Homily 46, on Psalm 133
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 now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. This is the last psalm of the Song of Ascents. The first of the gradual psalms had been: 'To the Lord, when I was in tribulation, I cried, and he heard me.' In the second he had climbed higher: 'I lifted up my eyes to the mountains.' In the third: 'I rejoiced in the things that were said to me.' In the fourth: 'To you I have lifted up my eyes, you who dwell in heaven.' See how little by little he ascends through the steps, and arrives at loftier things. It would take long, if we wished to recite the openings of the individual psalms, that is, of the steps. He comes to the thirteenth psalm—nay rather, he comes to the twelfth—and after all the virtues he set humility. For in vain do we have virtues, if the virtues themselves are not crowned by the humility of the Lord. For what did he say? 'Lord, my heart is not exalted, nor are my eyes lifted up.' Since therefore he had shown himself to be humble, he asks for the coming of Christ. And what does he say? 'Remember, Lord, David, and all his meekness.' And again in another place: 'For the sake of David your servant, turn not away the face of your Anointed.' Since he had received Christ, after the faith of Christ he gathers the church. And what does he say? 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' But since the brethren are gathered together in unity, and the church of the Lord is gathered, what does the very last psalm say? Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. Since it is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity, and you are gathered together as one: Behold now, bless the Lord. Now bless, after the coming of Christ, because you are gathered in him: now bless, in the last psalm of the steps, because you are gathered at the summit of the virtues. Therefore before you reached the fifteenth step, that is, the height, you could not bless the Lord. So now I say to you, behold now, bless the Lord. When 'behold' is said, in a way the thing is pointed out with the finger. Behold now, bless the Lord. Who are to bless the Lord? All you servants of the Lord: you who are not servants of sin, but servants of the Lord. Do we think it a small thing to say, 'I am a servant of the Lord'? It is the highest virtue to deserve this. Just as a man claims a kind of rank who says, 'I am a servant of the emperor,' and no one dares approach the emperor's servant: so it is an infinite dignity to say that one is a servant of the Lord. And so the apostle too glories in the servitude of the Lord, and writes at the beginning of his epistles: 'Paul, a servant of Christ.' And of Moses it is said: 'And not as Moses my servant, to whom I spoke face to face.' See what he says. To the rest I spoke in a vision and in a riddle: but not as to Moses my servant, to whom I spoke face to face. Let us take an example. Let us suppose there is some very rich master: he has a household, he also has servants who wait upon him: surely the servants who are out on the country estates do not have as much confidence as those who serve him daily? Great is the dignity of the one who sees the master's face and serves him. In short, the other servants, who do not see their master's face, if they wish to obtain something, ask a fellow-servant. Why have I said all this? Our Lord Jesus Christ himself also has a large household: he has those who serve him, as it were, before his face, and he has others out in the fields. Monks and virgins I take to be those who serve their Lord before his face; but the laity, who are as it were in the field, belong to the household. In short, those who are in the fields ask these others to entreat the master, if they have any need. As great, therefore, as is the dignity of those who daily see the master's face, so great is their punishment, if they neglect the master's service. For bad servants, when they are in the field, are wont to fear the master more, because they do not see him: but if they begin to see him daily, they grow contemptuous, and familiarity breeds pride. And so we too ought not, out of habit, to despise the goodness of our Lord. Bless the Lord therefore, all you servants of the Lord, you who are not servants of sin, but servants of the Lord: all you servants of the Lord, who have the Lord alone as God: all you servants of the Lord, over whom anger does not command, over whom lust does not reign, over whom other sins do not reign. Those over whom the vices have no dominion are ruled by the Lord. All you servants of the Lord.
It seems to have stopped here: but see the increase. It is not enough only to be a servant of the Lord, unless the servants themselves also stand. For there are some who stand, others who fall, others who sit, others who lie down. Therefore those who fall, who sit, who lie down—they cannot praise the Lord: you who stand, praise him. But someone may say: Others stand too, there are many churches, there are many congregations. Who then stand? Do the Arians stand? They name Christ—the Eunomians too, and the other heresies: do they then stand? So then, lest he should seem to grant them license to praise the Lord, see what he says. You who stand in the house of the Lord. So that, as the apostle says: 'until I come,' he says, 'that you may know how you ought to order the house of God, which is the church.' The church does not consist in walls, but in the truth of doctrines. The church is there, where the true faith is. Yet fifteen and twenty years ago the heretics possessed all the walls of the churches. For twenty years ago the heretics possessed all these churches. But the true church was there, where the true faith was. Therefore bless the Lord, you who are servants of the Lord. 'Praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner.' Therefore praise, you who are servants of the Lord: you who both are servants, and stand. You who stand. 'He set,' he says, 'my feet upon a rock.' And to Moses: 'But you, stand here with me.' 'God stood in the assembly of the gods.' And you who stand, not just anywhere, but in the house of God. 'In the courts of the house of our God' is not found in the Hebrew volumes: but it is in the following psalm. For how does it run in that psalm? 'Praise the name of the Lord, praise the Lord, you servants: you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.' Since therefore this psalm has, 'You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God,' for this reason someone thought that in the psalm which precedes as well, at 'You who stand in the house of the Lord,' he ought to add, 'in the courts of the house of our God.' But what 'in the courts of the house of our God' signifies, and what the difference is between the house and the courts, will be discussed when the following psalm is read.
In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. 'This world is set in the power of the evil one,' and 'our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers of these darknesses.' Whence the apostle also says: 'The night is past, and the day is at hand.' Therefore this present age is the night: but the age to come is the day. Whence the apostle says: 'The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us walk honestly, as in the day,' he says. As we are to live in the day, that is, in the age to come, so let us now live. In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. Whether we will or not, we are in the nights: as long as we are in this age, we are in the nights. The night has darkness: and the nights of these darknesses are the sins of men. See, therefore, what he says: In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. 'While,' he says, 'you are in this age and are in the nights, lift up your hands.' Do not let them down, but lift them up: lift them up with Moses. If you lift up your hands, Amalek is conquered: but if you let them down, Joshua is overcome. And at the same time consider the mystery. If we lift up our hands, Jesus conquers. If we lift up our hands in good works, through our good works Christ overcomes the devil. And hands are interpreted as works. Whence it is written: 'The word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai,' 'The word which came by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.' Surely the word of the Lord does not come by the hand, but comes in the mouth. But see the mysteries of Scripture. God does not come to speech, except to good works. For a murderer too confesses Christ, and yet the Lord does not come to him, because his hands do not deserve the Lord's coming. Whence it is written in another place: 'In the hand of the tongue are death and life.' Does the tongue then have a hand? Tell me, why is it said, 'In the hand of the tongue are death and life'? See what he means. God does not hear the tongue, not words, but works: so that whoever says something may also do it. It is commanded us, therefore, in the last psalm of the steps, In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. 'Lift up,' he says, 'your hands, because Jesus too lifted his up on the cross.' In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. Why did he wish to add, and to say, 'unto the holy place'? Heretics too seem to lift up their hands, and pagans seem to lift up their hands, and Jews seem to lift up their hands. For they too give alms: if they see a poor man, they hold out their hand. When a Jew gives alms, does he not seem to you to lift up his hand? He does indeed lift up his hand, but he does not lift it up unto the holy place, because he does not confess Christ. But you who are in the house of the Lord, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God: you who are servants of the Lord, to whom I had said, 'Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity': lift up your hands in such a way that you lift them up in the holy, that is, that you confess Christ, and that whatever you do, you do for Christ. Good deeds differ according to the character of the one doing them. For example, a Christian gives alms, a pagan also gives, a Jew also gives, and another Christian, a holy man, gives too. You may find some among Christians who give alms for this reason, that they may be praised by the people. Whenever a poor man asks, they look about this way and that; and unless they see a witness, they give no money. If he is alone, the hand is more closed; he does not give willingly. O you Christian, a poor man asks you to give him money: why do you not give in secret, but give in public? If you seek God as your witness, why do you look for human eyes? Your almsgiving seems to be almsgiving among the ignorant, but before God it is an injury: for you do an injury to your brother, since you wish to put the beggar on display while others look on. When, therefore, we give, let us not give as if from what is our own, but from what is Christ's: we ought not to give as to a beggar, but as to a brother. We give carnal things, he gives spiritual things: the poor man gives more than he receives. We give bread, which is consumed that very day; he for the bread will repay us the kingdoms of heaven. So this is what I say: that whatever we do, we should do in the holy; that what we do, we should do for Christ's sake. Moreover there are many pagans who give alms: if they see someone with a hand cut off, if they see him with a cancerous and rotten foot, at once their soul grieves: the human soul is overcome by natural pity. And what does such a one say? 'Look, if I were like this, wretch that I am, what would I do? And it may happen that I become like this: who will give to me? So I too ought to give to this man: so that someone may give to me as well, if I become like him.' This man indeed gives the poor man bread; but in the poor man he pities himself, not the other. This mercy is not the mercy of Christ, but mercy for oneself. Everything, therefore, that we do, let us do for Christ's sake, let us do in the holy. 'Whether we eat or whether we drink, let us do all things in the name of Christ.' We read the Scriptures, we learn the psalms by heart, we hold fast the gospels, we expound the prophets: we ought not to do this in such a way as to boast among the brethren, but so as to please Christ, so that his word may resound in our mouth. Men are wont, and monks are wont, and even poor little women are wont to have this rivalry among themselves, to learn more of the Scriptures by heart; and they think themselves the better in this, if they have learned more by heart. He has learned more who does more: for what you learn by heart, I do: my works retain the Scriptures more than your speech, which resounds emptily. In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place. Lift up your hands, lift up the banner of the cross. In the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place: and when you have lifted them up unto the holy place, and have done the things that are holy, let Christ be, as it were, the healing balm of your good works. And bless the Lord. Whence the apostle too says: 'In every place lifting up pure hands.' And bless the Lord. Whatever you do, refer it to the Lord. Let the hands be lifted, let the mouth resound with Christ. In the nights lift up your hands: give alms to the poor man. And bless the Lord: give thanks to the Lord, who gave to you the means from which you might give to your brother. You should give thanks to Christ more, when you have given, than the brother who received from you gives thanks to you. The poor confer a great benefit on us. Our sins, which we can no longer wash away in any other way, almsgiving extinguishes. For what is written? 'As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sins.' Almsgiving accomplishes the same as baptism. As baptism forgives us our sins, so almsgiving too forgives us our sins. As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sins. For the fires of gehenna are prepared for sins: but almsgiving extinguishes them.
May the Lord bless you out of Sion, he who made heaven and earth. You bless the Lord, and the Lord blesses you. Out of Sion: from the watchtower, from the church, from true doctrines, from pious faith. May the Lord bless you out of Sion. These little verses the Holy Spirit speaks, or certainly the prophet speaks in the Spirit. And what does he say? O you who through the fifteen steps have climbed to the last, who have done this and that, who bless the Lord, who in the nights lift up your hands unto the holy place and bless the Lord—receive, you too, your reward. May the Lord bless you out of Sion. What you have given, receive back. You gave alms, you performed good deeds: from God you obtain a reward and a blessing. May the Lord bless you out of Sion. Out of Sion: from the heavenly Jerusalem, in the mother of the firstborn, where the joys to come are, where the archangels are, where the other powers are, where the apostles, where the prophets, where the saints, where the martyrs, where the multitudes of angels and of saints follow, wherever the Lamb goes. In short, John too saw the holy city let down from heaven, built up with gems, having twelve gates. It was all golden: it had golden walls, and it had streets of various gems. In this city Christ reigns, in this city the inhabitants themselves are both inhabitants and gates, they themselves are both houses and inhabitants. Do you wish to know that they are houses? Christ dwells in them, Christ walks about in them. 'I will dwell,' he says, 'in them, and I will walk about.' See how great the holy soul is: it contains Christ, whom heaven does not contain. See what he says. 'I will dwell,' he says. But it can happen that someone dwells in cramped quarters. 'I will dwell, and I will walk about in them.' Wherever he walks about, surely the house is spacious, where there is room to walk. 'You are,' he says, 'the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you.' Let us prepare our temple, that Christ may come and dwell in us: that our soul too may be Sion, that it may be a watchtower, that it may be set upon the heights, that it may be above, not below. We read in the prophet Zechariah: 'And the angel,' he says, 'who spoke in me, said to me.' If an angel spoke in the prophet, how much more does he who dwells in us have us both as his houses and as his conversation-partners?
May the Lord bless you out of Sion, he who made heaven and earth. If you are holy, hear what he says, 'who made heaven': if you are a sinner, 'who made earth.' He made both heaven and earth. For the moment let us speak according to the letter. He said this to distinguish God from the idols. 'The gods,' he says, 'who have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth.' 'But the Lord made the heavens.' This he says to distinguish God from the idols. This much for now according to the letter. But according to the spiritual understanding, just as it is said to the sinner, 'You are earth and unto earth you shall go,' so also to the holy one it is said, 'You are heaven and unto heaven you shall go.' Why have I said all this? To prove that the saints are heaven. 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the works of his hands.' 'And let the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.' 'The heavens of heavens are the Lord's.' Who made heaven and earth. Although we are earthly, although we walk upon the earth, yet our citizenship is in the heavens: there we have our commonwealth. Who made heaven and earth. Although you are a sinner, do not despair: the Lord is almighty. Many from earth become heaven, and many from heaven become earth. Unhappy Judas was heaven, and became earth. The apostle Paul, at the time when he was persecuting the church, was earth: he confessed, and became heaven. Neither should he who is heaven be complacent; nor should he who is earth despair of life. Jacob, at the time when he was fleeing his brother into Mesopotamia, came to Luz: and there, it says, he placed a stone for himself at his head. Under his head the stone was Christ. He never placed a stone at his head, except at the time when he fled his persecutor. When he remained in his father's house, as long as he was in his father's house and had the comforts of the flesh, he did not have a stone at his head. He departed from his home naked, he departed with a staff; and at once, that very night, he found a stone, and placed it at his head. Because he had such a pillow on which to take his rest, see his vision. 'He saw,' it says, 'a ladder reaching from the earth to heaven; and he saw,' it says, 'angels descending and ascending.' He saw angels coming from heaven to earth, and others ascending from earth to the heavens. Do you wish to know that that stone, which was at Jacob's head, was Christ the cornerstone? 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.' That stone which is written of in the book of Kingdoms, Ebenezer. That stone is Christ. And Ebenezer is interpreted 'stone of help.' 'Jacob arose,' it says, 'in the morning.' And what did he say? 'This,' he says, 'is the house of God.' And what did he do? 'He took,' it says, 'oil, and anointed the stone.' Unless we understand the mysteries of the Scriptures, what reason was there that he should anoint the stone with oil?