Homily 53, on Psalm 142
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).
O Lord, hear my prayer. The words of a humble man, full of humility and mercy. Give ear to my supplication in your truth. These are the words of one who trusts. In your truth, that is, in your Christ. 'I am the way and the life and the truth.' Hear me in your justice. Here too, in your Christ. That is, I do not trust in myself, but I ask for your truth and your justice, that it may have mercy on me.
And enter not into judgment with your servant. See, he has shown most plainly that he awaits the mercy of Christ, saying: And enter not into judgment with your servant. Here it is as though someone judges between God and the prophet, just as it is also written in the fiftieth psalm: 'That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.' And God enters into judgment for this reason, that he may punish justly. Something of this sort was done also by Cyrus, king of the Persians and Medes, to the king of the Armenians, when he had violated his friendship. He conquered him, and took him captive; and he made that man's own kinsmen, and his wife, and his sons judge between them, so that he might justly either show mercy or punish. For in your sight shall no living man be justified. 'The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: the God of the living, and not of the dead.' Therefore not even the patriarchs themselves will be justified in the sight of God. 'For the stars are not clean in his sight.'
For the enemy has persecuted my soul. This needs no interpretation: no one doubts that it is the devil. He has humbled my life on the earth. This is what he means. Before this I had wings, and I flew: but now the enemy has persecuted me and seized me, and bound my feet and my hands; just as a bird is caught by a man, and seems as it were to be dead, because it does not have the free use of its wings to fly. So too, he says, the enemy has bound me with the awareness of my sins.
He has placed me in dark places, like the dead of the world. Like the dead of the world: not yet dead. Why? Because he stands in repentance. But if anyone who sins does not do penance, this man is dead to the world, and not like one dead, but perfectly dead. This, then, the enemy supposed—that I would not do penance for my sins, which he himself suggested to me that I should commit. And my spirit was in anguish over me. 'Do you first tell your sins, and you shall be saved.' And again: 'If you only sigh for your sins, you shall be saved.'
My heart within me was troubled. Because of my conscience, because I sinned.
I was mindful of the days of old. I was mindful of my former days, how I used to have confidence: but now it is night for me.
I stretched out my hands to you. Bound by the enemy, I can do nothing else except do penance, and lift up my hands to you. My soul is as earth without water to you. As earth without water thirsts and seeks the rain, so too my soul longs for and thirsts after you, its God.
Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit has failed. My soul has failed, my flesh has failed: my spirit alone remained in me, and it too has failed: but hear me speedily, and have mercy on me.
Make known to me the way in which I should walk. Make your Christ known to me, who said, 'I am the way.'
Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right land. Here the most impious Arians set before us and say: 'Good Master, what good shall I do, that I may be saved? And he says: Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God alone.' Therefore if the Son is not good, but the Father is, the Father is greater than the Son. Therefore according to your reasoning, most impious Arian, who is greater, the Son or the Holy Spirit? You certainly say, the Son. Here, then, he says: Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right land. Therefore if the Spirit, who is lesser, is good, as you say: how much more is the Son good, who is greater, Christ. But the Gospel has it thus: 'And one of the scribes coming and tempting him said: Good Master. And he said, Why do you call me good' and do not confess it? Just as if someone tempting his bishop, whom he despises, should say to him, Bishop; and the other should answer, I am no bishop to you, depart from me. But have you not read elsewhere: 'The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep'? But what is better than the Son, who put on flesh for our sake and suffered, was nine months in the womb of the Virgin, and coming down from his majesty was in blood, was in the cradle, suffered to grow little by little, and to be beaten, and to be struck on the cheek, and to be crucified? What is better than this?