Works (CSEL) 16 part 26/34

Since we have in our hands the cross of Christ, which the prophet admonishes is to be preferred above gold and topaz, which recalls and corrects from all error and fault. For who of the righteous would not be eager for solace in the death of Christ, for fellowship in his resurrection? Who would not bend his step back, when he hears that all his former sins are forgiven him? For this is what used to recall many from the zeal of conversion—that, conscious of their own offences, they presumed on no hope of pardon, and supposed that, the holier the precepts of the Church, the more without pardon the sins were. And therefore he says in the eighth verse: 'Therefore I was being corrected unto all thy commandments; every unjust way I have hated' (Ps 118:128). Rightly was he being corrected, since he loved;

for love covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8). See how much it covers, how much it corrects: 'Charity is patient, is kind; charity envies not, deals not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeks not her own, is not provoked; thinks no evil, rejoices not over iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity never falls away' (1 Cor 13:4-8). Among the lesser things he set three as perfect—hope, faith, charity—but he called charity the greater (1 Cor 13:13), and rightly; for charity hopes all things, believes all things. Since therefore hope and faith are in charity, there is no doubt that charity is the greater. And well did the prophet answer himself. For above he said:

'The law of the Lord is unblamable, converting the soul' (Ps 18:8); if the law converts the soul, surely he who loves it is a lover of the law. Then in this very hundred-and-eighteenth psalm he set down first: 'Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord' (Ps 118:1). If he is undefiled who walks in the law of God, surely he is converted who loves the law of God. Therefore, if the law makes a man undefiled, rightly does charity cover a multitude of sins, since the fullness of the law is charity (Rom 13:10). 'Every unjust way,' he says, 'I have hated.' If he who loves the precepts of justice does those things which he loves, surely he who hates iniquity does not do what he abhors. And not undeservedly is he corrected unto all the precepts of the Lord, who hates every way of iniquity;

for unless you hate every way of iniquity, you cannot be corrected in all the commandments of God. For it can happen that someone refrains from the horror of cruelty, yet, beguiled by the slippery love of a harlot and having entered the byways of youthful incontinence, is unable to recall the step once impressed; for many do the more enticing vices deceive, and on the other hand a grim and excessively severe cruelty turns very many away from itself. But youth is freer toward love, more incautious toward falling, more fragile toward weakness, and harder toward correction. Another restrains himself from luxury, but is snatched away by the desire of avarice. For very often sins are of such a kind that, if you avoid the one, you fall into the other, and the use of nature abets the weakness.

You have hated luxury as it were in favour of frugality, but under the zeal of frugality the desire of getting often creeps in. To avarice itself plunder is subject. And how much more tolerable to pour out one's own than to seize what belongs to another! There are those who, fearing to diminish anything from their own estate, refuse even to the needy the expense of relief, and account mercy a loss. There are those who, shunning ignoble obscurity, are driven by the blast of worldly ambition and, like shaken reeds, are carried hither and thither, uncertain. There are also those who, while they follow the rank of their ancestors,

as if content with a manner of life befitting them, do not even think their fathers' errors are to be shunned, so that they do not judge that faithlessness is to be exchanged for faith—although to change one's purpose for the better is not levity but virtue, not fault but grace. Another, allured by the circus games or by theatrical pleasures, or occupied with other vanities, does not frequent the church; another is delighted by the quiet of the countryside, and for that reason his approach to the church is rare. And so, by different practice, both run together into the same error of irreverence. But he who hates every way of iniquity is corrected and amended in all things. And well did he set down 'the way of iniquity'; for he the more easily avoids iniquity who has not entered upon its ways. XVII. THE LETTER PHE.

Phe is the seventeenth letter, which in Latin signifies 'I have erred' or 'I have opened the mouth.' Rightly therefore is the tearful series of the psalm subjoined to this letter: 'Look upon me and have mercy on me, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant' (Ps 118:132-135), that the light of heavenly mercy might rise upon the people who were in the shadow of death, that Christ might come, the remission of sins, the redemption of captives, the support of those who labour. But because his coming seemed too late to those who longed for it: 'My eyes,' he says, 'have drawn forth streams of waters' (Ps 118:136). In the Lamentations of Jeremiah too the more tearful series is under this letter: 'Sion has spread forth her hands; there is none to comfort her' (Lam 1:17).

She received a worthy recompense, that she who neglected to hear him who spread forth his hands and to come under his wings, should afterwards herself spread forth her hands and be unable to find one to comfort her. For although before the Lord's advent Jeremiah seems to bewail the captivity of the Jews inflicted upon them by the Babylonians, yet, foreseeing rather by the prophetic spirit that captivity by which the spiritual Babylonian subjected them to the chains of perpetual error and, banishing them, exiles from their household virtue, from the state of their fathers' devotion, afflicted them with the exile of a far-off wandering—he laments with pitiable grief.

For there is no truer fatherland than faith, which made those who were far off to be near, and joined strangers and pilgrims by the right of the heavenly city, as it is written: 'Therefore you are now no more strangers and pilgrims, but you are fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God' (Eph 2:19). Elsewhere too Jeremiah says under this letter: 'All thy enemies have opened their mouth against thee; they have hissed and gnashed with their teeth, they have said: We have swallowed her up; yet this is the day which we looked for, we have found it, we have seen it' (Lam 2:16). And here likewise the people of the Jews opened their mouth against Christ. Just as you read in the twenty-first psalm concerning his passion, that 'they opened their mouth' speaking evil (Ps 21:14). You recognize the lot of a worthy recompense.

that they themselves should endure such things from their own enemies, and that the spiritual sinner, the devil, should gnash his teeth against them, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet 5:8). These therefore did not say: 'Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us for a prey to their teeth' (Ps 123:6), because they thought there was nothing to hope for from the Lord. Therefore the devil found the destruction of them which he was presuming upon. He swallowed them up, since the offended shepherd was wanting who might draw from the lion's mouth the legs of the sheep or a piece of cartilage (Amos 3:12). They were unwilling to follow, unwilling to hear. Therefore, when the shepherd departed, he seized their steps and ears in his jaws, because they did not receive the face of the saints and did not give mercy to the noble. As Jeremiah says for a third time under this letter in the Lamentations.

Who were the noble, except those who led this life not in obscurity, but in the light of holiness? And to all the needy indeed mercy is rightly owed, but a certain greater mercy stirs the affection of compassion when calamity has cast down some from among the rich and noble into the lowest state and the necessity of want. Jeremiah therefore weeps abundantly enough, inasmuch as he bewailed those lost by the sting of perpetual death; but David more moderately, as one who, grieving over the error rather than the death, did not despair of the remedy of correction, so that he might be saddened, not swallowed up. Finally, strengthened by the sobriety of repentance and provoked by the hope of pardon, he thus began: 'Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul has sought them out' (Ps 118:129).

It is a moral prayer, so that, since he was ashamed of his error, he might nevertheless approach God by the testimonies of his own compassion. This is to say: 'I, at the beginning of my speech, dare not utter my sins, nor lift up my eyes to thee, the living God; but thou, O Lord, hast provoked me to hope for pardon by the records of such great indulgences. Thy testimonies are wonderful, since in Abraham thou wast not offended by the lapse of youthful carelessness, but didst move him to leave the errors of the Chaldeans,

the kinship of his fathers, and, having called him forth, didst instruct him in the exercises of virtue; when the Hebrew people, turned away from the zeal of their fathers' nobility and preferring the vile foods of Egypt above divine gifts, thou didst not only free with the waves of the Red Sea made solid, but also didst carry up to glory with very many triumphs and didst grant the possession of a fruitful land for their rest. Cherished by thee in security, he forsook thee; pressed down by the bitterness of wars, he called upon thee, and earned that thou shouldst forget thy wrongs. Jesus Nave (Joshua) knew that thou hadst come as leader of the heavenly host for him. The triumphant people had offended thee, that Midian might lord it over them; it prayed to thee, that Midian might be conquered.

In Saul the king it did not obey thee, so that aliens triumphed over it; with David leading the way it served thee, so that it carried off the victory over the aliens. I too, a shepherd, did the malicious deed, and by confession of sin carried off pardon.' A most beautiful little verse, therefore, for the exhortation of martyrs. Finally, the prophetic soul thus advances unto the better, while it believes the testimony of God to be wonderful and, because it believed, sought it out with diligent search. Do you seek the advance? Recognize it from those verses which follow. 'The declaration of thy words enlightens me, and gives understanding to little ones' (Ps 118:130). In the Gospel, when John sent his disciples to the Lord Jesus, he said: 'Art thou he that is to come, or do we look for another?' (Matt 11:3).

Jesus answered that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear (Matt 11:5); for he had signified through the prophet Isaiah that this would be the testimony of his coming (Isa 35:5-6). These things therefore which he announced through the prophets, he manifested in the Gospel, and what he himself spoke through the prophets, he himself fulfilled in the Gospel. His word therefore was the prophetic word, as you have it written: 'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken' (Isa 1:2). Understanding therefore was given even to those who had not perfect wisdom, while the dumb speak, the dead are raised. For by these signs it was understood by those who were untaught and as yet set as it were in the cradles of faith—as was the people of the nations—that he himself had come who was awaited.

The glory of his resurrection therefore enlightens the brightness of faith, by the power of divine works, and gives understanding to little ones. To whom indeed, except to those concerning whom in the Gospel he gives thanks to the Father in that which the Son himself was working—that God had hidden his mysteries from the wise and had revealed them to little ones (Matt 11:25)—showing that the common people from among the nations, or men of lower station, would believe sooner than the scribes and chief men of the Jews and the rich of this world? Therefore the rich were in need and hungered, but the poor man cried out and was heard (Ps 33:11; 33:7). There follows the third verse: 'I opened my mouth and drew in the spirit, for I longed for thy commandments' (Ps 118:131). We have in the Gospel that the Lord Jesus opened his mouth, when he uttered the beatitudes (Matt 5:2).

But he opened his mouth to give the spirit to others, David opened his to receive. Finally Jesus says: 'Receive the Holy Spirit' (John 20:22); Jesus says: 'Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it' (Ps 80:11). This he says to man; for Christ is the fullness: he who fills all things fills thy mouth. Write therefore what he says in the breadth of thy heart, that is: let thy mouth cry out to the Lord. Thy mouth cries out even when it is silent, just as Moses also, when he was silent in voice, was crying out in spirit. By men he was not heard, but with God he resounded; for there is a cry of the inward affection which is heard from heaven. Anna too, when she prayed, was crying out in silence, did not move her lips, and by the voice of a devout mind within roused Jesus (1 Sam 1:13).

Finally, she who was praying in silence returned with her effect accomplished, because the Spirit of God cried out in her—he who cries out even when we are silent: 'Abba, Father' (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). Understand therefore what the mouth is, whether the heart or the disposition of the inner man. The soul has a mouth, which has members. This mouth open not only to Christ, but also to the disciple of Christ, who offered his mouth to be filled by Christ, and therefore says: 'Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged' (2 Cor 6:11). Therefore he admonishes that we ought to be imitators of him, as he himself is of Christ (1 Cor 11:1). Let him who is holier open his mouth to Christ, he who is lower, to the apostle. First let the prophet be read, and the apostle, and so the Gospel, in which the words are clear, but the precepts more powerful. The law says:

'Thou shalt love thy neighbour' (Lev 19:18), and the Gospel says to thee: 'Thou shalt love thine enemy' (Matt 5:44). David therefore, as a perfect prophet, opened his mouth to Christ, and therefore he opened his mouth in parables (Ps 77:2). He opened his mouth, he drew in the spirit. Rightly he says: 'How sweet are thy words to my throat, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth' (Ps 118:103). The bride of Christ opened her mouth to the bridegroom. She received precepts sweeter than all honey, and therefore bore witness, saying: 'His throat is sweetness, and he is wholly desire' (Cant 5:16). Delighted therefore she held him and did not let him go. 'And I brought him,' she says, 'into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her that conceived me' (Cant 3:4). Perhaps the house is that in which the discipline of morals shines forth, but that chamber is the one in which are the higher mysteries.

Rightly therefore he longed for the commandments of the Lord, in which the honey of divine grace was fragrant. Or is not the remission of sins sweeter than all honey, the resurrection of the dead more welcome than every flower? The fourth verse: 'Look upon me and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love thy name' (Ps 118:132). Beautifully he added: 'Look upon me and have mercy on me,' because he looks even when angered, as he looked upon the camp of the Egyptians and, having bound the axles of the chariots, cast them all into the waves (Exod 14:24-25). He looked upon Sodom and Gomorrah, each of which, about to pay the penalty of its sins, paid the price of having offended the Divine. It is written also: 'Thou shalt look upon the earth and make it tremble' (Ps 103:32), and on the contrary:

He looked with favor upon the offerings of Abel, but upon the offerings of Cain he did not look. Embittered by this, Cain in the crime of fratricide shed his brother's blood. But what it means for God to look upon is most plainly declared by that testimony: that He looked upon the children of the poor and did not despise their prayers; for the eye of the Lord does not spurn the offerings of the righteous. Indeed, when we are stirred against someone, we turn away our eyes, as though we judge unworthy of our gaze the one whom we hate in our affection. There follows: 'Direct my steps according to Thy word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.' By the frequent testimonies of the Scriptures we are admonished that 'steps' are to be understood as the advances of the soul.

For who is of so dull a wit as to suppose that David was anxious about the bodily gait of his feet and was asking divine guidance to direct them? Rather, as a holy man, he longed that the course of his life be directed, even as Scripture elsewhere testifies, saying: 'By the Lord are the steps of a man directed.' Let us then make use of his own testimony, who says in the verses above: 'My steps had well-nigh been poured out, because I was envious at the peace of sinners.' Thus he shows that the footstep of his own mind had stumbled, while he thought the peace of sinners to be a thing of wonder. They seem indeed to enjoy tranquillity, they seem to enjoy quiet; but there is no rest where the mind is restless, there is no tranquillity of mind where the soul is shaken by the goads of a guilty conscience.

How can there be security where there is a battle of diverse passions, where there is a conflict of grievous agitations? Hence the Lord, defining what it is to have peace, says: 'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you'—showing that the peace which the world gives does not possess the grace of true peace. And therefore, wishing to teach that peace is not in man, He added: 'Peace I leave with you,' and again: 'My peace I give unto you.' So too the prophet said: 'Peace, peace; and where is peace?' It is plain, then, that he spoke of the wavering of his own judgment, in which the steps of his mind, not of his body, had wavered. And Moses says: 'I will turn aside and see this great sight.' For that he might see God, by a certain advance of virtue he proceeded to higher things.

He was a shepherd of sheep and was made a leader of citizens. And to the bride it is said in the Canticles: 'How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O daughter of Aminadab! The joints of thy thighs are like chains, the work of an artificer.' There is no doubt that here too the 'steps' signify the advances of the Church or of the soul: 'How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that preach good things!' Surely he calls beautiful the advances of evangelical preaching and discourse, as it is said elsewhere: 'Pass over the rivers'—that is, run across the flowing and slippery things of this world with the steady tread of the mind. That this is said of the soul's gait, David himself plainly shows in the verses that follow, declaring that his soul had passed over the torrent of iniquities.

But let us return to the steps of the bride. What does it mean that he added that the steps of the Church are beautiful 'in sandals'? We read that it was said to Moses: 'Loose the sandal from thy feet'—by which he seems to be warned not to be held bound by bodily fetters. Therefore in the Canticles he signifies the beautiful loveliness of the soul, which uses the flesh as a sandal, and in that very sandal suffers no hindrance, but excels in the comeliness of its gait. The soul therefore shoes itself with the flesh [by ecclesiastical grace], that it may pass through the course and transit of this life with comeliness.

This comes to pass if she does not befoul her sandal with bodily mire, nor sink it in the abyss of vices; if she chastises her flesh, lest it slow her course and be weighed down by the heavy burden of fat. A good sandal of the soul is chastity; a good step is in the track of purity. Wisdom, moreover, is the garment of the soul, whence it is written: 'Honor her, and she will embrace thee.' Let us therefore use the body as a sandal for the works of a lower virtue, for service, not for command; for compliance, not for delight; for obedience, not for dissension; and let us set our footstep in the way of wisdom, lest some force of the torrent shut in our steps. Therefore it was said to Moses:

'Loose thy sandal.' It was said also to Joshua son of Nun; but to Christ it was not said—rather it is written, when the Baptist says: 'After me cometh a man, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry'; for they are rightly admonished to loose their sandal who could not be without sin. But He not only did not loose His sandal, but even unbound the sandals of others, because He not only kept His own body immune from sins, but also granted pardon for the sins of all. Therefore the Church, in imitation of Christ, is beautiful and, in her sandals, washed clean of every fault. And perhaps, when she speaks wisdom among the perfect, she is beautiful in her upper members;

but when men also of a lower station or learning follow the word, do not forget the sequence of the faith, and keep the precepts of the priest, she is beautiful in her sandals. Often the clergy has erred, the priest has changed his judgment, the rich have sided with the earthly king of this world: yet the people have preserved their own faith. Hence too of the Lord Jesus we may well say that even in things bodily He has beautiful steps, when there is discourse concerning moral matters. And the apostles, perhaps for this reason, are sent with bare feet, that their discourse might not be overshadowed but might shine forth. And so the Church, the daughter of Aminadab—that is, of the willing or well-pleasing one—

because the willing and well-pleasing one gathered her, is beautiful also in her sandals. And it was deservedly added in the Canticles: 'The joints of thy thighs are like chains, the work of the hands of an artificer,' that the ornaments of the Church's posterity might be sung. For by the thigh we recognize the mark of generation, according to that saying: 'Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty'; by which it is signified that the Son of God, when He had emptied Himself, came forth from the Virgin girded with the divinity of the Word and shod with human generation, to give salvation to all. And the 'joints' are said to be precious ornaments which are wont to be hung upon the necks of matrons.

So great, then, is the progress of the Church that is signified, that it is compared to the most precious ornaments and to the collars of those who triumph; for these are the ornaments of warriors. Whence Symmachus said περὶ τραχήλῳ, that is, those things which are about the neck. Whether, then, it be the generation of Christ from the Virgin, or the propagation of the Church, in appearance indeed like collars adorned by the hand of an artificer, but in truth He crowned the necks of the faithful with the spiritual insignia of virtue. In short, this whole description of the members of the Church is full of comeliness and praise.

For her navel too is proclaimed as 'a turned goblet that never lacks the mingled draught,' in that, polished in every doctrine, she does not lack the fullness of knowledge and the spiritual drink; and her womb is fattened not only with a heap of wheat—that is, with the stronger food of the heavenly mystery—but is also filled, as it were with certain lilies, with the sweetness of moral teaching. Whence she too, like a queen well-deserving, is crowned with the blood of Christ, as it is written: 'And the adornment of thy head is like purple.' The blood of Christ is purple, which dyes the souls of the saints, resplendent not only in color but also in power, because it makes them kings, and better kings, to whom it gives an eternal kingdom.

And deservedly, at so great a beauty of the Church, upon which the blood of Christ gleams ruddy, the Holy Spirit cries aloud: 'How fair and how sweet hast thou become, O love, in thy delights!' Fair in the comeliness of virtue, sweet in the gladness of grace, in the remission of vices; whom no bitterness of sin vexes, and who is herself now love, who in loving the Lord has received His very name, because God is love. Rightly, then, does David ask that his steps be directed according to the word of God, that they too may become beautiful and that iniquity may not have dominion over him—against which he rightly took precaution.

For he knew that Abraham too, directing his steps according to the precepts of the Lord, was tempted by the desire for the beauty of his fair wife, yet was not confounded; and in the demanded sacrifice of his only son strove with the piety of his fatherly mind, yet was crowned. He knew also that he himself, assailed by the deadly temptations of wicked iniquity—in the fury of Saul, the incest of Amnon, the parricide of Absalom—escaped by this alone: that, directing his steps according to the piety of the Lord, he did not depart from a father's affection, groaning within himself at the crime of incest, banishing from himself hatred of the parricide. 'My son Absalom, my son,' he says, 'Absalom! who will grant me to die for thee?' Piety mindful of nature, unmindful of the offense; concerning whom he had first asked: 'Is the young man alive?'

And perhaps it must be asked for what reason he first called him a 'young man,' but afterwards named him 'son'—why he did not in both cases call him either 'young man' or 'son.' If he were alive, he was a 'young man,' because he sought his father by parricide; he ought not therefore to receive the name of piety, but of weakness, and so the righteous man kept silent what belonged to religion, but let fall what belonged to weakness. But when he was dead, before the pious father the fault of the person ceased, while the name of nature remained. There follows: 'Deliver me from the calumny of men, and I will keep Thy commandments.' There is not one kind of our affliction. There is temptation, and there is calumny; but temptation is lighter, calumny heavier, since temptation can be a calumny, and calumny has in itself temptation also.

There is also a human temptation which we are able to bear. But calumny is grievous. And therefore the Lord took upon Himself the things that are heavier, and, assailed by calumnies, He bore a triumphant silence. Calumny, moreover, is the more grievous because it not only fabricates falsehoods, but also discolors what was piously done; as Joseph was tempted not only by the proposal of adultery and the enticement of his mistress's allurement, but was also tempted by calumnies, by the contrivance that he himself had wished to commit the very adultery against his mistress, and being seized had stripped off his garment—lest he be held by the token of guilt and the mark of crime—when in fact, fleeing, he had left his cloak behind, that he might escape the snares of her who plotted and the bonds of her seductive art. David himself had felt what he feared:

For by what calumnies of King Saul did he suffer! When all were terrified, he foiled the assault of the Philistine, and in single combat took upon himself the chief weight of the war and of the whole battle, by his own valor alone refuting the common reproach and turning back upon the enemy the disgrace of the whole people. And yet, because the young women said, 'Saul triumphed in his thousands, David in his ten thousands,' his glory, turned into envy, began to be pressed by hatred. And, to speak of later events, Susanna was well aware of her own innocence, yet could not have it stand among men. Two old elders brought false witness; the number of the priests and their old age took away the maiden's voice; her conscience alone was free before God: in the end, condemned by the judgment of men, she was acquitted by the nod of God.

Therefore the prophet says: 'Deliver me from the calumny of men, that I may keep Thy commandments.' For he who is oppressed by calumny cannot easily keep the divine commandments, since it is necessary that for the most part he yield either to sadness or to fear, and be afflicted either by dread of the calumny or by grief. There follows the seventh verse: 'Make Thy countenance to shine upon Thy servant, and teach me Thy justifications.' The Lord enlightens His saints and shines in the heart of the righteous. And so, when you see a wise man, know that the glory of God has descended upon him, has enlightened his mind with the radiance of knowledge and of divine understanding. He enlightened also bodily the face of Moses, and the glory of his countenance was transfigured, at the sight of which the Jews trembled;