On the Trinity & Psalm Commentary 1 part 47/55

I am with him in tribulation. And the Lord himself in the Gospels, when he spoke of the trembling of the apostles, said: behold, the hour cometh, that each one of you shall be scattered and shall leave me alone: yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. Whether by the power whereby he can do things like the Father, or by the kind of nature and divinity whereby God was born of God, the Father is with him. Confidently, therefore, he says: because the darkness shall not be darkened by thee. For the unchangeable power does not perceive darkness, and the true light does not endure the infernal night. For it follows: and the night shall be illumined as the day; as its darkness, so also its light. This whole thing is referred to that which was said 'by thee':

the darkness shall not be darkened by thee, and the night shall be illumined as the day, and as its darkness, so also its light. 'By thee,' said once, refers to many things. And therefore the night is in delights, because it shall be illumined as the day. And it shall be illumined for this reason, because as the darkness, so also the light is from God, since the founder of the darkness is able to found light in the darkness. And let us hear the evangelist teaching this thus: and the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not: while he is able that the light should be in the darkness, the darkness not being able to comprehend the light of untiring light by the night of its own obscurity. Then there follows: for thou, O Lord, hast possessed my reins. Thou hast taken me up from my mother's womb.

'I will confess to you, for I am fearfully made marvellous.' Even here he keeps the order of a twofold signification, so as to teach that he is both man and God. For when his reins are possessed by God and he is received from his mother's womb, the bodily condition is shown in him. For in the reins lies the cause of pleasure; yet the man whose reins are possessed by God does not go out into the enticements of the body's wanton pleasure. And he who is received from his mother's womb, being received by God, does not pass over into the works of the world. His whole will, therefore, and labour is to proclaim the Father, to fulfil the Father's will, to drink the cup received from the Father. For these are the offices of the manhood which he took upon himself. But when he says:

'I will confess to you, for I am fearfully made marvellous,' he renders all the confession of the fearful admiration concerning himself to the glory of the divine substance. For he was made marvellous because God possessed his reins, because he was received from his mother's womb. For through this—that his will and working were devoted to God—he deserved to be fearfully made marvellous. And he was fearfully made marvellous while at the hours of the cross there is darkness, while the earth trembles, while the rocks are rent, while the tombs are opened, while the dead rise again, while in the self-same body he himself is beheld, while with the doors shut he stands present to himself alone by an entrance passable only to him, while he is lifted up to the heavens.

While the apostles speak in the tongues of the nations, while their shadows heal diseases, while to the lame who beg for a coin the power of walking is given, while by the alms of the poor a dead man is restored, while persecutors become preachers, while with loosed chains a hymn is sung in prison, while in his martyrdom the martyr sees him in the heavens, while at the last, in that body in which he was lifted up, he sits at the right hand of God, in whose glory and majesty he abides. And all that dignity by which he was fearfully made marvellous he refers to the work of him whose will he also obeyed, saying: 'Marvellous are your works, and my soul knows it well.' That, he says, I am fearfully made marvellous is your work.

The same principle is observed also in the Gospels, so that, when to demonstrate his power he said: 'Whatsoever things the Father does, these also the Son does likewise,' and again: 'As the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom he will,' yet he ascribes the dignity of all the works to the Father, when he says: 'The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing.' Having testified to the power that was his, through the honour of reverence he subjected it to him to whom he remembered all things must be confessed, not taking it from himself—that he was able to do things like the Father—but showing him through whom he was able to do the like. These works, therefore, by which he was fearfully made marvellous, although—since he was able—they were of his own power, yet he referred them all to the works of the Father, saying:

'Marvellous are your works, and my soul knows it well.' This is not the voice of human weakness, that it should boast to know the marvellous works of God well. This befits him alone who says: 'No one knows the Father but the Son.' For he knows, not in any ordinary way, not lightly; but he knows well, through that confidence with which he says: 'The Father is in me, and I in the Father.' For in that he says 'well,' he shows the perfect knowledge of intimate acquaintance. And because his soul knows well all the marvellous works of God, he recalls the instruction of his teaching towards us, by which the mysteries of the Father's working are now no longer hidden from us, saying: 'My bone was not hidden from you, which you made in secret.' That the bone of Christ is the Church is attested by prophetic and apostolic authority.

For when the Apostle was treating of those things which are said in Genesis concerning Adam and Eve, he speaks thus: 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,' and to the exposition of this saying he added: 'This is a great mystery; but I say it concerning Christ and the Church.' And that through the mercy of God the Father these things were not hidden from the Church, the Lord himself testified in the Gospel when he said: 'I confess to you, O Lord, Father of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to little ones: even so, Father, for so it was well-pleasing before you.' By him, therefore, those things which were done in secret are not hidden from us.

To us indeed they are not hidden, but to the wise of this world they were done in secret. And that all the mysteries of the Church's hope were in secret, the Apostle also testifies, saying: 'As you are able to understand, my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit—that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and of the same body and partakers together of his promise in Christ.' And again:

'According to the dispensation of God which was given to me toward you, to fulfil the word of God, the mystery which was hidden from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom he willed to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery of God among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.' The mystery, therefore, which was revealed was hidden—that the Gentiles should be to God fellow-heirs and of the same body and partakers together of his promise in Christ. And the mystery is hidden—to whom he willed to make known the riches of the glory of the mystery of God among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Hidden therefore was this mystery, that Christ should be in us: this the Father revealed. For it was said to Peter:

'Flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.' And it was revealed that Christ is in us—in the poor in spirit, in the troubled in heart, in the humble of the earth, in the refuse of the world, in the lowliest of the Church. For the lowliest of the Church is that which is set under in all humility. This hidden mystery, therefore, was revealed, which is Christ in us. Not through the Apostle only does the Lord speak these things, but also in this same psalm he speaks thus, saying: 'My bone was not hidden from you, which you made in secret, and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.' Not in hell, as above, when he was treating of the Passion, but in the lower parts of the earth, when he was proclaiming the things revealed by the Father which had been in secret.

Hidden had been that which is Christ in you, that is, 'my substance in the lower parts of the earth,' namely in the lower parts, in all the offices of humility. Then the discourse of the psalm proceeds according to the evangelical advancement, when it says: 'Your imperfect thing my eyes have seen, and in your book all shall be written: they shall be filled with day, and no one in them.' And that we may be able to understand all things according to the heavenly teaching, that which brings difficulty must be resolved. For that which the Latin translators rendered 'imperfect' is written in the Greek books as 'akatergaston'; nor do we complain of the translators, for I fear it could not otherwise be signified by them.

That which in Greek is 'akatergaston' signifies that which remains without operation: so that it is the very thing, yet has not been made. But 'imperfect' shows us that which has been begun and not completed. But if we treat more inwardly the force of this word, it can perhaps not truly be diverse from the propriety of the Greek. And it can be proper to God alone that a thing should both be and be unmade: because that which is has no necessity of being made; but that which is made is not, before it is made. But he who is eternal abides and has not been made. This 'imperfect,' therefore, and—if we may dare to say it for the advancement of understanding—this unwrought thing of God his eyes saw. 'For your imperfect thing my eyes have seen.' But what eyes, pray?

Surely not those spiritual eyes with which the Only-begotten alone sees God the Father? But these have no need of the things that follow: 'and in your book,' he says, 'all shall be written: they shall be filled with day, and no one in them.' That immutable nature of the Only-begotten God does not seek advancement. And what advancement at last will there be for him, that all his eyes should be written in the book, that they should be filled with day, that in them there should be no one? To imagine all this is insulting and impudent. But just as to his bone, in which the body of the Church is shown, the things that were hidden are not hidden, so also his eyes saw that which is the imperfect thing of God. And that the bone is referred to the Church, which is the body of Christ, we noted above.

But in the body no one doubts that the eyes are of the principal office and power. And because the eyes are more excellent than the other members, there is no ambiguity that in them the apostles are signified, through whom the light of the Church and the divine mysteries of its workings are furnished. This the Lord clearly showed in the Gospels. For when he had named the apostles the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the lamp of the house upon the lampstand—for the excellent and conspicuous works of their faith, by way of an example for comparison—again calling them away from earthly and corruptible treasures and from the gains of the world, he said that they were the eyes of the body, thus: 'The lamp of your body is your eye. If your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light:'

'but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness itself?' This passage is beyond bodily understanding, and therefore must be understood spiritually. The apostles, therefore, who are the eyes of the Church, that is, of the body of Christ, are commanded to be full of light and single, since the whole body will remain in light for these single ones, but if they be evil, the whole body will of necessity become dark: no hope of light, indeed, remaining for the darkness, if the light itself be in darkness. By which great peril are the priests, who are the eyes of the Church, occupied with the affairs of the world, the cares of money and the increase of family estates and the excesses of banquets.

For they are the light of the Church, that is, the eyes of the body. And if the light itself grows dark in the night of avarice and wantonness, how much greater darkness, from the example of the darkened light, will be brought upon the body—that is, the Church—for which by its own nature there is darkness? These eyes of his, therefore, saw the imperfect thing of God. But the imperfect thing of God, we said, is that which has not been made and abides: in which is shown the eternity of the unmade Godhead. But perhaps it is bold that we should assert that ineffable eternity of God the Father to have been seen by the apostles, especially since it has been said: 'No one has ever seen God, except the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.' But we say nothing of our own, we proclaim nothing bold; let him speak who said:

'He who sees me sees the Father also,' not signifying that he himself is the Father. For when Philip asked that the Father be shown to him, he did not answer, 'I am the Father,' but said, 'He who sees me sees the Father also.' Through the power of the undifferentiated nature he answered that he concerning whom the question was asked—the Father—is beheld and is in him; and he added this still more absolutely: 'How do you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak of myself; but the Father, who abides in me, he does his works. Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me. But if not, believe on account of the works themselves.'

He rebukes the one who does not understand and still asks concerning the Father and does not behold, through the effectiveness of the works, the power of the Father in the Only-begotten. For the Father abides in him; for he is begotten of him. There is not in him an alien nature of a new creation. He is Son by power, Son by divinity, Son by substance, Son by generation. The works testify, the powers declare, that through the offspring of nature the Father is in the Son, and through the substance of legitimate origin the Son is in the Father. This nobility of nature does not disagree with the Unbegotten: both are one. The Father is seen in the Son, and is seen not through contemplation of a nature invisible to us, but through admiration of the works.

For the works of the Son are the works of the Father, the Son being neither weak for effecting them nor of a diverse power of nature; but the Son effecting whatever he, from whom the Son himself is begotten, effects. And therefore, through that in which the Son is contemplable in the majesty of the works, the Father too is seen in the Son. With these eyes, therefore, which behold the eternity of the Father's power in the Son—that is, the apostles—he prays this: that they be written in the book of God, that they may abide, that is, in eternal memory; for whom he prayed with such a prayer in the Gospels: 'Father, I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.'

'Now they have known that all things which you gave me are from you; for the words which you gave me I have given to them, and they have received them and have known truly that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for these; I pray not for the world, but for these whom you have given me.' For these, therefore, he prays that they be written in the book of God. And if some perchance doubt why they are not written in the book of the living, to me it seems of greater dignity to be written in the book of God; because sinners are blotted out of the book of the living, but the just are written in the book of God. Which twofold thing is signified under these words: 'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be written with the just.' For according to the diversity of the resurrection, by which star differs from star in glory, more will be in the book of the living.

But the just will be written in the book of God, because sinners not only will not be written with the just, but will not even be left in the book of the living. But it must be considered what the advancement of those is who will be written in the book of God. Namely this: 'They shall be filled with day, and no one in them.' In certain manuscripts we read thus: 'They shall be formed with day.' Nor is there much difference between being filled and being formed. For we are formed, that we may be conformed to the glory of the body of God. And it was said by the Apostle: 'My little children, of whom I travail again in birth, until Christ be formed in you.' And we are filled according to the saying of the prophet: 'We shall be filled with the abundance of your house.' They shall therefore be filled with day, that is, with the true light—for Christ is the light:

For there was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world—no longer held by the night of ignorance nor blinded by the darkness of this world, but illumined by the light of truth and filled with day. But that which is filled receives nothing besides that with which it is full. For night does not penetrate into him who is filled with day, according to that saying of the Apostle: 'For what fellowship has light with darkness?' Nor does the spirit of the world approach the seat of the Spirit of Christ, as it is written: 'For you have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God.' Nor does he who is dead to the world live to himself, as the Apostle teaches: 'For I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.' He who is filled with day has day only in himself, and therefore says:

'They shall be filled with day, and no one in them.' No one will be in them besides the day with which they are filled: not the fever of money, not the goad of pleasures, not the ardour of ambition, not the malice of hatreds, not the sting of envy, not the fury of revilings, not the madness of pride, nor the other things which are the weapons and powers of the devil, but the true light, but the day alone, with which they are filled; and they have become incapable also of all other things now. And worthily indeed do these, who are full of day alone, receive their testimony. For it follows: 'But to me your friends are exceedingly honoured, O God; exceedingly are their principalities strengthened. I will count them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand.'

What has a man in common with these words, that he should count those who shall be multiplied above the sand? This befits only him to whom, without review and calculation, there is knowledge of an innumerable number. But his friends are exceedingly honoured; the word 'exceedingly' is not to be understood according to the custom of the Latin tongue. For 'exceedingly' is wont to signify with us that which uselessly exceeds the necessary measure; but the Greeks rendered that which ours translated 'exceedingly' by 'sphodra,' in which 'very much' rather than 'excessively' is contained. His friends therefore are exceedingly honoured. And Abraham indeed we know to have been a friend to God. The law spoke of Moses too as a friend to God.

But the Gospels signify that now more are friends to God, the Lord saying: 'I no longer call you servants, for the servant does not know what his lord wills: but I call you friends, because you have stood by me in all temptations.' These, therefore, whom he now names friends—as we showed above—he confessed both to have been given to him by the Father and to be the Father's; and according to that which he says, 'And all mine are yours, and yours mine,' he says that they are the Father's friends. But not only are they themselves honoured; their principalities also are strengthened. They indeed are honoured when they are friends, when they are full of day, when no one is in them. But their principalities are strengthened—namely the churches begun by them, taking their beginnings from them:

Which, founded upon the rock throughout the whole world, have stood firm with strong beginnings. And that this might necessarily be understood as referring to the peoples of the Church, he added: 'I will count them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand.' Is the number of those who are written in the book of God uncertain? There is therefore no difficulty in the number of those whose truth abides in writing. But some have thought that what is said—'they shall be multiplied above the sand'—is to be referred not to men only, because it was said to Abraham, 'And your seed shall be as the sand of the sea,' so that, since Abraham's seed is as the sand of the sea, to that which is 'above the sand multiplied' there is added to the friends of God the multitude of the angelic number.

For they thought that 'as the sand of the sea' and 'above the sand of the sea' could not otherwise agree, unless to the multitude of men were numbered together the abundance of the angels. But we do not oppose the sense of each; yet what we have felt according to the gift of spiritual grace we shall treat without insult to anyone. We understand from Genesis that there were two promises to Abraham. One before the generation of Ishmael, God saying: 'For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed forever, and I will make your seed as the sand of the sea. If anyone can number the sand of the sea, so also shall your seed be numbered.' But when Isaac was born and offered as a holocaust—as far as pertained to Abraham—this following promise was made:

'In blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the shore of the sea.' And if, according to the Apostle, these are two testaments—one according to Ishmael generating into bondage, the other according to Isaac leading into the freedom of our mother Jerusalem which is in heaven—it is necessary that the number of two seeds, in the stars and in the sands, be proclaimed. Therefore the friends of God are counted above the sand of the sea. For who will doubt that, according to the Church numerous throughout the whole world, the multitude of the Jewish nation is anticipated by the abundance of those believing in Christ?

And therefore they shall be multiplied above the sand, because they will be more numerous than those who, from the impious people of the law, earthly and dry, are signified in the sands. Then follows: 'I arose, and I am still with you.' 'I arose' looks to the glory of the resurrection, but according to the foreknowledge of God he speaks that which is future as though past, because to God, on account of knowledge and power, the things which are to be have been made, so that we too may deem those things to have been made which we trust are to be. But this—'and I am still with you'—signifies that the time is not yet; that he may rise, since the time of the passion is not yet, while he still professes himself to be with God. For he himself says: 'I came forth from God and have come.'

'Still therefore I am with you,' because the time is not yet that I should come from you and come into the world, to fulfil the things which were prophesied. But as to what he says: 'If you slay the sinner, O God'—does he who came to save that which was lost and to redeem the sinner pray that the sinner be slain? Far be it that he should wish him to be slain. But the sinner is slain when he dies to the world, when he dies together with Christ, that he may live in Christ. The blessed Apostle says: 'I die daily,' and again: 'I am dead to the law, that I may live to Christ.' We die in this way—that in us, through faith, our sins destroyed die. And let us hear further how God slays sinners, through that which is said:

'Therefore mortify your members upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence, and avarice.' Thus is the sinner slain, when the generation of spiritual life is renewed by the death of all vices and sins. Then follows: 'Men of blood, depart from me; because you say in thought: they shall receive their cities in vanity.' The Latin translation, being ignorant of the force of the saying, introduced great obscurity, not discerning the propriety of the ambiguous phrase. For that which with us is written 'because you say in thought' is in the Greek in this manner: 'hoti ereis en dialogismō,' and that word 'ereis' is distinguished in pronunciation, so that either 'you say' is understood or 'contention':

For both are signified under the same words in this saying. But those who have attained the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue have set forth in that which is translated 'ereis' not 'you say' but 'contentions.' And indeed reason and understanding will show that it is so. 'Men of blood,' he says, 'depart from me.' I recall it said in Ezekiel that bishops would be guilty of blood, by whose flattering silence many had fallen into destruction: 'Behold, son of man, I have set you a watchman for the house of Israel, and you shall hear a word from my mouth and shall warn them; and you did not distinguish it for him nor speak, that you might warn the wicked one to turn from his ways and live: that wicked one shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand.'

And I find yet another blood-guilty man, of whom it is said: 'The man of blood and deceitful the Lord will abhor.' As therefore they are men of blood whose teaching is flattering, so too they are men of blood whose teaching is deceitful. Now deceitful teaching is that of the heretics—blasphemous under the name of God, impious under the pretext of religion, deceitful under the appearance of truth; in whose mind and thought only the zeal of contention persists. They labour nothing for the salvation of men, they acquire nothing for hope, they contemplate nothing peaceful, so that all their labour is in these contentions and they meditate strife. These wretched men extinguish souls and gather churches to themselves in vain.

That these are called 'cities of God' according to prophetic and evangelical custom is of frequent and abundant authority. This, therefore, is signified by these words: 'Men of blood, depart from me; because there are contentions in thought: they shall receive their cities in vain.' They are men of blood on account of the guilt of souls destroyed; they are commanded to depart, because there are contentions in thought; they receive the cities of God in vain, rendering the assemblies of fruitless churches through the divisions of schisms. But clearly, because he is peace and justice and truth, he shows his own disposition toward them, saying: 'Have I not hated those who hate you, O Lord, and did I not pine away over your enemies? With perfect hatred I hated them; they have become enemies to me.'

There is a religious hatred, whenever he who hates God is hateful to us. We are indeed commanded to love our own enemies; but our own, not also God's. For it is a mark of devotion to hate father and mother and spouse and children and brothers for God's sake. He hates therefore those who hate God, and pines away with hatred of his enemies, and hates with a perfect hatred, and they have become enemies to him. For the Son is not diverse from the Father, so that he who is enemy to one should not become enemy to both. He then concludes with the confidence of his liberty, and at the same time, that he might now show, as things to be done at the demonstration of the time, those which he had recorded through foreknowledge as though accomplished, saying: 'Prove me, O God, and know my heart; question me and know my paths.'

'And see if there be any way of iniquity in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' This is not the confidence of human nature, that it should wish to be proved, that it should demand its heart to be known, that it should await its paths to be examined, that it should not fear to be inspected whether there be a way of iniquity in it, that through this condition it should be led into the everlasting way. This voice can be his alone, who said: 'Behold, the prince of this world comes and finds nothing in me.' For our Lord Jesus Christ alone is beyond sin, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. PSALM 139. To the end, a psalm of David. 'Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man; from the unjust man free me,' and the rest.