temple at Jerusalem, what does it now mean: Bring to the Lord, you families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor? The multitude of the nations, the calling of the nations, is the gathering of the Church. Bring to the Lord glory and honor. When we honor the Lord in our body, the Lord is glorified in us. Bring to the Lord glory to his name. The glory of the servant is the glory of the master. 'He who receives you receives me.' Happy the servant, on whose account the master is glorified.
Take up victims, and enter into his courts. 'A holy victim, living, pleasing to God.' Take up victims. Bring victims yourselves. What victims? Be yourselves the victims. Virginity is a whole-burnt-offering to Christ: all chastity, whether in virginity or in widowhood or in continence, is a victim to Christ. I speak a new thing: the victim of chastity carries itself. Take up victims, and enter into his courts: adore the Lord in his holy court. I see many courts, I see one court. Take up victims, and enter into his courts: behold, many courts. Again, Adore the Lord in his holy court: behold, one court. See, then, that one cannot come from one court to many courts; but from many courts one comes to one court. Do you wish to know this very mystery in another passage as well? That merchant, who had many pearls, sold the many that he might buy the one. And in Micah it is said: 'Stand,' he says, 'in the ways of the Lord, and inquire,' he says, 'after the way of the Lord.' Unless we have stood in the many ways, we cannot find the one way. What are these many pearls, what are the many ways, what are these many courts — that we may find the one pearl and the one way and the one court? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Joshua the son of Nun, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve prophets, David, Solomon — these were courts. These are our courts: first we enter into them; and from those courts we afterward come to the court of the Gospel, where Christ is found.
Let all the earth be moved before his face. See what it says. Heaven is not moved before the face of God; but whoever is earthly, he looks upon the Lord, and is moved, and trembles. Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned. Unless the earth has been moved and has withdrawn from its earthly works, the Lord will not reign among the nations.
For he has set right the round world, which shall not be moved. Nothing is ever set right except what was formerly straight and afterward became crooked. So therefore both we, and the whole human race, understand God by nature. For there are no nations that do not by nature understand their Creator. For though they venerate stones and wood, yet they understand that there is something greater than they themselves are, and in their very error they show that they have wisdom — that is, there is no nation that does not by nature understand God. Indeed the heathen worship idols, that is, they venerate stones and wood; and if perchance they have started a quarrel, and if some oath has come up between them, they do not say, These stones see, this wood sees: but, God sees, and God hears. See, then, what it says: For he has set right the round world, which shall not be moved. For this cause Christ came, and set right the human race, which before had been made crooked, that it might not be moved forever. For his cross is the pillar of the human race: upon that pillar his house has been built. I say the cross — not the wood, but the passion. Moreover, this cross is both in Britain, and in India, and in the whole round world. Indeed, what does he say also in the Gospel? 'Unless you take up my cross, and daily follow me.' See what it says: Unless your soul has been so prepared for the cross, as mine was for you, you cannot be my disciples. Happy is he who carries in his breast the cross, and the resurrection, and the place of Christ's nativity, and the place of the ascension. Happy is he who has Bethlehem in his heart, in whose heart Christ is daily born. And indeed, what does Bethlehem mean? House of bread. Let us too be a house of bread, of him who came down from heaven. Daily Christ is crucified for us: we are crucified to the world, and Christ is crucified in us. Happy is he in whose heart Christ daily rises again: if daily he does penance for his sins, even the light ones. Happy is he who daily ascends from the Mount of Olives to the kingdoms of heaven, where the olives of the Lord are fruitful, where the light of Christ is born, where are the olive groves of the Lord. 'For I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of the Lord.' Let us too, then, kindle our lamp from that olive, and at once with Christ we shall go to the kingdoms of heaven. For he has set right the world, which shall not be moved. The inhabited world (oikoumene), in which he himself dwells; for it is better said in Greek, oecumene, than in Latin. Let us pray that our oecumene too may be set right, in which the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit may dwell. For unless our oecumene has been inhabited, it cannot be set right. There are many things that might be said. But since today is the day of the dedication feast (encaenia), and the dedication feasts are always in stormy weather, in rains, in winter. Indeed it is written in the Gospel: 'And the Lord was walking,' it says, 'at the dedication feast (encaenia) in Jerusalem, in the porch of Solomon, because it was winter and rains.' See what it says. At the dedication feast he was walking in the porch, because there was storm and rains. When someone wishes to renew himself to Christ, when the house is being built after captivity, if anyone should wish to renew his house, and to renew it to Christ; if anyone should wish to forsake the world, and to join himself to Christ: at once the storm, at once the winter, at once the rain rises up. But Christ — nay, in Christ the poor little ones, seeing the dedication feast, seeing the storm, seeing the floods, seeing the winter, leave the floods and flee under the porch of Solomon, that is, they are sheltered by the peace of Christ. For Solomon is interpreted "peaceful," he who said, 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Let us too, then, walk in the porch of Solomon, let us be sheltered by his majesty, let us have his help, and let us say that word from the Song of Songs, that 'the winter is past, and the rain is gone, it has gone away' in Christ Jesus.