Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:1395–1:1431 (2058 verses in all)
For built by human works it does not endure, nor established by the teachings of the world does it stand, nor by the empty care of our labor and solicitude will it be guarded. It is to be constructed in one way, to be guarded in another: [not upon the earth] not to be begun upon the shifting and slipping sand, but its foundation is to be laid upon the prophets and apostles. It is to be increased with living stones, held together by the corner-stone, and by the increments of mutual connection to be constructed into a perfect man and unto the measure of the body of Christ, adorned also with the appearance and beauty of spiritual graces. Thus built by God — that is, by His teachings — it will not fall. The building of this house captive Israel shall now attain, after the fullness of the nations.
This house grows into many houses, by the diverse buildings of the faithful, in each one of us, unto the adornment and amplitude of that blessed city. Of which city the Lord has long since been the vigilant guardian: when He protects Abraham the sojourner, when He reserves Isaac to be sacrificed, when He enriches Jacob in servitude, when He sets Joseph, sold into Egypt, over it, when He strengthens Moses against Pharaoh, when He chooses Joshua as leader in wars, when He frees David from all perils, when He gifts Solomon with the gift of wisdom, when He is present to the prophets, when He snatches up Elijah, when He chooses Elisha, when He feeds Daniel, when He bedews the youths in the furnace.
when a fourth stands by the three, when He instructs Joseph through an angel concerning His being begotten of a virgin, when He strengthens Mary, sends John before, chooses the apostles, prays to the Father, saying: 'Holy Father, keep them; when I was with these, I guarded them in Your name'; when at last He Himself, after the Passion, promises the watches of His eternal guardianship over us, saying: 'Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the age.' This is the eternal guardianship of that blessed and holy city, which, out of many coming together into one, and in each one of us, is a city to God. For this is His pleasing possession, of the holy body and the faithful soul. But that it is to be built by the Lord, He Himself in the Gospels testifies, saying:
'Amen I say to you, you shall not finish the cities of Israel until the Son of Man come.' And the blessed Apostle too recalls this time and building, saying: 'But when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, then what remains of Israel shall be saved.' These cities, therefore — that is, the dwelling and assembly pleasing to God of each holy body and soul — do these have this one perfect Artificer of this habitation? This city, therefore, is to be built by the Lord, that it may grow unto the increase of its consummation; for the building already begun is not yet perfection, but through the building the consummation of perfection is prepared. But in the building of these cities of the houses of bodies and souls, human arts are idle.
For empty are all the watchings of philosophers and their idle solicitudes, and the frustrated zeal in investigating the secrets of nature and in scrutinizing the labors of the world. But such labor builds a house soon to fall. Empty too will be their morning resurrection — which, although it is appointed for all bodies that shall have come into the light, nevertheless those which shall not have been built by the Lord will by no means attain that glory of the morning resurrection which has already begun in the Lord rising from the dead. And lest the psalm should admit any opinion of an earthly and bodily understanding within itself, it teaches the time of that perfection and the signification of the things to be built by the very order of its statements.
For, having reproved human buildings and earthly guardings and their morning risings, it says: 'Rise up after you have sat, you who eat the bread of sorrow. When He shall have given sleep to His beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord, sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb.' No place of doubting is left in these words: only the faith of understanding is necessary, for the words declare the matter. For the deeds that follow consummate the truth of the prophecy, while the evangelical and apostolic teaching supplies the knowledge of the deeds. The city, therefore, is to be built by God, which may abide; because the human building is weak and fleeting.
And lest we should think that stones, mortar, and timber are this city, He teaches what this city might be and when it would be perfected, saying: 'Rise up after you have sat.' The sitting of those at rest is repose: from which they are bidden to rise who are to be prepared for this perfect city. And who at last are these who are bidden to rise after they have sat? Surely those who 'eat the bread of sorrow.' Everyone eats the bread of sorrow who remembers that he was born a man in vices and lives in them.
For when our will strives, through the fear of God and the hope of things eternal, toward the perfect works of innocence, and, on the contrary, a certain natural habit of vices delays us in those very things from which we struggle to emerge, we receive the sorrow of life through the infirmity of a will left destitute, according to the saying of the prophet: 'He who adds knowledge, adds sorrow.' For when the knowledge of truth incites our will toward the advancement of profit to be gained, and the habit of nature holds back the will that knows it ought to profit, the advancement of knowledge is an advancement of sorrow: since one grieves to be held back by nature to such a degree as one understands, through knowledge, that nature is to be left behind by oneself.
Hence, then, is the sorrow of life, hence is the bread of sorrow. Of which life and sorrow this same prophet makes mention, saying: 'You will feed us with the bread of tears, and give us to drink of tears in measure.' But we must ever press on, never cease: nor for this reason should we not strive toward the perfect, because we grieve that what is striven for cannot be attained. But in the very persistence of striving we must grieve that we cannot attain that toward which we strive. Of this sorrow the Lord makes mention, saying: 'Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted'; bestowing the beatitude of consolation on account of the grief and sorrow of a consummation not yet attained. But the very order of the words, disposed according to the times, has preserved the prophetic force, saying:
'Rise up after you have sat.' Of which the one is in the present — that is, 'rise up.' Lest faith should waver as about uncertain and doubtful things, since the truth of the prophetic admonition brought as it were a present efficacy and implanted in us, while living, the confidence of a hope not hesitating. But the time of this command, which is present, He deferred into the future in that He said: 'when you shall have sat.' In commands not to be doubted, therefore, there is the truth of the present; but in things to be attained, the dispensation of the time to be awaited is reserved. But that they may know when they must rise, when they shall have sat, the fullness of the very time is shown: 'when,' He says, 'He shall have given sleep to His beloved.'
God very frequently calls the death of the saints 'sleep,' as to this same David: 'When you shall have fallen asleep and rested with your fathers, then will I raise up from your seed one who shall be to Me a son, and I will be to him a father'; and the Lord concerning Lazarus: 'Lazarus sleeps'; and the Apostle concerning those who shall rise again says: 'For we who live shall not go before those who have fallen asleep.' And so, the fullness of the nations having been received into the sleep of death and the remnant of Israel being saved, then, after this sitting and sleep, is the time of resurrection. And because, while the fullness of the times is being brought to a close, the fullness also of the nations that shall believe, according to the Apostle, shall be consummated, therefore He says: 'When He shall have given sleep to His beloved':
showing this to be the time of the rising of those who sit, and of the giving of sleep to the beloved — that is, when all the fullness has now been received. But what those sleeping beloved and those sitting who shall rise again may be, He immediately shows, with a certain signification of the present matter, saying: 'Behold, the inheritance of the Lord.' The saints, namely, sleeping and about to rise again, sitting, are the inheritance of the Lord: not that carnal Jacob nor earthly Israel made, from the division of the nations, a portion and the cord of inheritance, according to Moses saying: 'When the Most High divided the nations according to the number of the angels of God, then the portion of the Lord became Jacob, the cord of His inheritance Israel.'
And because now this Israel, on account of its impiety, does not deserve to be the inheritance, He shows what the inheritance might be, saying: 'Behold, the inheritance of the Lord, sons, the reward, the fruit of the womb.' Therefore, the inheritance of the Lord is in sons, which He shall have received from the reward of the fruit of the womb. For this fruit is not empty, by which God, remaining as before, is born of a virginal womb. For His reward is the inheritance, and the inheritance is the sons. 'As many,' he says, 'as received Him, He gave them power to become sons of God,' and again: 'Little children, yet a little while I am with you.' These sons, therefore, are the inheritance, and this inheritance is the reward of the fruit of the womb. The Lord, therefore, is the fruit of the womb, whom the virgin, bringing forth from herself into the fruit of our life, has begotten.
And this is His reward, who, by being born of a virgin, willed to be the fruit of the womb, so that the nations, whom He should beget into sons through faith, might be His inheritance. But that, because He was made the fruit of the womb, He received this reward of inheritance, another psalm testifies, saying: 'Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as Your possession.' The Apostle too testifies, saying: 'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God: but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, made into the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man: He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;
for which cause God has exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things heavenly and earthly and infernal, and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.' This, therefore, is the reward of the fruit of the womb, which is bestowed in the name, which is conferred in honor, which is granted in glory. And this recompense the nativity of human infirmity, taken up by His immortal nature, has, so that, because He Himself was made the fruit of the womb, His reward too may become the inheritance of the nations, and the inheritance itself may be the sons. Thereupon it follows: 'As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of those shaken off.'
This is the use of arrows: that, being let loose, they may be borne with swift flight and directed by an undeflected line to each appointed target. That there are arrows which the Lord uses, we read thus, when He says: 'He sent forth His arrows and scattered them.' In Isaiah too it is written thus, which perhaps can be understood to have been said even of the Lord Himself: 'And He set me as a chosen arrow, and hid me in His quiver, and said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called My servant.' There are, therefore, arrows of God of this kind, swift in flight, faithful in stroke: which, as far as spiritual reasoning shows, must be understood to signify the prophetic and apostolic teachings, in which is the Word of God, sent everywhere, piercing, convicting, flying.
Although in very many places we have noted that there are also death-bearing and lethal arrows, of which it is written: 'He has wrought His arrows for those who shall burn,' yet here nothing can be understood to be said of avenging arrows: because now 'as arrows in the hand of the mighty, so are the sons of those shaken off.' Pharaoh was shaken off in the Red Sea unto destruction on account of the crime of impiety. We know too that the dust shaken off from the apostles' feet is a sentence of malediction. And because, whether the prophets themselves — who were the sons of those shaken off, that is, of sinners and the accursed — were sent forth as flying and faithful arrows of the heavenly teaching, or the apostles and teachers of the churches believed from among the nations shaken off into malediction through their own impiety, therefore He says:
Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of the cast-out: flying across the whole round of the earth, wounding unbelieving hearts with the dart of doctrine, and piercing the enticements of all sins with the javelin of salvation. And that this might be understood to be spoken of these—namely, those whom God would send forth from the sons of the cast-out as arrows for the doctrine of salvation—there follows in the text: 'Blessed is the man who shall fulfil his desire from them; they shall not be confounded when they speak with their enemies in the gate.' Blessed therefore is he who has been able to fulfil his desire from them, that is, whether from the arrows or from the sons of the cast-out: namely, to fill himself with the desirable words of doctrine, and to be satisfied with the preached fruits of the good things to come and awaited.
And in order to show that these are, by the doctrine of God, builders of that city which he mentioned above, he therefore closed thus: 'From these they shall not be confounded when they speak with their enemies in the gate.' This phrase 'from these' either belongs to the blessed man who shall fulfil his desire from them, or will be proper to the very sons of the cast-out themselves, who from these shall not be confounded when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Nor is it doubtful what they shall speak in the gate—they who by their preaching have been built up by the Lord of the city. We recall, moreover, that it is said in another psalm: 'Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion.'
And here indeed there are many gates in which the prophet, lifted up from the gates of death, proclaims all the praises of God; but we know that there is one royal, dominical, heavenly gate, of which it was said: 'This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter into it.' And since these sons of the cast-out shall not be confounded when speaking in the gate to their enemies, it must be that, speaking to these their enemies, they are not confounded—enemies who will not deserve to enter with the just.
reproaching them with their impiety against God, their disobedience toward those who preach, their unbelief regarding the eternal promises, their hatred of the innocent and their cruelty against the very members of the Church; while they themselves are confident and tremble with no doubt of their faith and religion, but keep back these their enemies from the entrance and access of Him who says, 'No one comes to the Father but through me'—our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. A Song of Ascents. 'Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.' Whenever there is discourse in the Scriptures about the fear of the Lord, it must be noted that it is never left alone by itself.
as though it were sufficient of itself for us to complete our faith; rather, many things are subjoined or set before it, from which the meaning and perfection of the fear of the Lord may be understood—as we learn from what is said through Solomon in the Proverbs: 'For if you call upon wisdom, and give your voice to understanding, and seek her as silver and search her out as treasures, then you shall understand the fear of the Lord.' For we see by how many steps one comes at last to the fear of the Lord. For first wisdom must be called upon, and the whole duty of reading must be assigned to understanding, and wisdom must be sought and searched out; and only then is the fear of the Lord to be understood. And as far as the common sense of human opinion is concerned, the fear is not conceived in this way.
For fear is the trembling of human weakness, dreading to suffer what it does not wish to befall it. It arises and is stirred up in us from a guilty conscience, from the right of one more powerful, from the onset of one stronger, from the cause of sickness, from the encounter of a wild beast, and from the suffering of every evil. This fear, then, is not taught, but arises from the nature of our infirmity; nor do we learn what is to be feared, but the very things which are feared cast their terror upon us. But concerning the fear of the Lord it is written thus: 'Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.' The fear of God, therefore, must be learned, since it is taught. For it lies not in terror, but in the reasoning of doctrine; nor does it come from the trembling of nature.
but it is to be entered upon through the keeping of the commandments, through the works of an innocent life, and through the knowledge of the truth. For if God is to be feared only because many things have been burned by lightnings, laid low by thunder, have now collapsed by earthquake, now been swallowed up by the gaping of the earth, then it is no fear of faith that is stirred by fear of these accidents. But for us all fear of God lies in love, and perfect charity brings his fear to completion. And the proper duty of our love toward him is this: to obey his admonitions, to comply with his ordinances, to trust his promises. Let us therefore hear the Scripture saying:
'And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, and love him, and keep his commandments with all your heart and with all your soul, that it may be well with you?' In agreement and harmony with these words the prophet spoke at the beginning of the psalm, saying: 'Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways'—showing that it is not because of our trembling (which in other cases is the author of fear), nor because of terror of him who is terrible, that those who fear are blessed, but rather because they walk in the ways of the Lord. For fear, as we have said, lies not in dread but in obedience; and the testimony of fear is compliance.
But if anyone fears yet does not obey, he will indeed be one who fears from the trembling of nature, but he will not be blessed by the duties of fear. Now there are many ways of the Lord, although he himself is the Way. But when he speaks of himself, he calls himself the Way, and he shows the reason why he called himself the Way, saying: 'For no one can come to the Father except through me.' Yet when the discourse is about the prophets and their writings, by which one journeys to Christ, then there are many ways converging from every side into one Way. Both of these are signified in the same passage through the prophet Jeremiah, who says: 'Stand in the ways of the Lord, and ask for the eternal paths of God, and see which is the good way, and walk in it.'
Many ways, therefore, must be inquired into, and one must persist in many, so that we may find the one that is good—about to find, that is, through the doctrine of many, the one way of eternal life. For there are ways in the Law, ways in the Prophets, ways in the Gospels, ways in the Apostles; there are ways also in the various works of the commandments, in which those who walk through the fear of God are blessed, to whom it is said: 'You shall eat the labors of your fruits.' The discourse, begun toward many, is referred to one, teaching that all of us who have believed in Christ are one, the Apostle confirming it thus: 'For you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Whether therefore it speaks to one or to many, the meaning will be the same in the one as in the many.
But it must be observed that this prophetic saying differs from the usage of common opinion. For in this fashioning of life, those who eat, eat the fruits of their labors, taking them from the yield of their accomplished work. But the prophet says that the labors of the fruits are to be eaten. The human sense does not follow the meaning of this saying, for the fruit comes from the labors, not the labor from the fruits. Furthermore, labor is a service of the body, but the fruit is the reward of labor; the reward, however, is incorporeal, whereas we can eat nothing except what is corporeal. But the prophet treats of nothing earthly or present:
For his discourse is about the blessedness of those who fear the Lord and walk in his way; for those who walk in the ways of the Lord, they shall eat the labors of their fruits. For this is not an eating of the body, since neither is that which is to be eaten corporeal. But here we have spiritual food, nourishing our soul unto life—namely the good works of goodness, chastity, mercy, patience, and tranquility, in which we must labor against the vices of our bodies. The fruit of these labors is in eternity; but this labor of the eternal fruits must first be eaten, and by it in this bodily life our soul must be nourished, obtaining through the food of these labors the living bread, the heavenly bread, from him who said:
'I am the living bread from heaven'; and whoever receives it unworthily, according to the Apostle's admonition, acquires judgment for himself. These, then, are the labors of the fruits that are to be eaten—the fruits, namely, that will be reaped in the heavens. Now, while we are on earth, the works are to be taken up; for these now satisfy the soul, and these will accompany it into heaven with their fruits. Finally, in the following verse the prophet shows the blessedness of both of these times, saying: 'Blessed are you, and it shall be well with you.' Of these the one is obtained in the present—that you are blessed; but that it shall be well with you is laid up for the future, since in the meantime the labor of the fruits to come is being eaten. 'Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine on the sides of your house.'
'Your sons like young olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.' To many, perhaps, this saying will seem suited to the joy of a present blessing—that by the mercy of God there should be at hand the peaceful and useful welfare of a wife in the home, and the sweetest gathering of sons around the feast. But if these things had been perfectly good—which, though they are good, are nevertheless not heavenly goods—yet, if the blessedness of the fear of God had consisted in them, then surely Abraham, the prince of faith and of the fear of God, would have obtained it: he whose wife, long barren, was twice carried off, and whose only son, born of the promise, he was commanded to offer as a victim, and, brought to the sacrifice, inflicted upon him the pain of bereavement.
Then Isaac himself had two sons at variance and hostile even to the point of a deadly hatred. And Jacob—the unwitting husband of a wife he did not know, deceitfully forced into another marriage, and mourning the death of a living son through the parricidal lie of his brothers—did he lack the blessings of those who fear God? And among those in whom and with whom faith exists, is the sanctification of faith not to be found? Yet how many of sinners do we see flourishing in home, wife, and children! And will that happy and blessed virginity then be deprived of the blessings of God, leaving itself no ground for blessedness? And where will that word of Paul stand: 'I would that all men were even as I myself'?
And I do not know how the prophet could have established as perfect that blessedness which is denied to the saints, is common among sinners, and is not to be hoped for by virgins. Therefore, since according to human understanding the words of this saying do not set forth a proper and perfect blessedness, our minds and ears must be lifted up to spiritual teaching. For all the Law, according to the Apostle, is spiritual, and he himself followed no lowly or earthly hope of blessedness, saying: 'Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.' Since, therefore, he shows himself blessed in spiritual and heavenly things, that perfect blessedness of the saints is not to be hoped for in these earthly and bodily things;
but rather it must be understood that through the naming of bodily and earthly things the understanding of heavenly goods is to be attained. When, according to the Gospels, the Lord is a bridegroom, and according to John has a bride, is it to be supposed that earthly and bodily brides are meant? By no means; but through this manner of speech we are taught that he is the one who was promised to the nations, and to whom, from the Father, the inheritance of the Church was betrothed through the adoption of the body which he was to take up from the Virgin. Now, that we may understand what ought to be meant under the naming of 'wife,' we must observe what is treated elsewhere under this same name of 'wife.' Solomon, therefore, says: 'I sought to bring wisdom to myself as a bride.'
And because he who seeks a bride seeks a rich one, he recounts the riches of this his bride, saying: 'She glorifies her noble birth, having fellowship with God, and the Lord of all loved her'; and: 'And if anyone desires much knowledge, she knows both the things that are from the beginning and beholds the things that are to come'; and again: 'Who shall find a valiant wife? For she is more precious than precious stones of this kind.' And these things were said in Proverbs, because proverbs do not set forth that which the words sound, but announce the power of the sayings through the use of common words. And the Lord teaches in the Gospels how proverbs are to be understood, saying: 'The hour will come when I shall no longer speak to you in proverbs, but shall announce to you plainly concerning the Father.'
Therefore, according to the manner of proverbs, we must understand the 'valiant wife'—namely her whom Solomon desired to take to himself as a bride, of whom he says again: 'I resolved, therefore, to bring her to live with me, and I became a lover of her beauty.' This, then, taken as a wife, is manly wisdom, perfecting all things and subjecting them to herself, and mighty in the labor of useful works: she who is pleasing to God, worthy through his teaching, and perfect in the knowledge of things past and the understanding of things to come. This wife of the one who fears God, spread over all the sides of his house, extends herself after the manner of a fruitful vine across all the sides of our works.
Now it is not doubtful that the 'house' is this dwelling of our soul, which each one cleanses for himself, through the fear of God and by entering upon his ways, into a habitation of wisdom. From this wife, then, will be sons who will be like young olive shoots around our table. He does not say they will be around the banquet, but around the table. For there is a table of the Lord, from which we take food—namely of the living bread, whose power is this, that he, being himself alive, gives life also to those who receive him. There is also a table of the Lord's readings, at which we are nourished with the food of spiritual doctrine, but of which it is written in another psalm: 'Let their table become before them a snare, and a trap, and a recompense, and a stumbling-block';