Works (CSEL) 14 part 24/28

Whence also that verse, which today was chanted in the responsory of the psalm, contributes much to our assertion: 'I waited patiently for the Lord, and he had respect unto me.' Whom the Lord regards, he saves. Finally, in the Lord's passion, when Peter wavered in word, not in mind—though Peter's word, wavering, is more faithful than the doctrine of many—Christ regarded him, and Peter wept, by which he washed away his own error. Thus he whom he seemed to deny with his voice, he confessed with his tears. 'The nations were troubled, the kingdoms were bowed down; the Most High gave his voice, and the earth was moved.' At the coming of the Lord and Saviour, the adversary powers with their legion were troubled, bidden to go out from human bodies, and they entreated that they might be sent into the swine.

The most wicked powers being troubled, it was necessary that the worshippers of idols should be troubled, and that the kingdoms of sin should also be bowed down. For grievous was the kingdom which had subjugated to itself in grievous servitude the minds of all sinners; for 'he that committeth sin is the servant of sin.' But the kingdom of sin is the kingdom of death, which for a long time prevailed over the whole world. Whence also the apostle says: 'But death reigned from Adam unto Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.' The truth came, the figure ceased; life came, the reign of death vanished; the remission of sins came, and the bonds of sin were loosed.

Before, even lighter offenses were bound by the fetters of death, but after the coming of the saving Lord even graver crimes were remitted. The kingdoms of the spiritual wickednesses which are in heavenly places were bowed down, then, because the worship of idols and the allurement of sin began to be diminished by the preaching of evangelical doctrine. Faithlessness was bowed down, after faith began to reign in the breasts of the nations. The kingdoms of sin are bowed down, when it is read: 'Let not sin reign in your mortal body.' The Lord bowed down all the kingdoms of faithlessness by his voice, saying: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.'

This voice the Most High gave, and all the peoples of the nations followed, fleeing the harsh kingdoms of sin and the cruelty of everlasting death and the intolerable servitude of all disgraceful deeds, since he promised rest to the weary, remission to the captives, liberty to those in bondage, and, the iron yoke of the Babylonian king being shaken off, would substitute his own sweet yoke upon the necks of the faithful, lest the enemy should again bind with the chains of his iniquity the empty necks of the Gentiles. For Christ frees those whom he binds, and absolves those whom he constrains. Finally, 'he who is called a servant by the Lord is the Lord's freedman, and he who is called free is the servant of Christ.' And therefore Paul glories in his bonds, saying: 'Paul, a prisoner of Jesus.'

What under others is reproach, under Christ is glory. The Lord gave his voice in his passion, and all the elements trembled, all the earth was moved, that the rites of the Gentiles might be dissolved, that the earth might become the Lord's and the fullness thereof, as it is written; that the auguries of the faithless might cease, and the knowledge of faith and the zeal of devotion might abolish the sacrifice of impiety. The Lord gives his voice daily, and it resounds in the hearts of individuals, so that everything earthly may fall away from the affection of him who rightly believes, and every inner sense of the mind may be moved—from error, from the corruption of luxury and the dissolution, to the knowledge of the heavenly sacraments and the zeal of chastity; from wickedness to virtue by pious confession.

He calls them moved, then, who are upon the earth, either because all men were earth in whom there was earthly corruption, since they knew not how to lift up and raise the eyes of their minds to the height of heavenly grace, nor could they say: 'The God of hosts is with us,' with whom there was none save the kindler of falling and the author of error. But after the voice of the Lord resounded in the Gospel, the prophet dares to say: 'The God of hosts is with us.' Well does he say: 'The God of hosts is with us,' who has believed that the Virgin received in her womb and bore. We too dare to say: 'The God of hosts is with us,' after Emmanuel, that is, God, began to be with us. Where, then, Emmanuel is, there the God of hosts is with us. 'The God of Jacob is our protector.'

Let us therefore imitate the patriarch Jacob—his fragrance, his virtue, his labour. For just as we ought to do the works of Abraham, that we may rightly merit to be called his sons, so too we ought to undertake the exercises and contests of holy Jacob, that the God of Jacob may be believed to be our God. For if he should not recognize in us the works of Jacob, or—since we cannot equal him—the pursuits of his work and faith, how will he, as the God of Jacob, deign to help us? While he says these things, behold, through the Holy Spirit a present image of things to come was poured into him, and seeing the peace, diffused throughout the whole world out of the grievous turmoil of wars, at the coming of the saving Lord, he cries out to all, saying: 'Come and see the works of the Lord, what prodigies he hath set upon the earth.'

'Come' pertains to the assembly, 'behold' to attention and the zeal for knowing the truth. 'Behold,' he says, 'the works of the Lord,' full of wonders, in which there are signs of mighty powers. For 'terata' in Greek are called 'things to be marveled at' in Latin. Therefore you should not receive the works of the Lord as though they were portents of dread, but as full of wonder. Splendidly 'he has set upon the earth,' that is, into the earth: 'Putting an end to wars unto the ends of the earth, he shall break the bow and shatter the weapons, and burn the shields with fire.' And truly, before the Roman empire was spread abroad, not only did the kings of individual cities war against one another, but even the Romans themselves were frequently worn down by civil wars.

Marius fought against Cinna, and on both sides Roman blood was shed. Sulla rose up and again stirred civil wars against the victorious Marius. Lepidus and Sertorius showed themselves rebels against the Roman empire. Caesar pursued Pompey and aroused the fury of the Gauls against Roman arms. When the elder Pompey was overcome, he warred down the younger in the regions of the Spains. Why should I speak of the triumvirs, who from enemies became friends, and from friends advanced again into hostile uprisings, the seas too at the battle of Actium stained with the blood of Romans? Whence it came about that, through weariness of civil wars, the Roman empire was conferred upon Julius Augustus, and so the internal battles were quieted.

And this availed unto this end, that the apostles might rightly be sent throughout the whole world, the Lord Jesus saying: 'Go, teach all nations.' To them indeed even kingdoms shut off by barbarian commotions were opened—India to Thomas, Persia to Matthew. Yet, that they might traverse more regions of the earth, at the rising of the Church He spread the power of the Roman empire over all the world, and composed the minds of those at variance and the divisions of lands by the gift of peace. All men, living under one earthly empire, learned to confess with faithful speech the empire of the one almighty God. Therefore 'he took away wars unto the ends of the earth,' which it is not doubtful has come to pass. But see whether he has taken away the wars of weakness, which are in the heart of the wavering.

For he who has passed beyond earthly things no longer says: 'without are fightings, within are fears,' but says: 'our conversation, however, is in heaven.' Pass therefore beyond the world, that you may begin to be above the world; for 'neperasai' means 'to pass over,' or, to say it more expressly, 'to ferry across.' The Lord therefore took away the wars which spiritual wickedness was stirring against us, and, the devil overcome, left us his peace. He broke the bow from which the fiery darts of the adversary were scattered, and burned with fire the shields of perfidy, that the shield of faith might remain inviolate. 'Be still,' he says, 'and see that I am the Lord.' The voice of the Lord after the wars are quieted is 'Be still,' that there may be no occupation of souls, lest the inrush of worldly disturbances overspread the eye of the inner mind.

'Be still,' he says, from errors; be still from disturbances; be still from sins, because everyone who sins has not seen God nor known him, as John the Evangelist said in his epistle. Be still therefore for the zeal of knowing the Godhead; be not occupied with earthly works. For this reason the king of the Egyptians commanded the number of bricks and the other burdens of the Jews to be increased, lest they should know God and be free for sacred worship, being offended at the voice of Moses and Aaron, holy men, who said: 'Let the people of God go, that we may go and serve the Lord our God.' 'I shall be exalted among the nations, and I shall be exalted in the earth.'

The Lord was sublime on high, that is, among the angels and archangels, among the patriarchs and prophets, who held sublime thoughts of him and did not liken him to earthly images and rough idols; but he was not sublime among the peoples of the nations, who seemed to seek their god in caves and the dwellings of caverns. Hence Magdalene is rebuked, who wept for Christ as for one dead and sought him as one buried in the tomb. Whence Christ says to her: 'Mary, why do you weep? Whom do you seek?' Is it perhaps one who could be carried away? She heard his voice and recognized him and wished to touch him, and the Lord said: 'Do not touch me'—whom you suppose to be dead; I am going to the Father.'

Do you marvel that you did not find in the tomb him whom the heavens await? Or perhaps she is rebuked because nothing touches Christ except perfect faith, just as the woman with the issue of blood touched him full of faith. Whence the Lord says: 'Someone has touched me; I perceive that power has gone forth from me.' By which saying she recognized in herself that she had been healed by the power going forth, and at once, conscious of her own deed, confessed that she herself had touched the Lord. Whence the Lord says: 'Your faith has made you whole; go in peace.' But the Lord was exalted in the earth, according to what he himself says: 'When I shall be exalted, I will draw all things to myself'; or because his will was done as in heaven, so also on earth. And he repeats, saying: 'The God of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our protector.'

Repetition is confirmation. Or because not only when he was born of the Virgin did God become with us, but also after the resurrection he himself said: 'Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the world'; to whom be honor and glory, perpetuity from the ages, both now and always and unto all ages of ages. Amen. EXPLANATION OF PSALM 47. Its title is this: 'A Psalm of a Canticle for the sons of Korah, on the second day of the week.' Good are the sons of Korah, and approved already in the preceding psalms, in that with fitting senses and thoughts agreeing with the pursuits of the virtues they composed within themselves a spiritual psaltery, and, intent with the ever-watchful gaze of mind upon the knowledge of the Godhead, were worthy to draw forth the secrets of the heavenly mysteries.

And therefore, since they had received the duty and office of psalms to be sung daily before the ark of the Lord, they seem to have been chosen so that they might specially receive the psalm of the canticle to be sung in concert on the second day of the week. For indeed those to whom it rightly seemed to have been committed to sing with their own voice of the ascension of the Lord rising from the dead—to these surely it was to be assigned to celebrate by their service and ministry the very day of the resurrection. For what is the second day of the week but the Lord's day, which followed the Sabbath? But the day of the Sabbath was later in the order of days, earlier in the sanctification of the Law.

But when the end of the Law came, which is Christ Jesus—for 'Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness to everyone who believes'—and by his resurrection sanctified the eighth day, the same day which is the eighth began to be the first, and the eighth which is the first, having from the order of number a prerogative and from the Lord's resurrection sanctity. Whence also in the Gospel we read of the 'second-first' Sabbath, which in Latin is called 'second-first.' For when the Lord's day, on which the Lord rose, began to take precedence, the Sabbath which was first began to be reckoned second after the first; for the first rest ceased, the second succeeded. Whence also the apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: 'On the day after, therefore, there remains a rest for the people of God. Let us hasten therefore to enter into that rest.'

True rest, therefore, is now not in the cessation of work, but in the time of the resurrection. And so those who kept the solemnity of the Sabbath according to the Law called it 'the one of the Sabbath,' as though there were one Sabbath and not another. We, who have put on a spiritual observance and desire to form our service after the likeness and rest of God, and to render our ministry in that heavenly city where there is no copy, no shadow, but the truth, call it 'the first of the Sabbath,' as it is written: 'In the evening of the Sabbath, which dawns toward the first of the Sabbath.' Nothing, however, is more beautiful, nothing more expressive. Before the resurrection he called it 'Sabbath'; after the resurrection he named it 'the first of the Sabbath.' John the Evangelist also says:

'On the first of the Sabbath came early Mary Magdalene, while it was yet dark'—darkness for the time, early for the grace. But these spoke more expressly according to the Gospel, as though the veil had been drawn back; David, however, set under the Law, both kept the moderation of due caution and did not suppress the mystery, so that he might declare the second of the Sabbath to be the Lord's day, whereby he might think the order of number kept for the Jews and might acknowledge the spiritual sacrament revealed. Let us hear, therefore, what he says who on the second of the Sabbath sings to God. 'Great,' he says, 'is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.' Is not God then everywhere great and to be praised?

He indeed is everywhere great and powerful, but a narrow mind does not grasp the greatness of his divine power and grace. The more, however, our knowledge draws near to God, the more excellent his majesty seems to us. Thus Thomas, who before said: 'Unless I shall see in his hands the marks of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe,' when he put his finger and recognized the evident tokens of the resurrection, marveling within himself at the grace of God, said: 'My Lord and my God.' Then therefore he most fully confessed his divinity and lordship, when he did not doubt that he had risen from the dead. Thus 'in Zion a hymn befits God, and to him a vow is paid in Jerusalem.'

What wonder, then, if in the heavenly city and in that supernal and ethereal place his power is proclaimed more vehemently? He added: 'spreading the exultation of the whole earth.' And truly he is called great who, over this earth, in which before the shoots of intolerable sins sprang up, where there was mourning, sadness, and groaning, spread exultation throughout the whole world. And so the conscience of men, which before, sunk in the gulfs of its own shameful deeds, mourned, now, through the indulgence of Christ and the remission of all sins, absolved from fear, rejoices. It is fitting, then, even if we understand it as we have said. But because in some old copies we have found:

'eurizō agalliamati pasēs tēs gēs,' which in Latin means 'with a good root of exultation of the whole earth,' we perceive indeed the same sense, namely that the divine gifts of God the Father are praised in us, who gave us an exultation founded upon a good root, that is, God Jesus, the true and most fruitful Vine, from which the heavenly sacraments have flowed, in which is perpetual and lasting gladness, in that by them every sin is washed away and the inner conscience is cleansed; and we recognize the expression to fit, because we who exult in Christ rejoice with a well-rooted exultation. For the gladness of the world is temporal, but the gladness of him who rejoices in the Lord is perpetual. 'On Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great king.'

'God is known in its strongholds, when he shall receive it.' He clearly expressed why there should be exultation of the whole earth: because the Lord Jesus gathered to himself a Church out of sinners. And so those who before were on the sides of the north, that is, allies and clinging to the devil, to whom it is said: 'Arise, north wind, that the south wind may come,' became faithful to Christ. For these are they of whom it is said: 'Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion.' And so they became Mount Zion through the grace of Christ and the sacrament of baptism. The intelligible north's heavy blasts, by which it stirred up the harshest tempests and storms in human affections—he began to lose his own who used to vex others.

He had overturned the whole nation of the Jews, held all the nations subdued under his sway; they were his 'sides,' that is, they breathed in agreement with him. Just as we call the 'sides' of a prince his bodyguards and companions, just as a woman is the 'side' of a man, in that she is joined to him by compliant fellowship, so they were the 'sides' of the devil who did his will. These, therefore, are now Mount Zion, who gaze upon the eternal God and themselves attend by night and by day. Behold, I pray, Paul, when he persecuted the Church of the Lord, was a 'side of the north'; behold now, when he is read in the Church, a watchtower mountain, through whom we know and see the glory of Christ. And because the Greek said 'mountains'—that is, 'orē'—see how the servants of Christ are mountains.

There are mountains round about it, in which is the Church of the Lord, which is the city of the great King. At the same time, because the Lord suffered according to the tract of heaven—'en Krania' (in the place of the skull)—which was a place on the side of the north. There too is Mount Zion, there the Jerusalem which is on earth. See whether this too may seem expressed: that the congregation of the people of God, which was joined to the north through fault, has been made the Church of Christ through grace, so that it may now be called not the synagogue, but the Church of Christ.

And because the remnant of the Jews has been saved through the election of grace, in them God is known—in Peter, Paul, John, James, who, as weighty and lofty men, are like the foundations and summits of the Church: like weighty foundations, whom no heavy blasts of the north have shaken, but who have kept the foundation of faith immovable, lest the whole Church should totter; and lofty, as it were summits, who have raised up its peak with the towers of their virtue.

For just as the founder is recognized in his works and the builder in his buildings, so that, even if you do not hear his name, yet from the quality of the works you may discern the craftsman—and what wonder concerning human things, when of the eternal Creator himself, who is not seen by us, we yet understand his invisible things through the things that are made?—so in the lofty and great houses, which houses we are, if we hold firm the foundation of liberty and glory unto the end, God is recognized as the indweller, as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. For he himself is the true God, who founded such men by the instruction of his precepts.

Therefore, just as he showed himself the eternal God in those men, so, he says, when he shall receive the city of the great King, when its strongholds shall have heard of his reception and thought it to be carried out, lest they should degenerate from the firmness of that house built upon the rock. 'Behold,' he says, 'seeing this, the kings of the earth were gathered together and passed over into one; they themselves seeing then were astonished.' Good kings, who are able to offer themselves as rulers of their own body, flowing from the very origin and instruction of the patriarch Abraham, who taught that sin can be overcome—therefore the true King, who knew not to be subject to disgraceful deeds, in whom the enticement of fault and error could not reign. Whence also it was said to such a man by the sons of Heth: 'You are a king from God among us.'

Such kings of the earth, therefore, who hold command over the flesh, were gathered together, that they might be of one heart and of one spirit, as we read that 'the multitude of believers had one soul and one heart, and there was not any separation among them.' These are they who 'passed over into one'—not so much a place as the same affection and purpose; for to one approved it is said: 'Pass over, recline.' For it is no mean virtue to pass over from base things to honorable, from earthly to eternal, and to change the habit of a carnal life and abolish all its practice, to assume new ways and bend the whole condition of one's old manner of life; and deservedly it is said to him: 'If you pass through the water, I am with you.' God is with him who passes over, not with him who desists.

These, therefore, who within themselves were before at discord, when they came together into one in mind and zeal, peace being received, which 'made both one and dissolved the enmities in his own flesh by the destruction of the middle wall,' marveled either at him who is known in his strongholds, or that men should be so converted that those who before served the devil now should be enslaved to the Lord Jesus by the righteous devotion of service.

And because the kings of their own body, having experienced within themselves no slight labor—for it is neither easy nor a trifle to conquer the mind, to cut back desires, to tame the wantonness of the flesh, to root out luxury, which fought even against Paul, so as to bind him captive to the law of sin—just as they marveled at the grace in those who had advanced in virtue, so also they were moved with concern, lest anyone should slip back into vices, cast down from the higher summit of the virtues. For the human condition is prone and changeable in either direction, so that wherever it inclines, thither it leans and tends, whether to the pursuits of virtue or to the enticement of sins.

And therefore they were shaken with no slight emotion, so that trembling seized them out of fear, considering that which is written, that 'in the places of the impious the righteous groan.' Indeed, behold, I pray, Peter weeping most bitterly because error had crept upon him and had bent the strength of his mind by the lapse of bodily frailty, and was deservedly rebuked by Christ in a hidden way because he had dared to usurp constancy and had not considered his liable nature. And he indeed amended his error through grace, but Judas remained in his crime, persevered in groaning. He was righteous when he was joined to the number of the apostles; but because he was supplanted by the devil, he now bewails and groans in the places of the impious, because from grace he relapsed into punishment.

Therefore, when men of this kind fall—such as was the traitor Judas, or Saul, who had been taken by the Lord his God unto the kingdom—even brave men trembled. Considering then with how great a struggle one comes to the end, how great the bruisings of the righteous, how great the anxieties, what an adversary, how great the contention with long-lasting toil, how great the bitterness of a sterner purpose, what bonds of continence, what scourges of conscience, they were no slightly troubled, lest anyone should yield either to such labors of a more austere life or to its sorrows. For there are bitter and heavy sorrows there, that is, in the Church, in that city of the great King there are sorrows as of one giving birth, until Christ be formed in us.

For Paul was not without sorrow when he saw among the foolish Galatians the slower progress of his teaching, and therefore he said: 'My little children, of whom I again travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you.' The Lord also testifies in the Gospel that the pains of one giving birth are heavy, when he says: 'A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the sorrow, for joy that a man is born into this world.' Great, therefore, is the labor that anyone should acquire Christ for himself, lest, without a helmsman, like a ship he should toss in the swell of this world. Indeed the apostles were sad when Christ recalled that he was about to return to the Father, because they thought themselves forsaken, their guide absent.

Christ is joy, he himself is also the child whom she brings forth—he who has received the Spirit of salvation in the womb of his mind. He who has given birth and nourished exults; he who is in travail is shaken and pierced. It is good that you both bring forth and nourish him. Do not boil the lamb in his mother's milk, lest it be said to you: 'Woe to those who are with child and giving suck.' For thus was Christ born of Mary, that you may acknowledge him, as the ox knew its owner, and may know that he himself created you and possessed your forefathers. Do not nourish him as a little one, but you must know him to be adored as true and perfect God from true and perfect God. For thus the Magus adored him, so as not to boil the lamb in its mother's milk, but to venerate him as eternal God.

Indeed, in order to find him, he looked to heaven; therefore he did not seek on earth him whom the star shining from heaven pointed out. For this reason Mary did not 'travail' him, but 'brought him forth,' because she knew that both the Lord and salvation were to be generated of her, as she herself testifies, saying: 'My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.' There, therefore, are sorrows as of one giving birth. It is a sorrow to bring forth, it is a sorrow to nourish him whom from the beginning you ought to have perfect. And therefore very many are heavily bruised, as the following little verse signifies: 'With a vehement wind you shall break the ships of Tarshish.'

For while the servants of God desire to attain to the perfection of faith, they macerate their body by chastising it more severely and reducing it into the ministry of servitude, lest those who had already been approved should be reprobated. And this they do in the Holy Spirit, strong and vehement. For there is a Spirit of counsel and of power, so that by excessive abstinence they dissolve their body, whereby they empty out all its pleasures, so that it may be said to them: 'Be strengthened, you slack hands and loosened knees.' For when anyone has been loosed from this earthly framework, then he rises stronger to eternal life. May I be a liar, unless Scripture confirms it, which says: 'To be dissolved and to be with Christ is much better'—he who is dissolved begins to be with Christ—and elsewhere:

'The time of my dissolution is at hand.' He, therefore, who has meditated upon dissolving himself through abstinence, will not be able to fear the day of his passion. And he rightly says 'a vehement wind,' since he is about to speak of ships. But he spoke of 'ships' from bodies, which are moved by the wandering swell of diverse passions and are quickly submerged, unless they have a helmsman. Whence also elsewhere he says: 'Those who go down to the sea in ships.'