Homily 45, on Psalm 132
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).
Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. He says two things: good and pleasant. Martyrdom is good, but it is not pleasant: for it has its tortures and punishments, and there is always pain in torments, and certainly in pain there is no pleasantness. Behold how good and how pleasant. Again, pleasure is pleasant. For example, to eat sweet foods seems to be pleasant: for it drives one to lust. Here therefore he has set down two things, and what seemed to him to be contrary — it is good and it is pleasant — he has joined in a single phrase: Behold how good and how pleasant. Pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity: brethren in mind, not in body. Esau and Jacob were brothers; and because they dwelt together, it was for them a cause of discord. Therefore what he says here, brethren, he does not say brethren in body, but spiritual brethren: the brethren of whom the Savior also spoke, and said to the women: 'Go, announce to my brethren'. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. This psalm properly suits communities and monasteries. For although it may be understood also of churches, yet there, because of the diversity of purpose, there seems not to be so great a concord. For what brotherhood is there there? Surely one is hastening to go to his house, another to the circus, another in the church is thinking about interest on loans. But in a monastery, just as there is one purpose, so there is also one mind. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Truly good, truly pleasant. We have left one brother behind, and behold how many we have found. My worldly brother (what I say of myself, I say of each one) does not love me so much as he loves my property. But spiritual brethren, who indeed neglect what is their own, do not seek what belongs to others. So too we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that 'of the multitude of believers there was one heart and one soul. And, it says, they had all things in common'. Rightly did they have all things in common, because they possessed Christ in common. We have said much, but let us hasten on to the rest.
Like ointment upon the head, which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. Oh, if there were time for us to discuss each detail, a day could not suffice us. We read in Exodus how the priestly ointment is prepared; then we read how there was another ointment, with which the kings were anointed. There was also another ointment with which the prophets were anointed. And why do I say more? All the ointments had their own distinctions and mysteries. Do we marvel about holy persons? A leper, after he has been cleansed, after he has been sprinkled with hyssop and with the blood of a bird, and one bird is released into the wilderness, he too has his own proper ointment. Nothing is sanctified except through ointment. Therefore the young maidens also say in the Song of Songs: 'Thy name is ointment poured out. After thee we will run in the fragrance of thy ointments'. Like ointment upon the head, which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron.
Beautifully did he say, upon the head. Which runs down upon the beard. The beard is a mark of manhood: for nature distinguishes woman and man by this sign. The beard therefore is a mark of manhood. The head then is called the divinity, that is, the Godhead; but the beard indicates the man. 'That, he says, we may arrive at the perfect man' who is Christ. See therefore what he says, like ointment. Like the blessing of ointment from the head, that is, from Hermon of the divinity, it ran down upon the beard, it ran down upon the perfect man, who is Christ; and from that beard, after the ointment itself had run down upon the hem of his garment, so the blessing and the dew of Mount Hermon ran down upon Mount Zion. Ointment therefore is here put for blessing. 'Thou hast loved, he says, righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows'. See what he says. Thou hast loved, he says, righteousness, and hated iniquity. It is not enough to love righteousness, but on the contrary see what he says: And thou hast hated iniquity. For these virtues what did he receive? Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. This is said to Christ: therefore thou art anointed, that thou mightest anoint the others. Thou art anointed with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, that is, more than thy apostles. For thou didst have the fountain of ointment: they had drops. Like ointment upon the head. May the Lord also bestow upon us this ointment of the Godhead, which came upon the beard, that is, upon the perfect man Aaron, upon Aaron the priest. Now Aaron is interpreted 'mountain-man'. You see that this priest is not from the valleys, but is from the mountains. The beard, he says, of Aaron. That the ointment came from the head upon the beard, it came from the Word, God, to the man whom he deigned to take up. And what does this anointed beard, and this perfect man, profit us? Let us see what benefits he has. Which runs down upon the hem of his garment. If we are the garment of Christ, we clothe his nakedness with our faith. Behold, naked he hangs upon the cross, a scandal to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles; and yet by our faith and word and confession he is clothed. Noah lay naked in his house, and his shame appeared: the elder son mocked, and the younger covered him. And why do I say all this? To show that we are the garment of Christ. I tell you a new thing: rather, not new, but from the Scriptures. We are the garment of Christ: and when we have clothed him with our confession, we in turn put on Christ himself. For the Apostle also says that Christ is our garment. For when we are baptized, we put on Christ. And we are clothed, and we clothe. Do you wish to know how we clothe the Lord? We read in Jeremiah: 'Take unto thee, he says, a girdle, and go, he says, to the Euphrates, and put it in a hole of the rock. And I did, he says, what the Lord had commanded me. And after some days I returned to the Euphrates, and behold, he says, the girdle had rotted, so that it was fit for no use. And the Lord spoke, he says, to me'. Attentively take heed. 'As, he says, thou hadst a girdle about thy loins, so also I had this people about me, saith the Lord'. Why have I said all this? To show that believers are the garment of Christ. Which runs down upon the hem of his garment: which runs down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron. There is not time to speak of the priestly garments. Indeed the high priest has eight kinds of garments. It is long now to speak of the ephod, of the tunic: it is long to speak of the breastplate, of the manifestations, of the little chains, of the girdle, of the breeches, of the fringes, of the pomegranates, of the little bells, with which virtues the priest ought to enter the temple of the Lord and into the holy of holies. And we therefore, if we wish to be of this priestly garment, either we are the shoulder-piece, which is interpreted the ephod, that we may have good works, and may carry the commandments of Christ upon our shoulders; or surely we ought to be the inner tunic, which tunic is close-fitting, and clings to the body, is not loose, is not spread out, but clings wholly to the body. You see therefore that whoever is inward is also the inner tunic, and is joined more nearly to the body. But if anyone is the breastplate, which is called λόγιον (the rational thing), that one is nowhere else but upon the breast. Take heed to the order of Scripture: whoever is the breastplate, and is the λόγιον, and is reason, is set upon the breast. Yet it can happen that someone has prudence, that he has the λόγιον, and does not have speech. Whoever therefore is a true priest ought to have the λόγιον, ought to have the δηλώσεις, that is, the manifestations, that is, that whatever he has conceived in his mind he may bring forth, and may teach all. And all these things are in vain, if chastity be not guarded and adorned: therefore there is the girdle, and it girds the loins, binds tight and mortifies. Then it is said that he should have the breeches, so that whatever is shameful and filthy in us may, as it were by this girdle, be cleansed and mortified. Then it is said that we ought to have the robe (podere), which adorns as it were our feet. And on that robe itself are various flowers: there are pomegranates there, there are also fringes there. I think that woman too who had an issue of blood touched this fringe, and was healed. Then consider this also, that at the very extremities of the feet, among the pomegranates, there were also the little bells; and the high priest did not enter into the holy of holies unless those little bells sounded. And those little bells and those pomegranates are the diversities of virtues, which each have their own voices; and the very going forth of the holy of holies is vocal. For whether we eat, or whether we drink, we do all things in the name of the Lord. We promised smaller things, and have said greater ones.
Like the dew of Hermon, which runs down upon Mount Zion. The dew of Hermon. We read a certain apocryphal book, that at the time when the sons of God descended to the daughters of men, they descended upon Mount Hermon, and there entered into a covenant, how they might come to the daughters of men, and join them to themselves. It is a most manifest book, and it is reckoned among the apocrypha, and the ancient interpreters have said some things about it: but we say this, not for authority, but for remembrance. Like the dew of Hermon, which runs down upon Mount Zion. I read in a certain man's book, who confirms his own heresy from this apocryphal book. For what does he say? The sons of God, he says, who were descending from the heavens, and came upon Hermon, and lusted after the daughters of men, are, he says, angels descending from the heavenly places, and souls that desired bodies: since indeed the bodies are the daughters of men. Do you see how, without your knowing it, the doctrine of the Manichees arises? For just as the Manichees say that souls desired human bodies, and were joined by the pleasure of the bodies: so these too, who say that the angels desired bodies, that is, the daughters of men, do they not seem to you to say the very thing that the Manichees also say? It is long now to speak against them: but I wished only to point out from what volume, as it were, they confirm their doctrine by occasion of this text. Hermon in our tongue is interpreted ἀνάθεμα (anathema), that is, condemnation. The dew of the Lord therefore was formerly upon the people of the Jews, who were afterwards anathematized; and that blessing, which formerly descended upon the anathematized people, afterwards descended upon Mount Zion, that is, upon the Church. We, if indeed we are of the Church — and by Church I mean the truth of doctrines, the confession of Christ. We are in the building: and how many holy ones are in the desert, how many of us are not in the Church; and those who are not in the Church dwell within the Church of Christ — if therefore we are in the Church, if we have the faith of the Church, the faith of the apostles, the faith of Christ, the truths of the doctrines, we are mountains of Zion. We do not wish to be valleys of Zion, but mountains of Zion. For Zion has its valleys, it has also its plains. Whoever is a sinner is a valley of Zion, he is not a mountain of Zion. Someone may say: You are speaking from your own opinion. Let us call Isaiah as a witness, at the time when Zion had sinned, after many visions, where it is said, A vision against Idumaea, a vision against Moab, a vision against Edom and the sons of Ammon, at the last is placed: 'A vision of the valley of Zion'. For because it had descended from the height of faith, therefore it collapsed from a mountain into a valley. We therefore, first let us flee the valleys of Zion, let us come to the plains, from the plains let us come to the hills, from the hills let us come to the mountains, let us follow Christ upon the mountains. For our cousin, like a roe and a fawn of the harts, leaps over the hills, and springs across the mountains. Whence also, according to the truth of the ascension, he did not ascend into the heavens after the resurrection from a valley, but from a mountain. Unless we are mountains in virtues, we cannot ascend to heaven. For there, that is, in the mountains of Zion, in the virtues, in the confession of faith, in the truth of the doctrines, there is the blessing and life for evermore. Our life is Christ. He who confesses Christ receives life unto the ages of ages. Amen.