Works (CSEL) 16 part 34/34

'Let my dignity enter before you.' The Christian too has his dignity, who serves so great an Emperor. There are dignities of the greatest and truest faith; there are diverse orders of honors, and with Christ ranks: 'God placed in the Church first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers.' But these are the dignities of those who administer. There are also those of private persons, such as piety, righteousness, sobriety, chastity, discipline. There are also dignities of prayer: if you pray for a widow, if you pray for an orphan, if you pray for one who is merciful, if you pray for one exceedingly devout and faithful, if you pray in tribulation, if you pray with grief, if you yourself, the one praying, suffer with the sorrowing in compassionate affection.

Your prayer enters the grace of God, enters his house, if the Church entreats with you, if the whole people implores, that it may incline the favor of the Lord. But what does he ask? That he be rescued, that he be freed, because already for a long time he wars against spiritual wickednesses, against the temptations of this world, because it is grievous enough through the long course of this life to sustain a daily warfare. Finally, he also says below: 'Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!' For he groans that he stretches out his unwearied watches with continual toil; therefore he asks to be freed from so many adversaries, and does not wish to have fellowship with earthly men. There follows the third verse: 'My lips shall utter a hymn, when you have taught me your justifications.'

He utters a hymn who can say: 'For we are a good odor of Christ unto God'; and he utters well who has tasted the many and sweet precepts of the Lord. He utters a hymn who has uttered the word. Finally, David also first uttered a good word; here he utters a hymn. For he has tasted the good bread that came down from heaven, the good bread which, if anyone eats, he shall not die forever. The word of God has its feasts—some stronger, as is the law and the Gospel; others sweeter, as are the Psalms and the Song of Songs. The Church, or the pious soul, uttered a hymn, to whom God the Word said: 'Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet.' She uttered a hymn, to whom he said: 'Your lips drop the honeycomb, O bride; honey and milk are under your tongue.'

But no one can utter a hymn beforehand, unless he has learned the justices of God, and has learned them from the Lord God himself. Therefore David especially asks this, that God may teach him; for he had heard and known in the spirit that there is one Master, and therefore everywhere he requested that He himself become his teacher, that from Him he might learn His justifications. For how can one sing who is placed in dread and in fear of punishments? How can one sing who is conscious to himself of grievous sins, unless he first be made secure of pardon? Finally, in the later parts you have: 'How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land?'—in which he is assailed, in which he is taken captive under the law of sin, in which he laments and bewails the hardships of his captivity.

You too, then, eat the foods of the heavenly Scriptures, and eat that they may abide in you unto eternal life; eat daily, that you may not hunger; eat that you may be filled; eat that you may belch forth the fatness of heavenly words. Spiritual banquets are not wont to harm, but to profit those who are sated; and therefore the prophet desired to be filled, who says: 'Let my mouth be filled with your praise, that I may sing your glory.' He who sings the glory of God, his heart belches forth a hymn to the Lord. There follows the fourth verse: 'My tongue shall speak your word, for all your commandments are righteousness.' He who has learned the righteous ordinances of God speaks the word of God, and he who speaks the word of God speaks no idle word. To speak the works of men is an idle word.

Therefore the holy one says that grace is given to him by the Lord, that his mouth may not speak the works of men, because that is an idle word, and not only idle but even perilous. For these we shall have to render account. For 'every idle word whatsoever you shall have spoken, you shall render account for it.' For it is no slight peril that, when you have such great oracles of God and the works of God which he wrought in Genesis, wrought in Exodus, wrought in Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, in Joshua son of Nun, in the book of Judges, in the books of Kings and of Ezra, wrought in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles - that, passing all these by, you should speak the things that are of the world, and hear the things that are of the world. Hedge your ears with thorns; would that you might also fence in your tongue, lest you speak! But -

what is worse, your tongue is itself surrounded with thorns, which prick and wound the one who speaks the things that are of the world. For this reason the adversary frequently pours worldly thoughts even upon those who pray. If, then, we ought not to hear what is alien or superfluous, how much more ought we not to speak against it, since the venerable Scripture says to each one of us: 'Bind up your silver and your gold, and make a yoke and a weight for your mouth!' Bind your understanding with faithful silence, bind your discourses, set a yoke upon your mouth, lest it toss itself about with the unbridled neck of words; set a weight, that with cautious balance we may weigh all that we speak. And with what thorns Scripture tells you to hedge your ears, save with a contrite heart and the fear of judgment?

These things prick wholesomely, these things goad, they do not wound, although the wounds of a friend are also profitable. 'All the commandments of God,' he says, 'are righteousness.' For they are commandments of righteousness, and therefore cannot exist apart from righteousness. It is the commandment of God that you love your God. Whence Paul says: 'For he that loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law. For it is written: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word.' If in that very word every commandment is summed up - which word is righteousness, for what is so righteous as that you love your God and love your brother? - then assuredly all the commandments of God are righteousness.

For just as he who can kill his brother surely does not love him, and he who commits adultery with his brother's wife surely does not love his brother; he who steals, he who covets what is another's, surely does not love the one whom he desires to defraud - so he who proudly despises his brother, who strives to disfigure him, who feeds upon his injuries, is a stranger to the fellowship of love. There follows the fifth verse: 'Let your hand be ready to save me, for I have chosen your commandments.' He seems to be praying for the coming of the Lord, for the hand of God is Christ. Him we read to be the right hand of God, of whom he says above: 'The right hand of the Lord has wrought power, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.'

Why then did he here say 'hand,' unless perhaps not only on account of the diversity of grace, which the Scriptures are not wont to pass over, but also on account of a certain property of the hands, so that there 'right hand' is said - where it is written that he exalted him by power - while here 'hand,' where it must be understood that he preserved him by humility? The hand of the Lord may also be understood as it is said in common usage: 'Great is the hand of that king,' that is, a great army; and 'his hand is the lesser' - so that here too we may understand: 'Let your help and support be present, that you may send your angels, your aid, the supports of your power, to deliver your people.' This is the hand of God of which it is written:

'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the sake of those who shall be heirs of salvation?' He, then, who has chosen the commandments of God uses confidence, that with authority he may demand for himself the divine supports. There follows the sixth verse: 'I have longed for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my meditation.' One man delights in the longevity of this life and longs to prolong the life of this body even to the close of decrepit old age. Others are broken by the weakness of sickness, of whom no one can say: 'When I am weak, then am I strong.' They count themselves blessed if they enjoy the unimpaired comfort of health, whose health is not unto salvation. Of these too no one can say: 'I have longed for your salvation, O Lord';

for they seek their own health rather than the salvation of God, obeying physicians rather than the Scriptures. But the precepts of medicine are contrary to those zealous for the knowledge of God; they call them back from fasting, they do not allow them to study by lamplight, they lead them away from all intent meditation. And so he who has given himself over to physicians denies his very self to himself; but he who seeks the salvation of God follows Christ, who is called the salvation of God, seeking not the things of the body but the things that are eternal, even while he dwells in this body. And he who seeks the salvation of God assuredly meditates in the law day and night. His meditation on the divine decrees is unceasing, nor is he turned aside from the pursuit of discipline by any care of this body. There follows the seventh verse:

'My soul shall live and shall praise you, and your judgments shall help me.' He flatters himself surely with the recompense of the future life, not of the present. For how can this life be called life, of which it is written: 'And you have brought me down into the dust of death'? How many are there who, though living, are in hell! Paul himself longed to be set free from the body of this death, who truly longed for the salvation of God, saying: 'For I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for that is far better; yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary' - rather than voluntary. How then does the soul live that is covered with the shroud of death, or what life is that which is in shadow? We are in the region of the shadow of death, our life is hidden, not free;

for it shall be free in the region of the living, in which the righteous man takes up confidence of pleasing, that he may please the Lord in the region of the living. There, then, our soul shall live, where it is clothed with nothing mortal, nothing infirm, nothing owed to punishment. There it shall praise the Lord, where, having laid aside the body of weakness, it shall have begun to be conformed to the glory of the body of Christ. For while we are in sin, how can we fully praise? For God has said to the sinner: 'Why do you declare my righteous ordinances?' We are placed here in shadow, in shadow we live, in shadow we praise; perfectly in shadow we cannot praise. We are in a foreign land; in short, you have heard him say in the verses that follow: 'How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?'

But the judgments of God help the saints, when the recompense of eternal life is bestowed upon good works. Blessed is he who says: 'And your judgments shall help me.' I, weak, I, a sinner, fear the judgments of God because of my conscience of sins; they bring terror to me, they harass me; the saints they help. Yet they will also help the sinner, though in a different manner. The saint shall be helped while he is approved; the sinner shall be helped while he is humbled, while he is chastened, that he may pay his sins twofold, while his work is burned up, that he himself may be saved, yet so as by fire. Perhaps the meaning also fits thus:

If I shall be worthy of judgment, I shall be worthy to be stripped of the fellowship of the ungodly, since 'the ungodly shall not rise in the judgment,' and the judgments shall help me, since 'he who believes in the Lord is not judged.' Faith shall profit him and shall plead for pardon, even if there be some offense in his works. There follows the eighth verse: 'I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost. Quicken your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments.' The Greek has: 'Seek your servant,' that is ζήτησον, and the scribe could have erred so as to write ζῆσον, which is 'quicken.' Indeed either sense stands firm, but the former is more fitting for this place: 'Seek your servant,' since the sheep that has gone astray must be sought by the shepherd, lest it perish. Therefore he says 'I have gone astray.'

You too, declare your iniquities, that you may be justified. In confessing that you have fallen, you have a fellowship common with all in this matter, for no one is without sin. To deny this is sacrilege - for God alone is without sin - to confess it before God is the remedy of impunity. 'I have gone astray,' he says - but he who has gone astray can return to the way, can be recalled to the way - and he beautifully added: 'like a sheep that was lost'; for he who acknowledges his error does not perish. 'Seek,' he says, 'your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments.' Come then, Lord Jesus, seek your servant, seek your weary sheep, come, Shepherd, seek as Joseph sought the sheep. Your sheep has gone astray while you tarry, while you linger in the mountains.

Leave your ninety-nine sheep and come to seek the one sheep that has gone astray. Come without dogs, come without evil workers, without the hireling who knows not how to enter by the door. Come without helper, without messenger; long since I await your coming; for I know that you will come, since I have not forgotten your commandments. Come not with the rod, but with love and the spirit of meekness. Do not hesitate to leave your ninety-nine sheep in the mountains, for the ravening wolves cannot attack those set upon the mountains. In paradise the serpent did harm once; he lost his food there after Adam was driven thence; there he can do harm no more. Come to me, whom the assault of grievous wolves harasses.

Come to me, whom, cast out of the paradise of the serpent, the poisons of a long ulcer assail, who have gone astray from those higher flocks of yours. For there too you had placed me, but the nocturnal wolf turned me away from your folds. Seek me, for I long for you; seek me, find me, take me up, carry me. You can find the one you seek, you deign to take up the one you have found, to lay upon your shoulders the one you have taken up. To you the dutiful burden is no weariness, the carrying of righteousness is to you no load. Come then, Lord, for although I have gone astray, yet I have not forgotten your commandments; I keep in reserve the hope of healing. Come, Lord, for you alone can recall the straying, and those whom you leave behind you will not sadden; for they too will rejoice at the sinner's return.

Come, that you may work salvation on earth, joy in heaven. Come then and seek your sheep, not through your servants, not through hirelings, but through your very self. Take me up in the flesh which fell in Adam. Take me up not of Sarah but of Mary, that the virgin may be uncorrupted, yet a virgin by grace, whole from every stain of sin. Carry me on the cross, which is salutary for the straying, on which alone is rest for the weary, on which alone all who die shall live. And it can beautifully be called also 'quicken,' in that he cannot die whom the Power has carried on his shoulders. So the soul says, and so the Church says: 'I have gone astray like a sheep that was lost'; but she also says: 'I sought him whom my soul loves.' This is to say:

Quicken your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments. I have sought you, but I cannot find you unless you are willing to be found. And you indeed wish to be found, but you wish to be long sought, you wish to be more diligently tracked. Your Church knows this, that you do not wish her to seek you while sleeping, you do not wish her to seek you out while lying down. In short, you knock at the door, that you may rouse the sleeper; you examine whether the heart watches and the flesh sleeps. You wish to lift up the one lying down, saying: 'Awake, you who sleep, and rise from the dead.' You put your hand through the opening, that she may rise, and if she rises too slowly, you depart. You wish her to seek again and to seek from many and not to forget to seek; let her not forget your words, that if she holds them fast, you may offer yourself to be seen, you may not flee from being held.

When she has merited to embrace you, she will show forth her fruits, will teach that she has not forgotten your commandments, will say to you: 'Come, my brother, let us go out into the field; and in our gates are all manner of fruits of the trees, new and old; my brother, I have kept them for you.' This is to say: 'I hold all the commandments of the New and the Old Testament.' This the Church alone can say. No other congregation says it, the synagogue does not say it, holding neither the new according to the letter nor the old according to the spirit. The Manichaean heresy does not say 'I have kept the old things for you,' for it does not receive the prophets. She is seen radiant in countenance who shines with the grace of both testaments. The Bridegroom answers her: 'Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a signet upon your arm.'

You who have kept for me the new things and the old, you are my seal, you are after my image and likeness. In you shines the image of righteousness, the image of wisdom, the image of virtue. And since the image of God is in your heart, let it be in your works; let there be the likeness of the Gospel in your deeds, that in your manners you may keep my precepts. The likeness of the Gospel will be in you, if to the one who strikes you, you offer the other cheek, if you love your enemy, if you take up your cross and follow me. For this reason I carried the cross for you, that you might not hesitate to carry it for my sake. The daughters of Jerusalem heard this, that already the Lord Jesus was joining the Church to himself, and because, considering the magnitude of the word, they judged her unequal to so great a marriage,

lest perchance she might not be able to bear the weight of the union, they excuse her, saying: 'We have a little sister, and she has no breasts.' For thus those who wish to defer a marriage are wont to make excuse, alleging the weakness of immature age and asserting that she has no breasts, which signify the marriageable time of life. This is wont to be a symbol common to all virgins about to marry, that when the breasts have begun to swell, then they are judged fit for union. Troubled therefore that the Bridegroom presses the marriage with the zeal of love, they say: 'What shall we do for our sister in the day when it is spoken in her?' or, as Symmachus has it, 'when it is spoken to her,' that is: at the celebration of betrothal a conversation and confirmation of the marriage is wont to take place.

What then shall we do, say they, being troubled, since the spiritual union is being pressed? They cannot excuse her from so great a marriage; for there is no one who would not deem blessed the union either of soul and spirit or of Christ and the Church. But because the fullness of the word or of the Holy Spirit vibrates and shines, and there is nothing that can be equalled to it, therefore they desire to defer it, that by that delay either the soul or the Church might be able to become more perfect. They say then: 'If she is a wall, let us build upon her chambers; and if she is a door, let us carve upon her boards of cedar.' The soul of the holy one is a wall. The Church too has her walls, who, already more perfect, says: 'I am a fortified city.'

This is the wall that has the twelve apostolic gates, through which entrance into the Church lies open to the people of the nations. But although the wall encloses the circuit of the whole city, it is then more fortified when it has chambers prepared, in which the defenders of the city may have safe refuge for watching and guarding. But because this city is rational and all its hope is in the word of God, it requires for itself bulwarks not of iron but of silver, accustomed to repel the assaults of the enemy by heavenly oracles rather than by the pleasures of the body. Supported by such a defense, shining with such splendor, she is judged fitter for the union with Christ. And because Christ is the door, who says:

'If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved,' and the Church is called a door, because through her the access to salvation lies open to the peoples. But lest she be corrupted by the moths or worms of heretics, the daughters of Jerusalem, or the angels, or the souls of the righteous, say: 'Let us carve upon her boards of cedar,' that is, the good fragrance of sublime faith; for sweet is the odor of this wood, which neither worm nor moth may corrupt. For this reason the use of this wood is chosen for raising the peaks of roofs and for forming the elements of letters, by which childhood is imbued with the study of liberal learning. This material, then, is sublime for grace, light for burden, sweet for fragrance, useful as an instrument of knowledge, fit for the ministry of eternal cognition.

But just as Christ, loving his bride, was urging her to the solemnity of the spiritual union, so too the Church, already captivated by the beauty of the word, was hastening to the marriage. And therefore, impatient of the delays and postponements which the daughters of Jerusalem were eager to weave, she says: 'I am a wall, and my breasts are towers,' that is: do not doubt whether I am a wall - for they had said, 'If she is a wall' - 'I,' she says, 'am a wall, and I have no little breasts, but my breasts are like towers. How do you say that I have no breasts? I have understandings like towers of wisdom, in which there is abundance, as it is written: And abundance in your towers.'

By these breasts, that is, by her understandings, she judged herself fit for so great a marriage, but the daughters of Jerusalem could not as yet judge her so, because they did not see the abundance of her understandings. And she added: 'I was in his eyes as one finding peace,' that is: my understandings being weighed, since I have found the peace of God, which surpasses all mind and keeps both hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 'Such,' she says, 'was I in the eyes of the Bridegroom, as one who has peace'; for it is written, 'They who rightly seek peace shall have it,' a testimony to those who hasten. Therefore, with the beloved and the bride both hastening, the spiritual union was celebrated, sought by mutual consent. And therefore, as though singing a nuptial song, the spirit exulted in the prophet, saying:

'A vineyard was made for Solomon in Beelamon; he gave his vineyard to those who keep it.' The spirit therefore cries out: a congregation of peoples has been planted, and a vine founded upon the eternal root, and it has subjected its spiritual necks beneath the yoke of the word with a meek heart; and planted in the multitude of the nations. For thus Symmachus, Aquila, and the other traditions in the Greek tongue have taught that 'Beelamon' is to be understood. The old union, which could bring forth no fruit, has been repudiated; the vineyard has been given to new and faithful cultivators, who are able not only to bring forth fruit but also to keep it. So one sheep went astray, but recalled it filled the spaces of the whole world; one sheep error had led away, but the grace of the Lord gathered a multitude of peoples.

Man went astray, but the Church is now a wall, and a strong wall. Adam went astray; David is a wall, who has not forgotten the commandments of God. This vineyard therefore, guarded and walled about with spiritual defense, yields a thousand fruits to Christ, but two hundred fruits to the keepers. And therefore the Church says: 'My vineyard is in my sight; a thousand for Solomon, and two hundred for those who keep its fruit.' The perfection and fullness belong to Christ, the portion to the servants. You have this mystery in Genesis, where Joseph assigned five portions to Benjamin his younger brother, single portions to the remaining brothers. To the Lord, therefore, is conferred the portion and prerogative of the five senses, which he himself assuredly assigns to the one whom he loves, just as he loved Paul also, to whom he gave the primacy of wisdom for calling forth the nations.

Delighted therefore with these fruits, the Church says to Christ: 'You who sit in the gardens, the friends are attentive to your voice; cause me to hear your voice.' For she was delighted that Christ was sitting in the gardens, and that the friends placed in the gardens were attentive to his voice. But because those friends were of the heavenly ones - archangels, or dominions, and thrones - for men had been expelled from paradise on account of disobedience to the heavenly commandments, and therefore the Church could not yet hear his voice which she desired - therefore she says: 'Cause me to hear your voice.' Whence we too, if we wish him to sit within us, let us be enclosed and fortified gardens, let us bear the flowers of virtues, the sweetness of grace, that we may be able to hear the Lord Jesus discoursing with the angels.

But because it was to come to pass that, when the Church had attained to fullness, she would be tried by various persecutions, therefore, while she was delighting in the grace of the word, she suddenly perceives the snares of the persecutors. And because she feared more for the Bridegroom than for herself, or because Christ is more sought after by the persecutors in us, therefore she says: 'Flee, my brother, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.' She bids him flee for the sake of the weak, who cannot bear the heavier temptations. And therefore it is written that we should flee from cities to cities, and if they persecute us in this city, let us flee to another. For the sake of the weak, therefore, as we have said, let him flee, or flee from the weak, and pass over to the mountains of spices,

who through martyrdom can bring forth the fragrance of the blessed resurrection. The mountains of spices are the saints. To them Christ flees for refuge, because his foundations are in the holy mountains. To them therefore he flees for refuge, who are his stable foundations; in us he flees, in them he abides in faithful station. The mountain of spices, then, is Paul, who can say: 'For we are a good fragrance of Christ unto God'; the mountain of spices is David, the fragrance of whose prayer ascended to the Lord, and therefore he said: 'Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight.' Symmachus, however, and Aquila have interpreted that Christ says to the Church: 'You who sit in the gardens,' that is: now you sit in the gardens worthy of the heavenly paradise, and therefore 'cause me to hear your voice,' to which the friends are attentive;

I too desire to hear it. The Church began to be in the gardens after Christ suffered in the gardens.