Homily 33, on Psalm 106
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).
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures for ever. Therefore confess to him your sins, because he is good and forgives sins. But if he were not good, he would not say to you, "Give thanks"; and, "Give thanks to him, for his mercy endures for ever." This is mercy: for the rest, above there is justice. "For his mercy endures for ever." As long as you are in this age, give thanks.
Let them say so who have been redeemed by the Lord, whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy. He is speaking properly about the calling of the Gentiles: for this psalm holds this mystery. "Who have been redeemed" — in the Lord's passion. "Let them say so who have been redeemed": for he himself is the savior and the redeemer and the price. "Let them say so who have been redeemed": he himself redeemed, he himself gives the price, his own blood. But why did he give as the price his own blood? That he might redeem us from the hand of the enemy. For we were held captive in the hand of the devil: and for this reason he came and redeemed us, that he might set us free from the hand of the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." "That you may destroy the enemy and the defender." "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." "An enemy man oversowed the tares." And the enemy is the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." He is an enemy, and yet he is the possessor. Therefore he holds us in his hand: not because he loves, but because he hates. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Great is the majesty and great the power of the Lord's blood, which loosed the hand of the devil. For just as there are certain animals which grip something enclosed within themselves (this both the doctors and the natural philosophers say), so that unless it be broken, it is not parted from them, nor does it let go what it holds shut inside; but if oil be applied, at once it is dissolved, and what had been gripped tight is scattered and divided into parts: so too the blood of Christ loosed the most hardened hand of the devil. He was unwilling to let us go: the Lord poured out his blood like the oil of mercy, and through it he set us free. "From the regions he gathered them." See how great is the hand of the devil. "Whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy." But these whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy — they were being held in all regions in the hand of the enemy. "From the regions he gathered them": throughout the whole world the hand of the devil possessed us.
"From the rising of the sun and from its setting, from the north and the sea." He seems indeed to have named four climes: the east, the west, the south, and the north — that is, the four climes of the world. But the psalm does not contain it so. For here it has: "from the rising of the sun and from its setting" — behold, two climes; "from the north," that is, from the region of the septentrion — behold, three climes. "And the sea." The sea, surely, is in the west. So then see that he named the west twice, and the south not even once. Why then did he name three climes, and refuse to mention one? We read in Habakkuk: "God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady mountain." "God will come from the south." It is said of the Savior: because God was born in the south. For by the situation of Jerusalem, Bethlehem is set to the south: therefore it is said, "God will come from the south." But if "God will come from the south," how is it now said, "From the rising of the sun and from its setting, from the north"? The south wind, the auster and the notus, is passed over in silence. "From the rising of the sun and from its setting." "Amen, amen, I say to you, that many will come from the east and the west, and will recline in the bosom of Abraham: but the sons of this generation will be far off." "From the rising of the sun and from its setting" — the foreigners, surely. "And from the north": "The north wind is the most hardened wind, but by name it is called the right hand"; "From the north," he says, "evils will blaze forth over the earth." The sea is read of in Numbers and in Exodus and in all holy Scripture; and wherever you hear "the sea," according to the climes it is always understood as the west. For by the situation of Jerusalem this great sea, as it is called, is in the west. See therefore the mystery of the Scriptures: in this place the west is named twice, and the notus not even once. Why is this said? Because in this psalm the people of the Jews is not written as to be called, but only that of the Gentiles. Finally, what does he say?
"They wandered in the wilderness, in a waterless place: they did not find the way of the city of habitation, hungering and thirsting." And that you may know that it is written properly about the calling of the Gentiles and about the driving-out of the Jews, in what follows of this very psalm it is written: "He turned rivers into desert" — namely, of the Jews. "They wandered in the wilderness, in a waterless place." Do you wish to know that we too were before in a waterless place? "They wandered in the wilderness, in a waterless place." We have said what the waters were, we have said what the rivers were. "They did not find the way of the city of habitation, hungering and thirsting." Let us set forth how the people of the Gentiles was in a desert where there were no waters, that is, in a waterless place, and how "they did not find the way of the city of habitation, hungering and thirsting." Of those of whom it is said "they did not find," it is plain that they sought. "They did not find the way of the city of habitation." Therefore they sought a way, a way by which they might come to the city: hungering they sought, and thirsting. "Their soul failed within them." "They failed, searching with searching." They failed, they sought, and did not find, and in their hunger and thirst "they did not find the way of the city of habitation, hungering and thirsting." There were many who kept promising that way which would lead to the city. Socrates promised, Plato promised, Aristotle promised. The woman with the issue of blood, who flowed with blood, sought many physicians, and by none could be healed. "They did not find the way of the city of habitation." Their teaching produced hunger for the truth rather than fullness. The woman with the issue of blood spent all her substance on physicians: hungering and thirsting her soul failed within her. But because she had lost all her substance — that is, the Church gathered from the Gentiles, because her soul failed within her — she cried out to the Lord when she was in tribulation. The touch of the Lord's hem was the cry of one believing.
"And they cried out to the Lord when they were in tribulation." "To the Lord," he says, "when I was in tribulation I cried out, and he heard me." Then are we heard by the Lord, when not a mere voice but tribulation cries out to the Lord.
"And he led them into the right way." Because "they did not find the way of the city of habitation," therefore "he led them into the right way." So he shows that before they did indeed find ways, but crooked ones and not right. "And he led them into the right way." The Way led them into a way. The Lord himself and Savior led them into the right way. The Way led them into the right way: he made them walk in himself, being himself both the leader and the way. "And he led them into the right way": that by this way, that is, by the Lord the Savior, they might go into the city of habitation, into his Church, which had been founded upon himself, both the rock and the way and the leader. And at the same time it is to be considered that in this psalm it is said a third time: "Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. Because he satisfied the empty soul," and so on. Afterward it is written: "Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men: because he shattered the gates of bronze." And afterward this same thing is said: let the prudent reader find it. Though some say it is even written a fourth time: so that what is offered to the Trinity may be gathered into one in the Gospels.
The psalm is long, and we cannot linger over each little verse. But only this much has been signified, that it speaks of the calling of the Gentiles and of the rejection of the Jews. Let us therefore entreat the Lord, that, since the former branches were broken off, and we from the wild olive have been grafted into the root of the good olive, we may bear good fruits, lest we too likewise be cut off. For our husbandman seeks fruits. For if he cut off the former branches for this reason, because they bore no fruit: we too, if we do not bear fruits, shall suffer the like. But fruits are not only in the body, but also in the soul. And when the body indeed serves the Lord, the soul also serves, and the body also serves God. "In a land untrodden and waterless, so did I appear to you in the sanctuary." "How manifoldly to you," he says, "does my flesh." See what he says: "How manifoldly to you does my flesh." How manifoldly? Let us not read πῶς ἁπλῶς (how simply), but ποσαπλῶς (in how many ways), that is, manifoldly. In many kinds does my flesh serve you: in fastings, in sleepings-on-the-ground (chameuniai), in tribulation, in distress, in hunger, in thirst, in cold. "How manifoldly to you does my flesh." What then serves the Lord manifoldly? "In a land untrodden and waterless." See what he says: untrodden, deserted, and waterless. See that this flesh cannot serve the Lord manifoldly except in a deserted land, in a deserted and waterless one, when the flesh is dry, when we are made as it were a wineskin in the frost, when all the moisture is dried up and burned away, when our flesh seeks not lust, but food. Our flesh, when it is parched, and is waterless, and has no moistures, seeks not wantonness, but seeks food. But when our land, which before had been dry, is watered with the water and rains of delights, it must needs bring forth and sprout, and he who is holy bears good fruits; but he who is a sinner, at once his land generates thorns. Why I say all this, the prudent hearer understands: because fastings profit much the Christian soul.
They humble the body: and when the body is humbled, the soul too is humbled, and when the body is humbled the soul none the less suffers its own burnings. But if to the burning of the soul there be joined also the burning of the body, who can bear a double burning? The burning of the soul frequent prayer extinguishes, and faith toward the Lord. For the rest, the burning of the flesh we have in our own power: when we wish, we quench the spark of that burning. Although we extinguish it, yet it still remains in the soul. This I have said, because the spark of concupiscences always remains in the soul. Just as if there be a spark in ashes, and it have no fuel, there is indeed a spark, but it makes no flame: so the spark of our thought, if it have not the wantonness of the flesh, is smothered. We all have this spark. Let someone say it, or not say it: whoever denies it, lies. God the creator of all is one: he who created me, also created you: he who created the emperor, he himself created the soldier: he who created the most noble senator, he himself created also the lowly slave. The condition is diverse, the nature is one. As we enter naked, so also we go out naked. On earth we have diverse garments, we live differently day by day: but for the rest, both for those entering and for those departing the condition is one. Why do I say all this? To show that the nature of the body of all men is one: just as the face indeed is diverse, and yet the likeness itself is the same. For example, that one may have more, another less: yet the face of man is one. For I do not have the face of a man, and you that of a lion or of some wild beast. Each one therefore, according to the quality of his own spark, which he knows himself to have, so also let him gather ashes. When we eat, when we take richer foods, that spark of ours, which lay hidden in the ashes, receives fuel. But let us entreat the Lord, that that spark may always be in a deserted land, untrodden and waterless, that it may not have the fuel of vices. And let us bless the Lord.