Homily 54, on Psalm 143
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).
For the sake of those who do not know the Latin language, although we have said much about the Gospel, we ought nevertheless to say certain things also about the Psalter as well: so that, while some are filled, others may not go away hungry. But since the psalm is long, and if we should wish to linger over each single little verse, the day will slip away: we ought briefly to run over each individual point, unfolding the sense rather than the words.
Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for the fight. He who interprets briefly gains this: that he himself has no praise, and yet whatever there is in the interpretation, those who have heard retain it. Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for the fight, and my fingers for war. Let us lift up our hands in holy things without thoughts and disputes, and let us lift them up in every place; and when we have lifted up our hands, our prayer to God is a weapon against the devil. Who teaches my hands for the fight, and my fingers for war. This is our lyre, this our harp: on this we sing to God.
My mercy and my refuge, my helper and my deliverer: my protector. With how many names is God called! As many benefits, so many names. Who subdues my people under me. This can be said in the person of Christ, that is, from the assumed man. But it can also be said in the person of the apostles, that which he says: Who subdues my people under me. This too the holy father in the monastery says, and gives thanks to God, and says: Blessed be the Lord my God, who subdues my people under me. For it is not subjected to me, but subjected to you; therefore it serves me, that it may serve you.
Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him? This very thing is said also in the eighth psalm. 'What is man, that you are mindful of him? or the son of man, that you visit him?' Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? He speaks of the frailty of the body and of the human condition: and what does he say? If you look at the flesh, what is man? If at the spirit, man is a great thing. Let us not despise the flesh, but let us despise the works of the flesh. Let us not despise the flesh, which reigns with Christ in heaven. 'Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God': not flesh and blood, but the works of the flesh. Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God. And how do they reign in Christ? and how do we sit with Christ in the heavenly places? Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? or the son of man, that you take account of him? He gives thanks to God, and this is what he says. As regards the human condition, man is nothing. 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, said the preacher.' If all is vanity, then heaven too, then the angels too. If heaven and the angels are vanity, how much vanity is man? And if the angels are vanity, if heaven is vanity, why then did God work vanity? Vanity in comparison with God: but in itself not vanity. Lord, what is man, that you have made yourself known to him? That you have made yourself known to him. Great is the happiness of man, to know his Creator. In this we differ from beasts and from wild animals, that we understand our Creator, and they do not understand. But even the very posture of the body seeks out its Maker. For the animals look toward the earth, and there is the belly where also is the eye. But our eyes are lifted up toward heaven: so that even if the mind should be blinded, still with unwilling eyes we may see heaven.
Man is made like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow. Truly our days are like a shadow. I was a little infant, I was a boy, I was a young lad, I was a youth, I was a man, that is, of perfect age, I was of middle age. While I know it not, I am an old man. Death creeps up upon old age. I am changed daily, and I do not perceive that I am nothing. Not for even a single moment of an hour do we stand in our own state, but we are always either growing or diminishing. Therefore man is changed by moments, and while he knows it not, he perishes. I, an old man, recall what I was as a little infant, what I did, how I played, how I ran hither and thither: now I see myself weighed down with excessive burden. His days pass away like a shadow. Our life is a shadow: it is seen, and it has no substance. But that which has no substance quickly passes away. Since therefore man is so wretched, and since he is thus infirm, what do we pray for? what do we ask? what does the prophet say here? what does he pray for?
Lord, bow down your heavens, and descend. You will not be able to save this vileness of man, unless you yourself put it on. Lord, bow down your heavens, and descend. Your straying sheep will not be able to be healed, unless it is carried back on your shoulders. Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. 'Amen I say to you: if you shall have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Pass over, and it shall be transferred.' There it was being said concerning the lunatic. Concerning that mountain, which could not be transferred by them, it is written in Jeremiah: 'Give glory to the Lord our God, before your feet stumble against the dark mountains.' Why have we said all this? Because now too there follows, Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. The mountains that reign, the mountains that are raised up through pride, who say 'The rivers are mine, and I made them.' Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. He did not say, they shall be set ablaze; but, they shall smoke. Let them have the token of punishment: not of blaze, not of splendor.
Flash forth the lightning, and you shall scatter them. See what he says. He did not say, you shall destroy them: but, you shall scatter them. We read in Genesis, at that time when they were building the tower, God says: 'Come, let us descend and confound their tongue' lest at some time they should have agreement among themselves; but let them be scattered abroad, it profits them.
Send forth your hand from on high. 'Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' Send forth your hand from on high. Lord, bow down your heavens, and descend. This is said to the Son: Bow down your heavens, and descend. And how does he say, Send forth your hand from on high? If he descended, how does he send his hand from on high? But although he may be on earth, still he sends his hand from heaven: for he does not withdraw from heaven. Rescue me and free me from the many waters. Since you descended, since you bowed down the heavens, and sent forth your hand from on high, and deigned to assume human flesh, and many believed in you, in place of one water many waters began to be. You may see diverse heresies scattered throughout the whole world. Rescue me and free me from the many waters. This the catechumen says: Free me from the many waters, and grant me the living fountain. For there is one baptism: 'one faith, one baptism.' Free me from the many waters. For those many waters do not bring forth your sons, but the sons of strangers. Whence it follows: Free me from the many waters, and from the hand of the sons of strangers. For they are not your sons who are born in the many waters, but they are the sons of strangers.
Whose mouth has spoken vanity. They promise themselves knowledge, and they raise up their mouth against their Creator. 'They have set their mouth against heaven.' Whose mouth has spoken vanity. Their knowledge is the knowledge of vanity. And their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Both are condemned, both mouth and hand, both knowledge and works. Whose mouth has spoken vanity: this to knowledge. And their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. The right hand, in work. They say that they have a right hand, but they are wholly left-handed. It is the right hand of iniquity, and not of equity. Whence to such a left hand it is said: 'Let the devil stand at his right hand.' He who has such a right hand, and the right hand of iniquity, the devil stands at his right hand.
O God, I will sing to you a new song. A new man, a new song. O God, I will sing to you a new song. 'Sing to the Lord a new song.' How beautifully he did not say, I sing, but, I will sing. In the future he made his promise; for in the present he knows there is a battle, not a song. An army never sings, except when it has conquered. Therefore since in the present I fight, I have no leisure to sing. When I shall have conquered, then I will sing. On the ten-stringed psaltery I will make music to you. Then I will stretch out both hands, and on such strings I will sing to you. My prayer is your psaltery.
Who gives salvation to kings. To what kings? 'The heart of the king is in the hand of God.' Even of Julian the persecutor, and of Nero, and of Decius? The heart of the king is in the hand of God. Those who reign over their own body, who subject their body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while preaching to others, they themselves be found reprobate. These are the kings of whom wisdom says in Proverbs: 'She gives a kingdom to kings.'
Rescue me and free me from the hand of the sons of strangers. The little verses which were spoken above are repeated again. Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity. Whose sons are like new plantings established in their youth. From the hand of the sons of strangers. Let us see what sort the sons of the heretics are. Whose sons are like a new planting in their youth. From the hand of the sons of strangers. Attend diligently to what is said about the heretics.
Their daughters are adorned, decked round about like the likeness of a temple. Their storehouses are full, belching forth from this into that. Their sheep are fruitful, abounding in their goings-out: their oxen are fat. There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets. They called blessed the people who have these things. This they said. What do I say? Blessed the people whose God is their Lord. We shall therefore expound each point briefly for your prayers. Whose sons are like a new planting in their youth. Their planting is not old, but is new. For it is not from the old law, it is not from the prophets, it is not from the apostles; but it is from new masters. Their sons are like a new planting in their youth. In their youth: they are always young. Although there are many old heresies, still, since they change daily, and daily find new things, the heresies themselves are new. Although they are old, still, since daily they renew their doctrines, they are new. For they are not content with the error of the old masters, but daily they themselves discover new things. Whose sons are like a new planting in their youth. What is said about the Church, about the one who fears the Lord? 'Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.' What is said about them? 'Your sons are like new olive plants round about your table.' About the table of Christ are those sons, they are not far from the table of Christ. There daughters are not spoken of, but only sons. But the heretics have both daughters, and have the frailer sex too, the delights of pleasure. Their daughters are adorned. The speech is adorned, and the sense is filthy. In the holy scriptures thoughts are always called sons: words, daughters. See therefore what he says. Their thoughts, that is, are new sons. But their words, that is of the heretics, which they have from the wisdom of the world, are adorned: for they have adorned words, elegant speech. Their daughters are adorned. They do indeed seem to be adorned: but because they are daughters, and not sons, they have no strength. Decked round about like the likeness of a temple. Beautifully he said, the likeness of a temple: they do not have the true Church, but the likeness of a church.
Their storehouses are full, belching forth from this into that. They are ready for contending. If you hold them fast on one testimony, they pass over to another. If you hold them fast in the scriptures, they flee to Aristotle. If you hold Aristotle fast, they pass over to Plato. Their storehouses are full, belching forth from this into that. Properly that is called a storehouse which has riches laid up in it. The heretics have storehouses: for they have prepared words with which they contend. But the men of the Church are simple, they have nothing prepared. They open their mouth, and it is filled by the Lord, according to what is said: 'Open your mouth, and I will fill it' and 'Do not consider what you shall answer them, for your Father will give you in that hour what you should say.' You see that we do not have storehouses prepared, but our riches are sudden. Let someone say: Give a testimony, how the saints do not have storehouses. 'Behold,' he says, 'the birds of heaven, for they have neither storehouses nor barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them.' Those birds are especially the monks: they have no storehouses, they have no pantries, but they have the very Lord of pantries and storehouses, Christ himself. They have no barns, but the Lord of barns. They have not the riches of the devil, but they have the poverty of Christ. What does the devil say? 'All these things are mine: if falling down you will worship me, I will give them to you.' What does Christ say to his own? 'He who will not sell all his things which he has and give to the poor, cannot be my disciple.' The one promises kingdoms and riches, that he may kill: the other promises poverty, that he may save. We do nothing great, if we leave our own things: Christ left the Father and the kingdoms of the heavens for our sake. Let no one think that I have blasphemed, because I said, he left the Father. I speak according to the dispensation, according to that in which he is sent, according to what he says: 'The Father, who sent me, is greater than I.' God is not sent, God is not subjected, does not serve: but the dispensation is sent. If God is everywhere, and all things are in God, how is God sent to anything, since all things are God's? Christ therefore for our sake was made poor. Why have we said all this? Because now it was read, Their storehouses are full, belching forth from this into that. Beautifully he said, belching forth: from excessive fullness. They belch from fullness, and perish: we are saved by fasting.
Their sheep are fruitful. They have many sons: for the number of heretics is great. Their sheep are fruitful. Whence it is said also in Hosea the prophet: Lord, give to them. What will you give them? A barren womb and dry breasts. About whom is this said? About the masters of the heretics, who applaud themselves in the number of their disciples. Their sheep are fruitful, abounding in their goings-out. He did not say, in their goings-in; but, in their goings-out. For they do not go into the Church, but they go out of the Church. They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us. Abounding in their goings-out. Daily they go out of the Church. Abounding in their goings-out. What is said about the Church? All her glory, the daughter of the king, is from within. Their oxen are fat. Pharaoh too saw in a dream fat Egyptian oxen. Their oxen are fat. The Israelite peoples are lean, the Egyptians are fat. For you may see that the masters of the heretics do nothing else, except pursue riches. They pursue riches, and they despise the poor Christ. Their oxen are fat. Beautifully he says, fat oxen: whose God is the belly, and whose glory is in their confusion.
There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage. Does it not seem to you to be obscure what is said, There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage, nor outcry in their streets? You will find heretics unschooled with difficulty: for all the heretic masters are equipped with worldly knowledge. They do not have the apostolic net, but the little chains of dialectic. There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage. If ever they are in disputations, when they begin to dispute with you, their words are so brief, so enclosed with artful speech, that it is difficult to escape from there. For when they have bound you with their syllogisms, and have shut you in, and have woven and built up the syllogism for you like a wall, you cannot fall down, you cannot pass through, you are held enclosed. There is no ruin of the wall, nor passage. And when they have held you there as though enclosed in a certain ring, then you will not be on the narrow way that leads to life, but on the broad one that leads to death. Nor outcry in their streets. Jesus cries out, and calls to himself, and says: Let him who thirsts come and drink. The outcry of Jesus is on the narrow way; in the streets of the heretics it is not.
They called blessed the people who have these things. Many, not knowing, think such people blessed. But for us there is Christian simplicity: we do not want Platonic eloquence, but we want the apostolic simplicity of fishermen. This one holds the net, has feet and hands muddied from the work; this one has a calloused hand from the work. Blessed the people whose God is their Lord. Blessed is the people, who instead of all riches have Christ. Those people have sons and daughters, and storehouses, fruitful sheep, oxen fat and sleek and comely. But we do not have a multitude, but we know that saying in the Gospel: Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. Fear not, little flock: for it has pleased God to dwell in you. Let not the monks say: Behold, such great multitudes, the cities are full, the whole world: is no one then saved, except him who is in the monastery? Behold, such great multitudes: are we then alone saved? When you have thought this, hear: Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased the Father to dwell in you. And now it was read in the Gospel, that one soul is saved, so that two thousand swine perish. Why do I say all this? Because more precious is the soul of one saint, than infinite multitudes of sinners. Out of the whole world he chose twelve apostles: out of the twelve one departed, eleven remained. The cross came, ten fled: one Peter remained, one with the One. And that one fled, and would that he had fled: and he denies. Therefore let us say, the whole human race perished. Since it had perished, therefore the Lord, being crucified, said: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there was not a man with me. At that time the psalm was fulfilled: Save me, O Lord, for the holy one has failed. There is none who does good, there is none, even to one. He who had promised, saying If it be necessary for me to die, or to go into prison, I will not deny you, denied. Why do I say all this? Because the monk ought not to look to the multitude of sinners, but to the manner of life and the fewness of the saints. All Judea was being led into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar had come, so many thousands of men were being led captive into Babylon. Jeremiah alone was there who confessed God, and he himself was being cast into the pit of mud; and yet more precious was the soul of that one man, than of the whole people. Do you wish to know what one man does? Jesus the son of Nave, when the whole earth was inhabited, was alone. Surely there were infinite multitudes, and he alone was. Alone he commands the sun and the moon, and it stands still; a man bids, and heaven hears. Heaven hears him, because he himself was hearing the Lord. Jeremiah was in captivity; but there were also many multitudes. And what does he say? I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness. How were you alone in the city? But therefore alone, because I had no companion of my purpose.