Homily 41, on Psalm 119
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).
Let us come to the psalm that was read after the hundred and eighteenth psalm. The hundred and eighteenth psalm, as we have often said, is a lettered one — that is, it is an alphabetic psalm: for it begins from aleph all the way to the last Hebrew letter, which in Hebrew is called THAU, and each set of verses begins with a single letter. There are twenty-two Hebrew letters, and eight verses begin with each single letter. For example, eight verses begin with the letter called ALEPH. Then again, when those are finished, another eight verses begin with the second letter, called BETH. And in the third place, when those are finished, another eight verses begin with the letter called GIMEL. So then the hundred and eighteenth psalm is an alphabetic psalm. If we want to read a letter, we cannot read it unless we first know our letters: so in the same way we cannot recognize Scripture unless we first know the alphabet. So then the hundred and eighteenth psalm is an alphabetic one, a moral one, and it instructs our life. And because there is not now time to speak about the whole psalm, let us speak now about the first of the psalms of ascents, which begins thus: In my tribulation I cried to the Lord, and he heard me.
Now they are called psalms of ascents, as we have often said, because by certain steps we climb up to greater things. There is not now time to discuss all the steps, and to say how through the individual psalms the steps are made, and how we come to the heights. Meanwhile let us now speak about the first of the ascents, leaving aside the mystery of why there are fifteen steps: for to say the same things often is a weariness to the hearers. Hence the apostle too [is read] to have spent fifteen days with Peter in Jerusalem, so that he might join together both Testaments, both the number seven and the number eight. There are many things that might be said. In my tribulation I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. Whoever is still on the lowest step, let him look up to the highest, the fifteenth step. Whoever is on the fifteenth is already close to the temple. And this is that temple whose ruin we now see; for it offended its Lord. And what did the Lord say? 'Arise, let us go from here.' And what does he say in another place? 'Your house shall be left to you desolate.' The Lord went out, the temple fell down. This temple, then, had fifteen steps round about it. We see some signs of it: count them, and you will see that it is as we say. So then the Levites and the priests, each one according to his order, stood on the steps. For example, the one who was high priest stood on the first step, that is, on the fifteenth step above. On the second step stood the priests, and among the priests themselves there was a difference of rank. On the third step in turn stood the lesser ones. On the fourth in turn stood the Levites. And among the Levites there was much difference: whoever was last, he was on the very lowest step. Consider that this earthly temple is a figure of the heavenly temple. 'For star differs from star in brightness: so also is the resurrection of the dead.' Happy the one who deserves to be on the fifteenth step in the heavenly Jerusalem and in the temple. Yet because that is a great thing, and I think it belongs to the apostles and the holy martyrs, let us pray that we may deserve to be at least on the last step of the temple of the Lord. They stand indeed on different steps, but they sing one psalm in praise of the Lord. The places are different, but the praise of the Lord is one. This which we have said about the heavenly Jerusalem, I think, is meanwhile practiced daily by us who are established in this present age. One of us is on the first step: let him not despair of the second. He who is on the second step, let him not despair of the third. Happy the martyrs, many of whom deserved to ascend from the very lowest step to the first step. He who lives in this present age cannot at once climb from the first to the highest. So then we ought not to be content with the first step; we ought always to strive toward greater things. Neither let him who is on the lowest despair of the first; nor ought he who is on the first to be secure: for he can fall to the very last. I think this is what Jacob's ladder also signifies, when he fled Esau his brother. 'And he came,' it says, 'to Bethel, and slept there, and put a stone at his head.' See our ascetic; he was fleeing a most cruel man, he was fleeing his brother, and he found help in a stone. That stone is Christ; this stone is a help to those who suffer persecution: but to the unbelieving Jews a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. 'And Jacob saw there,' it says, 'a ladder set up from the earth all the way to heaven; and in heaven,' it says, 'the Lord leaning upon it (epestērigmenon autēi). And he saw,' it says, 'angels ascending and descending.' See what he says. He saw angels climbing up; he saw Paul climbing up. He saw angels descending: Judas the traitor was falling down. He saw angels ascending: holy men going from earth to heaven. He saw angels descending: the devil and the demons and his army cast down headlong from heaven. Great is the difficulty of climbing from earth to the heavenly places. We fall down more easily than we climb up. We fall down easily: in ascending there is great toil, there is great sweat. If I am on the first step, how much remains for me all the way to heaven? If I am on the second, if on the third, if on the fourth, if on the tenth, what does it profit me unless I reach the top? Suppose that ladder of mine has fifteen steps: I have come all the way to the fourteenth: unless I hold the fifteenth, what does it profit me that I have come to the fourteenth? If I come to the fifteenth, and fall down, the greater the ascent, the greater the fall. And at the same time consider the sacred meaning: that it is great toil and great sweat to climb from earth to heaven. Do you want to know what those steps are? What is the first step? I think the first step is fasting, for it is still near the earth: we withdraw from the earth, we climb up: yet we still think about earthly and bodily things. Someone may say: What does fasting profit me? I seek that my soul be pure before the Lord: how many do not fast, and yet are holy. I do not say this. If Paul the apostle, the vessel of election, chastised his body and brought it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, he himself should be found a castaway: if he says 'But I see another law resisting the law of my mind and leading me into captivity,' and afterward says 'Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' — if he fears the snares of the body, are we secure? If he says 'When I am weak, then am I stronger' — weakness of the body is health of the soul. Why do I say all this? Because abstinence is the first step. Let us not at once suppose that, if we have fasted, we climb up to the kingdom of heaven: fastings do not lead us to the kingdom of heaven, but without fastings we do not climb up to the kingdom of heaven. By themselves they do not profit: together with other things they profit. Why have I said all this? Because it is as it were a foundation and a support (hypostērigma) for those ascending to greater things. But the second step is to renounce the world, to seek nothing of the world, to despise earthly things. Someone may say: And is doing this the second? I say, the second. It is nothing to let go of earthly things: to let go of the vices of the soul, that is a great thing. For if I have fasted, that is, if I am on the first step: if I have let go of my possessions, that is, if I am on the second step: what does it profit me, if I am quarrelsome, if I am irascible, if I am a slanderer, if I am envious? It is nothing great to let go of earthly things: the vices are greater, which are to be let go. But someone may say: It is difficult, it is great, it is hard. And it is great for this very reason, because it is difficult. The athlete of Christ is not crowned unless he has striven lawfully. Let it cause despair to no one: the ascent is arduous, it is difficult, despair is born. Do not despair, O man: on the fifteenth step the Lord is above, he watches you, he gives help. If you are on the first step, and the distance (diastēma) between the first and the fifteenth seems great to you: do not look at the steps, but look to the Lord. And see what he says. He did not say, I saw the Lord standing on the fifteenth step: for we could not reach the Lord standing and upright. But see what he says: he saw him leaning upon the ladder. See what he says: from the fact that he was standing, he bent himself and humbled himself, so that we might be able to ascend. The Lord is bent down, he humbled himself for your sake: ascend secure.
This man, then, who is now on the first step, is not in tribulation: for he has already withdrawn from tribulation, he has already set his foot on the first step. For he does not say, Now I am in tribulation, now I cry; but because he is on the first step, he reports what he suffered. And what does he say? In my tribulation I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. This little verse seems to have nothing within it, it is a small verse: but it has three meanings glued together in it equally. For what does he say? In my tribulation — behold, one thing: I cried: and after the crying, what? he heard me. In one verse first the tribulation, then the crying, then the being heard. He did not say, When I was secure, when I was glad, I cried: but, when I was in tribulation, I cried. 'You ask,' it says, 'and are not heard, because you ask carelessly.' In my tribulation I cried to the Lord, and he heard me. In what did he hear me? He made me stand on the first step. But in comparison with the fifteenth step, what is it to be on the first step? I have let go of earthly things, I have not yet climbed to the heights. Therefore I ought not to be secure: on the remaining steps I ought to beg for the help of God.
O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue. He says this about all heresies: he says it about the Jews, he says it about the Arians, he says it about the Manichees, he says it about the rest of the heresies. When the Arian says: The Father is greater, the Son lesser; what do we say? O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue. When the Manichee, and those like the Manichees, say: The Lord did not rise in the truth of a body, and — so that you may know it was not a true body — he entered with the doors shut: what do we say? O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue. The wounds of the tongue are greater than those of the sword. The sword kills the body, it does not kill the soul: the tongue kills the soul. The tongue is an evil thing, a great evil: 'it is indeed a small member, but it boasts great things.' How many evils the tongue has, read the epistle of the holy James. The tongue has nothing in the middle: either a great evil, or a great good. A great good, it confesses Christ to be God; a great evil, it denies Christ to be God. So then let no one suppose and say, Meanwhile I have not sinned in deed: if I have sinned, I have sinned with the tongue. What is a greater sin than blasphemy against God? and yet it is the tongue that sins. Whence did the devil fall? because he committed theft? because he committed murder? because he committed adultery? These indeed are evils: but the devil did not fall on account of these, but he fell on account of his tongue. For what did he say? 'I will ascend into heaven, above the stars of heaven I will set my throne, and I will be like the Most High.' So then let not monks suppose that they ought to be secure, and say, Meanwhile we do not commit great crimes in the monastery: I do not commit adultery, I do not commit theft, I do not commit murder, I do not commit parricide, and the rest of the great vices. In the tongue too there are great vices. It is a great crime, when I slander my brother; with my tongue I kill my brother. 'For he who hates his brother is a murderer.' See what Solomon says: 'In the hand of the tongue are death and life.' See what he says, in the hand of the tongue. Do you see how great an evil the tongue is? and it has a hand too. For what does he say? In the hand of the tongue. It is a great vice to slander the brethren, to be unable to keep silent, to go round the cells, to slander others. I am a sinner, that man is a sinner: what is that to you? Consider yourself, lest you fall. Why do you exult in another's ruin? if I fall, will you therefore stand? Although it be my ruin, a brother's ruin ought to be your fear, not your exultation. He has fallen: are you glad, or are you sad? answer me. A brother has fallen: either you are glad, or you are sad. If you are glad, is anyone glad at another's ruin? but if you are sad, why do you go about? why do you tell others? Let God see your sadness, and let the brother himself feel it, let not the ears of the brethren hear it. O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue.
What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, to a deceitful tongue? The Holy Spirit answers the prophet, who says, O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue: What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, to a deceitful tongue? He answers him and says: You who say, O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue, what do you want given to you? And after it has been given to you, what do you want in turn added to you to a deceitful tongue? See what he says. He did not say, against a deceitful tongue: but, to a deceitful tongue. If he had said, against a deceitful tongue, he would have seemed to speak about an adversary. See what the sacred meaning is: the prophet — or rather the holy man established on the first step — I speak rather simply for the sake of the simpler ones — what does he say? O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue: for example, from my adversary who slanders me. But the Lord answers something else, and what does he say? He did not say, what shall be given to you or what shall be added to you against a deceitful tongue? that is, he did not say, what do you desire to be done against your adversary? But what did he say? What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, to a deceitful tongue? He did not say, against the tongue: but, to the tongue. See what he says, to a deceitful tongue: to your own tongue, not your adversary's. For if your adversary slanders you, it does no harm: you kill yourself, if you slander others. For example, if a brother slanders me, what harm has it done me? if he says I am a murderer, if he says I am an adulterer, if a criminal, if a liar, what harm has it done me? For it is one of two things: either he speaks the truth, or he lies. If he speaks the truth, that which he said does not harm me; but the fact that I truly did it. But if he lies, his lie does not harm me, but it kills the soul of the one speaking. We are unhappy, we are wretched. When we have someone as an enemy, while we suppose we are acting against him, we are acting against ourselves. We slander him, we go about here and there, we tell everyone about him: do we suppose we harm him? We do not harm him, but we kill our own souls, because we lie. 'For the mouth that lies kills the soul.' What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, to a deceitful tongue? Like a good physician, who says: For this infirmity, for this wound, what do you want laid upon you? what plaster do you want laid upon you? Just as if someone were to say to some wounded man: What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you, for the wound that pains you? The Lord asks, not because he is ignorant, but so that this man who was asking may know how he ought to ask.
The sharp arrows of the mighty one, with the coals that lay waste. The arrows of the mighty one. This man now answers the Lord as to what he asks. Because the Lord had said, What shall be given to you, or what shall be added to you? now this man says what he asks. O Lord, this I ask: the sharp arrows of the mighty one, with the coals that lay waste. See what he says. The poison of my tongue and my slander nothing can cast out, except your arrows, which make a desolation of my tongue. My tongue swells, it has poison within: unless it is pricked and struck by your arrows, the poison does not come out. We ought to give an example. If ever there is a wound in the body, and in the wound itself the flesh is already putrid, and there is a canker, and there is pus within: unless it is opened, the pus does not come out. And if the pus has come out, unless there is a cautery, the pus is born again. See then what he says. Because my tongue swells, and has pus, and has poison, first wound it with your arrows, so that the pus may be able to come out: then apply your coals and fire, so that whatever is evil may burn away, and make it a desert. See then what he says, The sharp arrows of the mighty one, with the coals that lay waste. Would that this coal that lays waste were given to us. Would that we too might say: 'Was not our heart burning within us on the way, when he opened to us the Scriptures?' Isaiah says to Babylon: 'You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them, these shall be for you a help.' And the apostles, before they received the Holy Spirit, still had in their tongue certain human swellings: therefore the Holy Spirit descended in the form of fire, and sat as it were as fire upon their tongues, so that whatever of pus they had, the Holy Spirit might boil away. Let us give another example too. Isaiah, when he had seen the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, what does he say? 'Woe is me, wretched that I am, for I am pricked with compunction, because I have unclean lips, and I sit in the midst of a people that has unclean lips.' See what he says, Woe is me, wretched, because I have unclean lips. And afterward what does he say? Because he had unclean lips, therefore one of the seraphim is sent, and takes a coal of fire from the altar, and touches his lips and his tongue, and purges it. And what does he say? 'Behold, this has touched your lips, and has cleansed your tongue.' And at once what does he say? 'Whom shall I send to this people, and who shall go?' O the mysteries of the Scriptures! As long as he had a deceitful tongue and unclean lips, it is not said to him, Whom shall I send, and who shall go? His lips are cleansed, and at once he is sent to speak. So then he who has unclean lips cannot prophesy, cannot be sent into the service of God. With the coals that lay waste. Would that this desolation too be granted to us, so that it may take away whatever is evil from our tongue: so that where there are thorns, where there are briars, where there are nettles, the fire of the Lord may be sent, and burn up everything, and there may come to be the desert of Christ.
Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. This the holy man says, who does not desire the body, who does not seek the earth, who longs for heaven. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. When we are sick, when we are feverish, when we suspect we are dying, when we throw about our arms, when we are afraid, when we beg for a respite, we cannot say this little verse. This man was healthy, he was not sick, and what does he say? Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. For as long as we are in the tabernacle of this body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. My sojourning: he did not say, my dwelling. My sojourning: for in the present age we do not have a dwelling, but a pilgrimage. Hence the apostle too says: 'As strangers and pilgrims.' 'I am a stranger and a pilgrim.' Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. What he says is this. Unhappy am I, as long as I am in this body. Which of us can say this? If we are eighty years old, we fear to die; if we are a hundred and are sick, we still beg for a respite and a span of time. Why do we do all this? because the consciousness of our sins gnaws at us. For we know that if we depart from the body, we do not go to Christ, but to gehenna. What does the apostle say? 'I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.' Give me the security that after death I shall be with Christ, and even now I desire to die. So then this man, because he is holy, therefore says: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar. Kedar in our language is interpreted as darkness. See then what he says. In what kind of place are we? in what kind of world are we? I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar. Long have I been in darkness, long have I lived in darkness, long have I been in the body of this death. My soul has long been a sojourner. See what the holy man says. Even if I have lived ten years, my soul has long been a sojourner. For what happiness is it, in comparison with the heavenly things, to be among earthly ones? There are many things that might be said, but the sermon already hastens to its end.
With those who hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they attacked me without cause. Unhappy we, we cannot restrain our tongue, we cannot help slandering the brethren. If someone offends us, we as it were present a peaceful face, but for the rest the heart has poison. We are called monks, and although we are not such as we ought to be, yet we are so called. At the third hour we pray, at the sixth hour we pray, at the ninth, we hold the lamp-lighting, at midnight we rise, then at cockcrow we pray. See at what hours we are always roused for the service of God. See what he says: the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the lamp-lighting, midnight, cockcrow, early morning. All this we do, and we do not consider that if our soul holds enmities against a brother, we pray in vain. For in the Gospel what is said? 'If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you.' See what he says. He did not say, if you have something against your brother; but, if your brother has something against you. He seems to lay upon us something as it were unjust: for if he had said, if you have something against your brother, it would have been in our power what we had. But now what does he say? If you remember that your brother has something against you. I answer him: Lord, this is not in my power, whether my brother has something against me: I have nothing against him. If he has something against me, what does it concern me? and why do you refuse to receive my gift and say, If you offer your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you: leave, he says, your gift, and go be reconciled to your brother, and so you shall offer your gift? Behold, I have nothing: if he has, what does it concern me? The Lord answers you, and what does he say? Wicked servant, I understand your mind: you have nothing against your brother? you have nothing? do you love him? why then do you not want him to be saved? if you love him, go, ask him not to have anything against you, so that he may be saved. But you show that you do not love him, because you do not want him to be saved. Go, ask him, cast yourself at his feet, entreat him day and night: say, I have left my gift at the altar, on your account I cannot offer the victims. He is pricked with compunction, and what does he say? If this man who asks me does not offer his gift: I who am asked, if I do not forgive, what shall I do? Therefore the apostle too says that we should give our enemies to eat and to drink. And what does he say? 'Doing this,' he says, 'you heap coals of fire upon his head.' Someone may say: Enemies do this; do I therefore do good to my adversary in order to heap coals of fire upon his head? But something else is meant. If he has done you evil, and you have done him good, you heap coals of fire upon his head: that is, you cleanse his vices, and you boil away his malice, so that he may turn to repentance. See then what this holy prophet says. With those who hated peace I was peaceable. He did not say, who did not want peace: but, who hated peace. They hated peace, and I loved those who hated peace. Therefore the apostle too says: 'As far as in you lies, having peace with all men.' Let us entreat our brother, if he is our enemy; let us entreat him even twice, and three times, and seven times. 'Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often shall I forgive him? seven times? I say to you, not seven times, but seventy times seven' — that is, four hundred and ninety times. If we wanted to reckon it up, from morning until evening we could not commit so many sins, four hundred and ninety. Yet what does the Lord say? If he sins against you seventy times seven in a day, and turning back asks you, forgive him. But you say: He does not turn back with his whole heart, he lies. Let us leave the judgment to God: he asks me, he entreats me: he does not say this truly — God knows. I hear a voice, Christ understands the heart: I accept what I hear, let Christ accept what he knows. Then see your own reward: he lies, you accept it as true; his is the killing, yours is the salvation.
Why have I said all this? Because in monasteries and especially in communities these vices are wont to exist. We do not blush, we do not grieve: we have left our mothers, we have left our parents, we have left our brothers, we have left our sisters, we have left our wives, we have left our children, we have left our fatherlands, we have left our homes, we have left the little rooms in which we were born and reared, we have left the little servants with whom we were reared, we have come into the monastery: and we have left all these things for this purpose, that over some trivial, frivolous matter we should pick a quarrel with the brethren in the monastery. We have left possession, we have left fatherland, we have left the world: and over a reed pen we pick a quarrel in the monastery. If I hear a bitter word, I cannot bear it, it is in my heart, it is inscribed in my very marrow for ten or fifteen days, it cannot be taken from my heart, I speak to my brother who had done me injury, and I promise peace with my lips, and hold poison in my heart. Often even my eyes and the countenance of my mind are an indication. When our heart is wounded against someone, we cannot look at him with straight eyes: the face itself and the eyes are as it were a mirror of our soul. What does Scripture also say? 'And they could not speak anything peaceable to him': the tongue could not lie about what the heart held otherwise. This, then, I say to your very selves and to myself; for I do not preach for the purpose of making myself, as it were, secure. The occasion of this little verse has compelled me to say these things. The tongue is a great evil. O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips and from a deceitful tongue: not from another's tongue, but deliver me from my own tongue. Another's tongue does me no harm: my own tongue is my enemy. O Lord, deliver my soul. Deliver my soul from my tongue: my tongue is a sword, it kills my soul. I suppose that I harm my enemy, and I do not know that I am killing myself. Let my adversaries fight when I speak to them, and let me speak peaceable things. Let them have a hostile mind, but let us have a peaceable mind. Since indeed it is written in Paralipomenon: 'And the children of Israel went out,' it says, 'to fight with a peaceable mind.' Does anyone go to battle, and have a peaceable mind? But the arms of Christians are peace. 'The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding.' Blessed are the peacemakers: not only those who make peace between quarrelers, but those who make peace within themselves. Blessed are the peacemakers. If others quarrel, and I intervene in the middle, and make peace between them, and I myself do not have peace in my mind: what does it profit me, that they have made peace? 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' Blessed are the peacemakers, who indeed speak peaceable things to those who hate peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. Christ is peace. For if Solomon is interpreted in Christ, and Solomon is interpreted as peaceable: then Christ our Lord is peace. Going to heaven he left us a standard, saying: 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Let us keep what Christ has given, let us have peace, let us keep peace, and it keeps us in Christ Jesus: to whom is glory forever and ever. Amen.