Homilies on the Psalms

Homilies on the Psalms

continued

Homily 38, on Psalm 111

1 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). Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. I have often said that everything interpreted in the person of the righteous man refers to Christ. For if the saints are a type and figure of the Savior, who alone is truly holy — for example, Isaac is a type of the Lord the Savior, and Joseph, David, Solomon, and the rest of the saints — then this blessed man too, who is now being described, does indeed refer to a righteous man, and is truly spoken of a righteous man; but this righteous man is a type of the truly Righteous One. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. For now we have divided up the psalm: let us now speak about the righteous man. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. The one hundred and eleventh psalm is an alphabetical one. And indeed the one hundred and tenth is itself also arranged under the alphabet. The first little verse is written from ALEPH, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. The second from BETH, In his commandments he shall greatly delight. The third GIMEL, His seed shall be mighty upon the earth, and so on all the way to the twenty-second letter, thau. Let us therefore, aided by your prayers, expound the individual verses.

2 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. It is the beginning of the psalm: it does not yet say, Blessed is the man who loves the Lord. For to fear belongs to men who are beginning, but to love belongs to the perfect: since 'perfect love casts out fear.' Therefore he speaks of the beginning, that is, of a holy man who is just starting out. Let us then look at the order of the psalm. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. He who fears the Lord, what does he do? Does he hear the words of God? Is he learned in the law? This is not what he says. What does he say? In his commandments he shall greatly delight. He who fears the Lord, who is blessed, gladly performs His commandments. In his commandments he shall greatly delight. See what he says. He did not say, he performs his commandments; for many act out of fear, and have no reward. For he who fears hell, and for that reason does not commit fornication, does not have as great a reward as the one who acts out of love for God. In his commandments he shall will, that is, he wills, he desires to perform His commandments. Just as someone, if he is in the heat, thirsts: so does he desire the commandments of the Lord. In the commandments of the Lord he shall greatly will. An intensification (auxesis): he does not merely perform His commandments, but wills them: and he wills them not in passing, but exceedingly.

3 The third verse is: His seed shall be mighty upon the earth. Because I have performed the commandments of God with my will, I am worthy to become a father of saints. Let us say it briefly, lest the discourse be drawn out too long. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. May the Lord grant that you also who hear me may be a generation of the upright. Glory and riches are in his house. Glory and riches. Do we suppose that the glory and riches of the world are meant? Is it for this that a man does the will of God and His commandments, in order to obtain the riches of this world? And surely he does not perform the commandments of God unless he has despised the riches of the world. Glory and riches are in his house. The glory of believers, as the apostle says: 'Are you not my glory?' And riches. The riches of which the same apostle speaks, 'that you have been made rich in all knowledge.' And his righteousness endures unto the age of the age. He did not say, righteousness endures unto the age, and has an end: but, it endures unto the age of the age.

4 Unto the upright of heart a light has risen in the darkness. We were once in darkness, we were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death: but a light has arisen for us, according to Isaiah. Merciful and compassionate and righteous. See the two things he says, Merciful and righteous. If you are a sinner, do not despair of pardon: He is merciful. But if you are proud, and put your confidence in the clemency of God, do not be negligent: He is also righteous. Merciful and compassionate and righteous. See what the prudence of the psalmist has done: righteousness is single, mercy is double. Merciful and compassionate and righteous. 5 Delightful is the man who shows mercy and lends. Because the Lord is merciful and compassionate, let the righteous man too imitate his Lord: let him also be merciful. Delightful is the man who shows mercy and lends. Does someone suppose that he is speaking about gold and about silver and about money? The righteous have so far been without anything to lend to others that they themselves received their food from others. So then, if I have nothing to give, am I no longer righteous? If I do not give alms, shall I not be counted in the number of the righteous? How many of the saints gave alms, yet fell from their holiness. The perfect gave no alms: they had nothing from which to give. Not to give alms is the crime of one who possesses: but as for the one who has nothing from which to give alms, he is free. However much he was willing to give, that much he gave, because he gave by his intention. Nevertheless the saints too have something from which to give alms. Peter also says: 'Silver and gold I have; but what I have, this I give to you, in the name of the Lord Jesus rise up and walk.' Which is greater, to give money, or to make a crippled man whole? Delightful is the man who shows mercy and lends. What are these alms? What is this that the righteous man lends? The second verse shows it. He shall order his words in judgment.

6 He did not say, he shall order his gold and his silver or his money in judgment: but, he shall order his words in judgment. This is mercy, if a holy man teaches others who are not holy. He shall order his words in judgment. We have understood, then, what are the riches that are lent. But this that he says, he shall order his words in judgment, is that which is said in the Gospel, that we should not cast our pearls before swine: that is, that he may know what to bestow on each one, that each may know what he is able to receive, and what he is not able. Whence the holy man says: 'In my heart I have hidden your sayings, that I may not sin against you.' I did not give them to whomever I pleased: I did not send your holy thing to dogs, nor did I give pearls to swine. Great, therefore, is the danger for teachers, in being able to pour out the words of the Lord.

7 There are many things that might be said about the psalm. But since we are shut out by the hour, let us bless the almighty Lord: and let him who has such riches bestow them on those who have them not, while he who has them not let him gladly receive. And may the Lord grant to me also, that I too may have these riches: that I may both give to those who have them not, and heap up riches for those who have them: so that I may have this blessedness both in speaking and in hearing. 'For blessed is he who speaks into the ears of one who hears.' For what does it profit me to speak, if another does not take up my words? For what does it profit me to send wine, if what is sent is immediately poured out? You see that in the Gospel that water is put into the water-jar, and is turned into wine, and is kept so that it may not perish. Let us therefore diligently hear the words of God: to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Homily 39, on Psalm 114

1 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). I have loved, because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. He did not say, I shall love: but, I have loved. He did not promise that he would do it, but he testifies that he has done it. I have loved. Why have I loved? Because the Lord will hear the voice of my prayer. "I have loved" belongs to time that is past; but in "will hear" it belongs to the future. For he did not say, I have loved because the Lord has heard me; but, I have loved because the Lord will hear me. Because he has inclined his ear to me. Since we are small and lowly, and cannot stretch ourselves up and lift ourselves high, for that reason the Lord inclines his ear and deigns to hear us. And so, since we are human beings and cannot become gods, God became man and inclined himself, according to that which is written: "He inclined the heavens, and came down."

2 And in my days I will call upon him. Here the question is asked: how is it that he calls upon him in the days, and does not call upon him in the nights? And how does he say in another place, "At midnight I rose to give praise to you," since the saints are more accustomed to pray in the nights? And in another psalm it is said: "In the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless the Lord." How then does he say, And in my days I will call upon him? He did not say, I called; but, I will call, in the future. For while we are in this world, we call upon him in the night; in the world to come we call upon the Lord in the day. Therefore he said, in my days: for to sinners it is night, but to me it is day.

3 The sorrows of death surrounded me. It seems to me that the sorrows of death are foul thoughts. When the soul is thinking, and desires to sin, when it is in travail with sins, it is near to death. The perils of hell found me. O how unhappy and wretched and pitiable we are, because sin is always seeking us! But if sins are always seeking us, let us make haste that they may not find us. Now this is the difference between the sorrows of death and the perils of hell: the sorrows of death are evil thoughts, the perils of hell are evil deeds. That I may put it thus: one thing is in contemplation, another in action, that is, in practice. For there is the sorrow and the travail, but here is the peril that is near to death. 4 I found tribulation and sorrow. He says a strange thing. He does not say, I found rest: he does not say, I found abundance. Now if he had said, tribulation found me, sorrow found me, there would be no question. But now what does he say? I found tribulation and sorrow. As one seeking, so he found: for nothing is found except what is sought. The holy man does not seek rest, but tribulation: for he knows that "tribulation works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope, and hope does not confound." Something of the same kind is said also in Jeremiah: "Tribulation," he says, "and misery I called upon." "Because," he says, "at your bitter word I shall laugh": that is, in this world I want nothing else but tribulation, that in the world to come I may have rest and happiness. And therefore, he says, I now endure bitterness, that afterward I may enjoy sweeter things. And the people of the Lord, going out from Egypt, came to Marah, which is interpreted "bitter," and from Marah to Sinai, which is interpreted "temptation." And again Jeremiah: "I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness."

5 O Lord, deliver my soul. Neither the Greek nor the Latin can express the peculiar force of the Hebrew. For "O" the Hebrew has ANNA. Now anna is interpreted "I beg" and "I entreat." And what he says is this: I entreat you, Lord, deliver my soul. For it is not the feeling of one wondering, but of one entreating: for he is set in enormous peril. The Lord is merciful and just, and our God has mercy. Prick up your ears, sinner: the Lord is merciful. But do not be careless: for there follows, and just. If you are a great sinner, listen, the Lord is merciful: if you are careless, listen, he is also just. But it seems to be as it were equal, the Lord is merciful and just: for instance, he is merciful in ten parts, and just in ten parts, and I speak thus for the sake of the simpler folk. Let someone say: If my sins are weighed, I cannot have as many good things as I have evil ones: but now it is said that he is merciful and just, merciful toward sinners, just toward the good: my sins begin to weigh me down, and he conquers in his mercy. Therefore he put "just" once, and "merciful" a second time. Merciful. He could also have spoken of the past. And our God, he says, has mercy: that he may always show him to be merciful.

6 The Lord keeps the little ones. If anyone is great, and exalts himself, and is proud, this man the Lord does not keep; if anyone thinks himself great, on this man the Lord has no mercy: but if anyone humbles himself, on this man the Lord has mercy, and the Lord keeps him. Since he says: "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me." And again: I was humbled, and he saved me. We understand "I was humbled, and he saved me" in two ways: either I sinned, and he saved me; or, when I was proud, he humbled me and saved me. 7 Turn, my soul, into your rest. When it is said, Turn into your rest, then he had a rest before, which he lost. For no one turns, except him who goes back to where he was before. For God created us good, and left us to our own free will, and placed us all with Adam in paradise. But because by our own free will we fell from that blessedness, and came into the valley of tears; for that reason the just man exhorts his soul, to turn back there whence it came down. Turn, my soul, into your rest. For this place is a place of tribulation, it is the land of warriors. This place is a place of tears, where it is not permitted to walk in safety. For wherever anyone may be, there is peril: if in the desert, there are scorpions: if in the cities, the eye of the harlot is the destruction of a man: if on the sea, there are robbers and pirates. All these things I speak mystically. For it is not now a peril that a holy man should be killed by robbers: since indeed the martyrs conquered by their own blood. Turn, my soul, into your rest: because the Lord has done good to you. For the fact, he says, that you turn, O soul, into paradise, is not because you are worthy, but it belongs to the mercy of the Lord. That you went out of paradise was brought about by your own fault: but that you return, was of the mercy of the Lord. Let us too say to our soul: Turn into your rest. Our rest is Christ our God. If ever we are in straits, and a thought begins to lead us captive into sin, let us say: Turn, our soul, into your rest.

8 Because he has rescued my soul from death. He has not yet returned into paradise, and already he says that he has returned into safety. He said, Turn, my soul, into your rest; and as though secure he says, Because he has rescued my soul from death. When did he rescue my soul from death? My God suffered for me, my God was crucified for me, and I say: "O death, where is your victory? O hell, where is your sting?" My eyes from tears. I wept, that I might laugh: I mourned, that I might rejoice forever. He who does not weep in the present, will weep in the world to come. For "blessed are those who mourn, for they themselves shall be comforted." But on the contrary we say: "Woe to you who laugh, for you shall mourn." My feet from falling. Because my feet did not stand upon the rock, therefore "my feet were almost moved, my steps were almost overthrown." My feet have been freed from falling. Why? Because my soul has been turned into its rest.

9 I will please in the sight of the Lord in the land of the living. I seem, he says, to men to be just, though I have no good works: I seem to men to be holy, though I have no good words. Now this is what David says, this is what the saints say, this is what the apostles speak: for a sinner does not say this. What does the just man say? Though I have no good words and works, yet I seem holy, and am praised by men: but I know my own conscience, I know with what sort of thoughts my heart is tossed, I know how great the lusts are that come upon me, and "I see another law fighting against my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin. Therefore I say: "Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? And therefore I say: "From my hidden faults cleanse me, and from those of others spare your servant. From those of others. It is not mine, that which I bring to birth: I do not want to think evil things, and I think them: I do not want to think evil, and as though unwilling and captive I am dragged into an evil thought. But since it is not in my power either to think or not to think the things that are evil, therefore I say: These things indeed that come into my heart are another's:

10 but since a kind of necessity is imposed upon me, therefore I say, From my hidden faults cleanse me. The sins indeed are another's: but because I take them up, therefore I say, In the sins of others spare me your servant. Now why have I said this? Because the prophet said, I will please the Lord. He did not say, I please; but, I will please: for here, in what I do, I cannot be perfectly just. Therefore the apostle also says: "In part we know and in part we prophesy," and "now we see through a mirror in an enigma. Therefore we have now used a long discourse: because in the present world no one can be perfectly just, neither David, nor the apostles, nor any of the saints. "For no one is clean from sin, not even if his life be of one day. Since indeed the apostles and the saints did not dare to say, we are holy; nor did they dare to say, I please, but I will please. He who has promised for the future confesses concerning the past that he has not done it. I will please the Lord. Where will I please? In the land of the living. For this is the land of the dead: the land of the living is another. Since David too was in this land, and truly in the land of promise;

11 when he says, I will please in the land of the living, he confesses that this land is not of the living, but of the dead. Do you wish to know what that land of the living is? The Lord says in the Gospel, "The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and they were dead. And what follows? "God," he says, "is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Therefore the just man too, what does he say? I will please the Lord in the land of the living: in the land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is, when I am truly in the bosom of Abraham, then I will please the Lord.

Homily 40, on Psalm 115

1 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). I believed, therefore have I spoken. In the Hebrew the one hundred and fourteenth psalm and the one hundred and fifteenth are one psalm. So then, what did he say? I believed, therefore have I spoken. What did you believe? What did you speak? The earlier psalm ended thus: "I shall please before the Lord in the land of the living." So the prophet says: I believed, therefore have I spoken. What did I believe? That I shall please before the Lord in the land of the living. This I believed, and I spoke. But what did I speak? But I was humbled exceedingly. O the great understanding of the divine utterance! I believed, he says, that I shall please the Lord, that I shall be an angel, that I shall be in the heavens: and yet I was not proud, I was not lifted up, but I was humbled exceedingly. That I shall be in the land of the living, that belongs to the Lord's mercy. But I have come to know my own self, that I am earth and ashes: therefore I say, But I was humbled exceedingly. And what is earth and ashes?

2 But I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar. In the Hebrew it stands otherwise: "I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a lie," which is said ZECAM. I shall please the Lord in the land of the living: but I know my own self, that according to the condition of the body I am nothing: for there is no truth in our substance, but it is a shadow and as it were a lie. I speak of the bodily substance, not of the soul. And what he says is this. I shall please the Lord in the land of the living: but when I ponder human life, and consider its various errors, I do not find truth in this world. Since indeed "we know in part, and we prophesy in part. Therefore I say: Everything that we see, everything that we understand, is a lie. In what way, then, is it a lie? He called it here a lie, as it were a shadow, as it were an image; just as it is said also in another place: "Yet man passes away in an image. By the same understanding it is now also said, Every man is a lie: that is, every man is a shadow. But this we say according to the Hebrew truth. But let us speak also according to the Seventy translators. For someone may say: What is it to me, what does the Hebrew have? I follow the Church. I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar.

3 Does David speak the truth, or does he lie? If it is true, Every man is a liar, and this that he says, Every man is a liar, is true, then he too lies: for he too is a man. But if he too lies, then this that he said, Every man is a liar, is not true. However you turn it, it comes out to the contrary. And since he too is a man, then he too lies: or if he lies that every man is a liar, then he lies in another manner. You see, then, that these are the syllogisms of the philosophers. Indeed, according to this proposition the syllogism of Aristotle is woven. In fact you say — speak to another — : If you lie, and you speak the truth that you lie: then you lie. See how the proposition turns to the contrary. For what does he say? O you who speak with me, if you lie, and you speak the truth about this very thing, that you lie: then you lie, and in the same utterance it comes about that he both speaks the truth and lies. Therefore it has been read in the Apostle: "See that no one deceive you through philosophy and the vain deceit of men, according to the elements of the world. For the philosophers found out by their deceit and their own art how in the same utterance a person may both speak the truth and lie.

4 But let us say that David spoke the truth, that every man is a liar. As long as we are men, we lie: but when we have become gods, we cease to lie. "For where there are jealousies and contentions among you, are you not men, and do you not walk according to man? "I said: you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. But you shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. If, then, anyone is holy, he is made a god; and when he has become a god, he ceases to be a man, and now he does not lie. For what does the Apostle also say? "But let every man be a liar, but God be truthful." 5 Let us interpret it also in another way. I believed, therefore have I spoken. When a master teaches a disciple, unless he himself has first believed what he teaches, he cannot teach another. So he says that first he believed, and thus teaches another. But I was humbled exceedingly. But when I had obtained the grace of God, I was not lifted up into pride, knowledge did not puff me up: but what did I do? I was humbled exceedingly. Yet I who taught by word, was able to teach also by humility. I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar. I was teaching, he says, my disciple: and considering the heavenly contemplation, and pondering more divine things, I understood that everything that man knows is lies. For what truth can there be in this world, when our life upon the earth is a shadow? If, then, he who teaches a disciple confesses that every man is a liar: how much more ought the disciple not to exalt himself, and to reckon himself to be something?

6 What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that he has rendered to me? Since I have said, I shall please the Lord in the land of the living, and this very thing I believed, therefore have I spoken, and I was humbled exceedingly, and I said, Every man is a lie, every man is a shadow, every man is an image: for such great benefits, that I shall please the Lord in the land of the living, what have I worthy to render? I am earth, I am ashes: he promised me that I shall please him in the land of the living: he made me a master: I believed, therefore have I spoken. What have I worthy, that I may render to him for such great benefits? Whatever I shall give him is his own, and I give it back to him rather than bestow it. I have nothing else that I may render to him, unless I pour out my blood for him, unless I stand forth a martyr for him. This is the only worthy recompense, to render blood for blood, so that we who have been freed by the Savior may gladly pour out our blood for the Savior.

7 I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. In the Hebrew it stands thus: "I will take the cup of Jesus." This very thing the angel also interprets: "And you shall call his name Jesus, for he himself will save his people." I will take, then, the cup of Jesus. What is this cup of Jesus? "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me," and "Are you able," he says, "to drink my cup?" And immediately there follows: "My cup indeed you shall drink." But why did I say this? So that we may understand the cup to be the sufferings of martyrdom. A great thing is martyrdom. How is it a great thing? Because he renders to the Lord what he received from the Lord. Christ suffered for him, and he suffers for his name. Since we have said that the martyr has nothing else to render to the Lord, the Lord too reckons it to him as an equal, since he sees that his servant has nothing else to render to him. For what is comparable? God suffered for men, the Lord for the servant, the just for the sinner: what equality is there? But since the servant has nothing else to render to the Lord, God, as one merciful, accepts martyrdom as an equal. It is as if some rich man had fed a certain poor man, and it should come about that the same rich man came with his household, and came by chance into the house of the poor man, and the poor man had nothing to set before him and his household and his horses, but only said to him, Enter into the house of your client, and showed his goodwill, since the poor man has nothing else to give and to do more: like that widow who contributed two mites.

8 I will take the cup of salvation, or of Jesus. And this very martyrdom, he says, is not of my own strength, but of the grace of God: therefore I cannot drink it, unless I have called upon the name of the Lord. Jesus conquers in his martyr; he himself is crowned in his martyr. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Let the Jews now answer, how they say that every human body is unclean. Indeed in the Law, among the Jews, if anyone should die, whether a prophet, or a saint of whatever kind, if anyone should touch him, even if a priest, he is unclean until evening. This is written according to the letter in the Law. Let us say to them: If the body of a dead man is unclean, how is it now said, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints? If the body of a dying saint is precious, how is it unclean? Therefore this is said here of the evangelist, this is proclaimed of the martyr.

9 O Lord, for I am your servant. And I have already said in the one hundred and fourteenth psalm, where it has "O Lord, deliver my soul," that in the Hebrew it has ANNA, which is translated I ask or I beseech. And here in the Hebrew it stands thus: "I ask, O Lord, for I am your servant." I am your servant. It seems to be a thing of humility, what is said. It is a thing of great dignity and merit, to be the servant of the Lord, and not the servant of sin. Because I do not have, he says, men as masters, because I do not have sin as master: for sin does not reign in my mortal body: therefore I am your servant. A great merit. Indeed it is said of Moses: "But not so my servant Moses." And Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are called servants of the Lord. Therefore the Apostle also begins thus: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ."

10 You have broken my bonds: to you I will sacrifice a victim of praise. Truly it is of great happiness so to go to the Lord that one has no defiled conscience. Whoever, being holy, dies his own death, although he be holy who has performed works of mercy, wrought signs, cast out demons, does not go to the Lord secure: his conscience shudders when he sees the Lord. But the martyr, even if he has sinned after baptism, yet washed by a second baptism, the baptism of martyrdom, goes secure to the Lord. You have broken my bonds. "For each one is bound fast by the chains of his own sins": but in my martyrdom you have broken the bonds of my sins, and out of the bonds you have plaited for me a crown of victory. "For where sin abounded, grace superabounded." To you I will sacrifice a victim of praise. After martyrdom, where does he sacrifice? In the land of the living. I will sacrifice, he says, to you a sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? Surely not a goat, or a calf? Those were Jewish things, and they have passed away. I will sacrifice to you a victim of praise. This is the praise of the martyrs. For just as the martyrs praise the Lord purely in the land of the living, so too the monks, who day and night sing psalms to the Lord, ought to have the same purity as the martyrs: since indeed they too are martyrs. For what the angels do in the heavens, this the monks do on earth.

11 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the sight of all his people. What are the prayers of the martyrs? What are the prayers of the saints? "I will hold you," he says, "and I will not let you go." I will adore, he says, the Lord, whom, reading in the Gospel, I found crucified, and in the heavens I see reigning with the angels. In the sight of all his people. Read Daniel.

Homily 41, on Psalm 119

1 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.

2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

5 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:

6 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:

7 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.

8 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.

9 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?

10 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?

11 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. 12 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?

13 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?

14 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. 15 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.

16 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!

17 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. 18 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.

19 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.

20 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:

21 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.

22 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.

23 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. 24 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.

25 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.

26 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.

Homily 42, on Psalm 127

1 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). 2 Blessed are all who fear the Lord. Those who fear the Lord, what reward do they have? What crown? Let us see what praise they have, what reward. Blessed are you, and it shall be well with you. I have already spoken about blessedness; I am asking what this blessedness is: the one who fears the Lord, what blessedness does he have? Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your sons like young olive shoots around your table. I think that, with Christ favoring us, we all fear the Lord. Then do we not have this blessedness? For it is written that whoever fears the Lord has this blessedness: Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house, your sons like young olive shoots around your table. So then, is the man who has one son, and the man who has two, not blessed? For what does it say? Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. Unless we have so many sons that they encircle our table, will we not have the blessedness of the one who fears the Lord? Isaac did not have this blessedness: for he had two sons, one of them utterly wicked, Esau, for whom it would have been far better had he never been born. But he had one son, Jacob: so then did he not have the blessedness? because one son could not encircle the table. Virgins, then, do not fear the Lord?

3 For what is said, that the one who fears the Lord should understand blessedness? Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house; your sons like young olive shoots around your table. John did not have this blessedness, both Johns, the evangelist as much as the baptist: for each of them was a virgin. Paul did not have this blessedness, who says: 'I wish, moreover, that all were as I am.' You see, then, that wife and sons must be understood spiritually; otherwise, unless we understand them spiritually, the angels do not have this blessedness, because they do not have sons. Let us return, therefore, to the order of the reading. 4 Blessed are all who fear the Lord. Just as no one can say 'The Lord is my portion' except the one who has no other portion in the world, so the one who fears anything else outside the Lord does not fear the Lord. Indeed, the Savior himself says: 'Do not fear those who can kill the body, but fear him who can kill both body and soul in hell.' You see, then, that whoever does not fear the Lord fears some other thing outside the Lord. The one who fears the Lord, what signs does he have? Those who walk in his ways. There are many ways, and many ways lead to one way. Indeed, it is also said in Jeremiah: 'Stand in the ways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and you will find the way, and you will walk in it.' See what it says, Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and you will find the one way, and walk in it. See how through many ways we come to one way. This is also said in the gospel in other words, under another meaning of the parable, concerning that merchant who had many pearls, who sold them, and bought one most precious pearl. What it says is this: Stand in the ways, that is, have very many pearls. Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord.

5 Beautifully it says eternal, lest we should think that at the coming of Christ the law and the prophets were brought to an end. But see what it says. Stand in the ways, in the law and the prophets. Stand in the ways; do not so believe in the one way that you abandon the many ways; but stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord. Ask the paths of the Lord, what Jeremiah said, Isaiah, Ezekiel, what the rest of the prophets said. Ask the paths. It is better said in Greek τρίβους (tribous): for a path (semita) is so called from the fact that it is worn (trita) by the heel of those walking. And what is said is this: Ask the paths, that is τρίβους (tribous), which the foot of the Lord wore down: seeing that the Lord too walked in them. But when you have asked for the eternal paths of the Lord, and through those paths you have found the one way, which says 'I am the way and the life and the truth,' walk in it. See the mysteries of the scriptures: see in the simple words of the scriptures very many sacred meanings, in the ways and paths, in the law and the prophets. It did not say, walk, but, stand: do not abandon the law nor the prophets. Yet when you have found those ways, through these ways walk in this one way.

6 You will eat the labors of your hands. Many, not understanding, have interpreted this passage otherwise: 'You will eat the labors of your fruits.' Indeed the Latin copies have it thus: You will eat the labors of your fruits. But we read it written thus in the Hebrew: You will eat the labors of your hands. For who eats the labors of fruits? Surely it ought to be understood the other way around, that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of his hands. For it is understood the other way around. For it can rather be said that someone eats the fruit of his labors, and not the labors of fruits. Since, therefore, it is written thus in the Hebrew, You will eat the labors of your hands, I think that in Greek too the Seventy translators translated this passage well. For in the Hebrew tongue the hand is called IAD; but in this passage it does not have IAD, but CAPH. And CAPH is translated καρπός (karpos)—not καρπός in the sense of fruit, but some part of the hand: seeing that καρπός in Greek means the joints (ἄρθρα, arthra). This we have said concerning the translation. You will eat, therefore, the labors of your hands. 'Whatever a man sows, this also will he reap.' Behold the man, and his works. So then we too will eat the labors of our hands. In the hands, works are understood. You will eat the labors of your hands. Someone may say:

7 So then, are we going to eat after the resurrection? For this is said of the blessed man, You will eat the labors of your hands. I say this plainly, that man is composed of two substances, that is, of soul and body. The soul is immortal, but the body is mortal. What is mortal must of necessity have mortal food also; but what is immortal, that is, the soul, which is immortal, must have immortal food also. Do you want to know that the soul too has its own food? The Lord and Savior says it, when he was hungry. What does he say? 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me.' Do you want to know what food the soul has? The prophet too says to us: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' For just as the body, unless it receives its food, dies: so also the soul, unless it receives spiritual food, dies. Why do I say all this? Because some are accustomed to say: I do not need the holy scripture, it is enough for me only to fear God. And we have said this for this reason: as there are foods for the body, so the holy scriptures are foods also for our soul.

8 Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house. Solomon says that he wished to take wisdom as his bride. He says also in another place concerning wisdom: 'Love her, and she will embrace you: encompass her, and she will keep you.' Let us too, therefore, take this wife; let us hold her in our embraces, let us never let her go from our bosom, let her never flee from our hands. If this wife is always in our embrace, we will make from her sons: not daughters, but sons. Indeed, it is said here too: Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. Could it not have said, your daughters? or could it not have said τὰ τέκνα σου (ta tekna sou), so that both men and women might be understood? But see what it says, your sons. He who has wisdom as his wife does not make from her daughters, but sons. He has nothing soft, nothing dainty, nothing tender, nothing effeminate in his mind. Do you suppose it is for some other reason that the saints are written to have had not daughters, but sons? Let us read Genesis: for there the order of the generations is preserved. Holy Abraham had Sarah as his wife, had Hagar as his concubine, had afterward Keturah. From two wives he begets sons, he makes no daughters. Let us come to Isaac. Isaac too makes two sons, he has no daughters.

9 For he was holy, and had in himself nothing soft and tender and effeminate, but all manly and firm. Blessed Jacob has twelve patriarchs as sons; and he has one daughter by the name of Dinah, which is translated cause, quarrel, strife. Indeed he had one daughter, and twelve sons; and on account of one daughter such great wars arise in Shechem. Jacob had never said: 'I am afraid, you have made me hateful.' He speaks to Levi and Simeon: 'Levi and Simeon, let my soul not come into their counsel.' Why? because as men they wished to plead the cause of a woman. Why have I said all this? Because the saints do not have daughters, but have only sons. I tell you a new thing, new to those who do not know it; but for those who read the scriptures, and read them diligently, not new, but the very thing they know. Jacob had twelve sons as patriarchs: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Levi, Issachar, Asher, and the rest up to twelve. Read in the account of the generation, and you will never find that any of those twelve great patriarchs made a daughter, but all of them sons. I will tell you one, lest perhaps you forget. Asher had a daughter, Sarah. Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter: so among the twelve patriarchs one patriarch had only one daughter. Why have I said all this? So that we ought to understand sons and daughters in the scriptures spiritually.

10 Your wife like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house. Like a fruitful vine. A fruitful vine has very many clusters, so also our wife, that is, wisdom our wife, who is the bride. Indeed, it is written in another place: 'Come my sister, my bride.' Lest in the fact that it had said, bride, you should understand something shameful, sister is joined, so that all shameful love may be excluded. Come my sister: for the love is holy, and therefore I call you sister. And my bride: therefore I call you bride, so that I may have a wife, and from you make many sons, many sons like clusters from a vine. Just as a vine has various clusters, and there is indeed one root, but it spreads its tendrils far and wide, here and there, and the tendrils themselves have their own fruits, and in the fruits themselves are the clusters, and one cluster is larger, another smaller, some grapes are larger, others smaller; so also from wisdom, which is our wife, provided that we never let her go, many clusters are born, that is, very many virtues, holy thoughts, splendid works. Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. We read in another place: 'And wine gladdens the heart of man.' We read also in the Song of Songs: 'Come, brothers, drink and be inebriated.' And wine which gladdens the heart of man. This fleshly wine does not gladden the heart of man, but overwhelms it, and makes it mad.

11 Indeed, it is written that those who are powerful should not drink wine. The apostle too writes that we ought not to drink wine and eat flesh. Again it is said to us: And wine gladdens the heart of man. But it speaks of a spiritual wine, which, if anyone drinks it, he is immediately inebriated. All of you, that you might let go of your possessions and your parents and your children and your kinfolk, drank wine, and being inebriated for Christ began to be mad. Does it not seem to you to be drunkenness, does it not seem to you to be spiritual madness, to despise delights, to seek out squalor, to flee the cities, to pursue the deserts, to know no affections, to ignore the nearness of the flesh, and to know Christ alone? Indeed, the apostles were inebriated with this wine, and therefore it is said of them: 'They are full of new wine.' For they had not been inebriated from the old law, but from the gospel. Noah too, I think, was inebriated in this way with this wine. Your sons like young olive shoots. To nothing else are our sons compared except to young olive shoots. It did not say, to the old olive tree, but to the young olive. Just as there too, concerning the drunkenness of the apostles, it does not speak of old wine, but of new wine, so here too it says young olive shoots:

12 young olive shoots, which are wholly green in the youth of the gospel, young olive shoots full of light. Oil has this nature, that it seasons food, that it provides fuel for light, that it restores an anointed body wearied by a long journey, as it were, to its former toil and to health. Indeed, whoever is weary, and is anointed, as it were recovers his former vigor. Do you think that wine and oil are named here without a reason? It could not have said honey, nor other aromatic spices, nor another tree, but only the vine and the olive. These are the remedies of our life, the vine and the olive, wine and oil. In wine, severity; in oil, mercy. Indeed, that man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, who had been wounded, the Samaritan, that is, the guardian, poured into him nothing except wine and oil. Wine, the severity of the precepts, astringent wine; so that whatever there is of bad humor, it may burn out and consume. But since human frailty cannot bear the truth—'for if you should mark iniquities, Lord, Lord, who shall endure it?' for if the Lord should be only just, we cannot live—therefore to his justice, that is, to the wine, the oil of mercy has been added. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. We have already spoken much, let us hasten to the end. May the Lord bless you out of Zion. Out of this Zion?

13 And how does another prophet say 'Zion shall be plowed like a field'? The Lord also says: 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets, and stone those who are sent to you.' Indeed, when the Lord had drawn near to Jerusalem, and had seen it, he wept. But when he wept over it, surely he wept over it because it was about to fall, as though about to perish. Indeed, what does he say? 'Rise, let us go from here.' And in another place, what does he say? 'Your house shall be left to you desolate.' So then, in what it says, May the Lord bless you out of Zion, it does not mean this Zion, which we see to be desolate. The gates themselves and the field itself and the ruins themselves signify the wrath of God. Even if we do not know it, the very eyes cry out the wrath of the Lord. May the Lord bless you out of Zion. Zion is translated watchtower, Jerusalem is translated vision of peace. If our soul has a watchtower, if it is on high, if it thinks not of earthly things, but of things sublime: if our soul has the vision of peace, that is, if Christ, who is true peace, dwells in it, he himself will bless us. If Christ dwells in us, we too will be Zion, and we too will be Jerusalem.

14 And may you see the sons of your sons. I am speaking to you. If by my discourse I instruct you, I have seen my sons: if you instruct others, I have seen the sons of my sons. Let us pray, therefore, to the Lord, that we may have sons, may have grandsons, and may always have much offspring. Let us hasten to make such sons: this union is holy. I tell you a new thing: without the embrace of a wife many such sons are born. Peace upon Israel. Israel is translated, a man seeing God. See, therefore, what is said. Peace upon Israel: upon those who have a mind seeing God. If my mind has the vision of God, if I always see Christ, I will not see others. Whoever has Christ in himself, has peace in himself. 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Although there are many persecutions, although there are many who persecute, yet in whomever Christ dwells, that one always has Christ.

Homily 43, on Psalm 128

1 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). 2 They often attacked me from my youth — let Israel now say — they often attacked me from my youth. Two things are said: both that they often attacked me, and that they attacked me from my youth. If I, for example, at forty years of age, in the middle of my life, should begin to serve the Lord, I cannot say, "They have attacked me from my youth. But what do I say? "They have slain me from my youth, they have wounded me from my youth, they have trampled me from my youth. But the one who begins from boyhood to serve the Lord, and is often attacked by the devil and his angels, and yet is not conquered — what does this man say? "They often attacked me from my youth: and indeed they could not prevail against me. "An athlete is not crowned unless he has competed lawfully" — unless he has taken a blow, unless his face is bruised, unless blood has been spilled from his face. The bruise earns the crown, the pain earns the joy. They often attacked me from my youth. Let the virgin of the Lord speak this little verse, let the monk speak it, who has begun from a tender age to serve the Lord. But I, who have begun to serve the Lord at forty or fifty years of age, how can I say, "They often attacked me from my youth"? Let the virgin therefore say this, let the monk who is whole in body and spirit say it.

3 And what does he say? Why did they often attack me from my youth? Let someone say: O monk, how did the demons and the devil attack you? Those who assailed me seemed indeed to be men: but I understood the devil within the men. When men persecute us, therefore, let us not be angry at the persecutor, but let us feel compassion for them and lament them: for it is another who persecutes within the persecutors. If a man possessed by a demon, who has a demon, should come and strike me with his fist and hit me with his heel, do I get angry at him? He strikes with his fist, and I weep and lament the one striking: for I see that he is more grievously struck by the one working within him than I am by his hand. As often, therefore, as we suffer anything and endure any temptations, let us understand that it is that one, and those, who breed temptations for us within men. Let someone say: Prove this very thing from the Scriptures: for we ought not to say anything unless it is furnished and confirmed from the Scriptures. Judas was a traitor, but Satan entered into him, and he himself betrayed within the traitor.

4 Potiphar's wife at the time when she seized Joseph her servant — the mistress the servant, the very rich woman the poor little man, the citizen the foreigner — she was holding Joseph, but the holy man understood, in the hands of the woman, that it was the devil holding him back. Why do I say all this? So that when we suffer something from men, we may not be angry at men, but may lament them, and may see that plotter who works within them. 5 They often attacked me from my youth: and indeed they could not prevail against me. They attacked me with base thoughts, they attacked me with anger. I gave in to the thoughts: if I gave in to the temptations, if I did something that the thought was driving me to, if anger overcame me and I did injury to my brother, I cannot say "and indeed they could not prevail against me": for they did prevail against me. Upon my back the sinners built. Carefully observe what the Scripture says. The holy man is an athlete, and "he is not crowned unless he has competed lawfully." For you know that there are many kinds of athletes: for there are some athletes, but others are like all-in wrestlers (pammacharii), some contend at the discus, and others are runners, that is, those who run in the stadium. Indeed, the Apostle too says that he runs, so that he may reach the crown. And what does he say in another place? "Forgetting the things that are behind, I stretch myself forward to the things that are before." See, therefore, what the Scripture says. Upon my back the sinners were building. Thus I always ran, and ran so hard, that my adversary might never get ahead of me, but might always be found behind my back. He never came before my eyes, for he could not bear the light of my eyes; but he always pursued that part which is blind, which has no eyes. Upon my back the sinners were building. Whenever anyone disparages his brother, that man is building behind the back. Upon my back the sinners were building: but I did not see their snares. They were building behind my back: and I with my eyes was gazing on paradise. They were contriving snares against me, and I was longing to see the crown.

6 They prolonged their iniquity. What did he mean by "They prolonged their iniquity"? If I sin, and after my sin I do penance, my iniquity is short, not long. But if I sin, as often as I sin, so often does the cord of my sins grow longer. Whence it is also said in another place: "The cords of sinners have surrounded me." See what he says: The cords of sinners have surrounded me. And in another place it is written: "Each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins." See what he says: Each one is bound fast by the cords of his own sins. These cords of sins cannot be woven unless I have had many sins. If I commit one sin, it is not so much a cord as it is, so to speak, a single thread. But if it is a single thread, it is quickly broken, and cannot hold and bind. But if there are many sins, and they have prolonged their iniquities, out of many sins, as out of many threads, a cord is made, and it binds, and is not quickly broken. Why have I said all this? Because we read in this little verse, They prolonged their iniquity.

7 The just Lord has cut the necks of sinners. See what he says. He did not say, "he has cut down sinners": but if he had said this, no one could be saved, for we are all sinners. But what does he say? The just Lord has cut the necks of sinners: those who are both sinners and proud; since "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Therefore he cuts the necks of sinners.