in like manner the Holy Spirit, beholding the error of the human race, beholding the evils of this age growing heavier and the disease raging with an incurable death—where God is denied by the fool, where all are corrupted by the abominable deceits of pleasures, where there is none willing good, where the throats of the innocent are sepulchres, where they have used the tongue in the service of fraud, where the venom of asps is spread beneath their lips and words, where the mouth is full of bitterness and cursing, where their feet are swift to shed blood, and, not knowing the way of peace, this misery grows heavier in all their ways; where there is no reverence toward God, where the devastation of God's people is to the persecutors as the food of bread, and the deaths, losses, and torments of the innocent become the satiety of the wicked; where God is not invoked, and there is trembling in nothing, while they reverence the creature in idols, forsaking the Creator; where God is despaired of as dwelling in the just generation, and the counsel of the needy is confounded, and the hope of his patience is mocked:
amid these evils thus raging and lording it over the whole world, the Holy Spirit, aware of Him who alone could bring aid, cries out: Who shall give out of Zion salvation to Israel? For Moses had not given it, nor Elijah, nor Isaiah, nor the prophets; all the works of the law were powerless against so great a pestilence of diseases. There was need of a physician who by one and the same power of His help might cure all things, and heal so many and various languors throughout the whole world not by art, not by labor—for when had labor and art applied to individuals profited?—but by the power of the word. Him the Spirit seeks, Him He awaits, at whose coming the fever would rest, blindness would cease, paralysis would be no more, death would not seize: Him He awaits, Him He proclaims, Him He entreats:
Who shall give out of Zion salvation to Israel? But in the individual words the individual virtues must be unfolded. What Zion is, the apostle teaches, when he says: Let us draw near to Mount Zion and to the holy city Jerusalem; for we all run to lay hold of that in which we have been laid hold of by Christ—that is, to be found in His body, which He Himself took beforehand from us, in which we were chosen by the Father before the foundation of the world, in which we, being enemies, have been reconciled and, being lost, have been acquired; in which the apostle desires to be found, with the loss of all things, saying: And I count all things as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him.
Therefore, because these diseases of our body could be taken away only through the assumption of our flesh, and because from the assumption of the flesh all our salvation is in God, He therefore says thus: Who shall give out of Zion salvation to Israel? But in that which is 'salvation' lies the virtue of the name. We do not fit or feign it, but we are taught in the books of the Old Testament that our Lord God is called 'Salvation,' and properly this name has always been granted to the Gentiles by promise. For Isaiah says: And the Lord hath revealed His holy arm in the sight of all the Gentiles, and all the ends of the earth shall know the salvation of our God. To all the Gentiles, therefore, it has been revealed and by all it is known. And again in the Psalms the Holy Spirit cries out:
Sing to the Lord a new song, for He hath done marvellous things. The Lord hath made known His salvation, in the sight of the Gentiles hath He revealed His righteousness. And again: Declare among the Gentiles His glory, and among all peoples His salvation. And again: Show us, O Lord, Thy mercy, and grant us Thy salvation. The longing for this hope the Lord showed in the Gospel, saying: Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which ye see, and to hear the things which ye hear. This salvation Simeon both awaited long, and, when he had received it into his hands, recognized it, and amid the wailings of infancy, amid the squalor of the cradle, through faith saw God. And recognizing Him in such circumstances, he adored, saying:
Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, according to Thy word, in peace: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples, a light for the revelation of the Gentiles. Therefore this salvation is announced to the Gentiles, not to carnal Israel, which upon the mountain awaited, saw, heard the Lord of majesty, which in the prophets stoned, slew, cut in pieces, and killed; but this whole discourse is to the Gentiles, and it is the salvation of the Gentiles. Thus it says: When the Lord turneth away the captivity of His people. The captivity is properly of the Gentiles, who in their heart had said: There is no God;
who had trembled where there was no fear, who had confounded and mocked the hope of the needy, because the Lord is his hope, who had denied that the Lord would dwell in the just generation, taken captive by the religions of demons, by the superstitions of the seasons, by the services of the creature. This is called captivity, this servitude is taken away. But he shall be Israel who believes, he shall be Israel who beholds God with the eyes of the heart: for Israel is 'one seeing God,' who after the captivity is turned away recognizes this salvation of God. Jacob rejoices, and Israel also rejoices, when the captivity is turned away, liberty granted, God contemplated, Abraham and Jacob named as fathers of the household by adoption.
In these things, then, let us rejoice, and in these let us exult, knowing that through our redemption there is joy among the angels in heaven over the salvation of a single penitent: and since heavenly joy is on our behalf, it behooves our joys to be perpetual in Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. Psalm 14. Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest in Thy holy mountain? and the rest. The psalm that has been read is inscribed 'a Psalm of David,' because through him the Holy Spirit spoke these things. And rightly it thus befits the psalm; for nothing in it is destined for another time, nothing is brought forth from the hidden things, but all its work is in the present: for thus it begins:
Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest in Thy holy mountain? It is a simple prayer of one beseeching the Lord and wishing to know from Him what the character, what the zeal, what the will is of the one who shall dwell with God and shall rest in His heights and heavenly places. For it is not of some humble soul nor of mediocre work to be joined to God, to merit the fellowship of the same dwelling. Therefore concerning those things which are asked, the answer is at once given: so that, since it is arduous and difficult to obtain these things, it may be understood by what means it is to be attained. For He says to that which was asked: He that walketh without spot and worketh righteousness, and the rest that follows in the psalm.
By such precepts is he formed, by such admonitions is he instructed, whose journey is to God, whose ascent is to His sublimity, whose rest is in His eternal things. Now every precept is gathered up in brevity, that it may be committed to memory, that it may cleave to the mind, that abroad and at home, in public and in private, by day and by night it may be retained, that it may be observed, that it may be pressed upon. For this brevity is rich and infinite and culled from all the precepts and institutions of the New and Old Testament, most fitting for children, women, men, the aged. And that the richness of the very brevity may be the more commendable, we will pursue what of mystery lies in the individual words. There is here no prophecy, no obscurity, no figure.
It is the voice of one questioning, the goodness of one answering, the confirmation of one hearing. But in these the virtue of the words is to be contemplated. For He distinguished thus: dwelling in the tabernacle, rest in the mountain; and prior is the dwelling in the tabernacle, posterior the rest in the mountain. That therefore the distance between dwelling and rest may be understood, the property of the mountain and of the tabernacle must be explained. And the tabernacles which we read to have existed before were light, perishable, withering, woven for a time out of leaves, such as are sometimes made by us for the sake of avoiding the heat, so that beneath their shade we may escape the burning and heat of the sun. For tabernacles of this sort were instituted for the people through Moses. But these were dried up and dissolved.
For they were figurative and made after a pattern. For God says thus to Moses: See that thou make all things according to the pattern which I showed thee in the mount. David too, desiring to build a temple, called it a tabernacle, as he says: I will not give sleep to mine eyes, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But both the tabernacle of Moses and that of Solomon fell; and thereafter the apostles founded very many tabernacles, and throughout all parts of the whole world, wherever it can be approached—nay, even from the islands of the Ocean—they have prepared very many dwellings for God. Of whose glory the Holy Spirit bears witness: How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
The prophet, then, desires not one tabernacle—whether the leafy one made through Moses, or the one longed for through David, or the one adorned with all human works through Solomon—but many and innumerable: because, although in the world the Church is one, yet each city possesses its own church; and it is one in all, while yet there are many, because it is held as one in the many. And so the first and greatest step for those ascending to the heavenly things is to dwell in this tabernacle and there to pass the life of the whole age by night and by day, removed from the cares of the world and leaving behind the business of this world, as many of the saints never withdrew from the tabernacle; as it is written of Joshua son of Nun: And Joshua the young man went not out of the tabernacle;
and Anna the prophetess departed not from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications day and night. After which one must rest in the mountain of the Lord: for from thence there is a journey for those setting out thither, and there is no journey at all except through this dwelling. Therefore inquiry had first to be made concerning the dwelling of the tabernacle; because from it there would be an ascent into the mountain, and then the dwelling is of time and of labor. But the rest is not interrupted from without, but is a continual, perpetual leisure, free from trouble, which abides in its own state; for if disquiet mingles itself in, it has lost both the nature and the name of leisure. But there is no mountain of the Lord on earth: for all the earth long since, through the vices of men, has become subject to curses;
for both in the works of Adam and in the blood of Abel it merited offense, and under Noah it was full of the sins of the inhabitants, and now too whatever heights and lofty places of the mountains are defiled by shrines, temples, and rites. Therefore this mountain is not to be awaited among such things. But as the highest parts of the ground are called mountains, so it is necessary in these things which are heavenly to think, under the name of 'mountain,' of the greatest and most sublime things. And what is more sublime than Christ? What more lofty than our God? But His mountain is that body which He assumed from man, in which He now dwells, both sublime and lofty above all rule and power and every name.
Upon this mountain is built a city which cannot be hidden, because, as the apostle says, there is no other foundation than Christ. Therefore, since those who are Christ's were chosen in Christ's body before the foundation of the world, and the Church is the body of Christ, and the foundation of our edification is Christ, and the city is built upon the mountain: this is that mountain in which it is asked who may be the one resting. Indeed in another psalm we read thus concerning this same mountain: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? And Isaiah will be a witness to us: And it shall be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be made manifest, and they shall say: Come, let us ascend into the mountain of the Lord and into the house of the God of Jacob.
And again Paul: Ye are come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, Jerusalem. If therefore all the hope of our rest is in the body of Christ, and since it is in the mountain that one must rest, we can understand the mountain to be nothing other than the body which He took from us, before which God was, and in which God is, and through which He transfigured the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of His glory—if indeed we too shall have fastened the vices of our body to His cross, that we may rise again in His body. For to that one ascends after the dwelling in the Church; in that one rests in the sublimity of the Lord; in that we shall be joined with the choirs of angels, since we too are the city of God.
But there is rest, because no pain arises from infirmities, no fear from want, but with all making use of their own firmness through the virtue of eternity, one must rest in those things beyond which they lack nothing. Therefore to that which was asked—Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest in Thy holy mountain?—the Holy Spirit answered through the prophet: He that walketh without spot and worketh righteousness.
Therefore the undefiled one, entering in and living beyond every stain of sin, is he who is here declared to be the answer—he to whom, after the laver of baptism, no defilements have clung, but who is spotless and bright, and who has neither a body contaminated by debaucheries, nor eyes soiled by theatrical spectacles, nor a mind drunk with wine, nor a life a handmaid to money. It is a great thing, then, to abstain from these; but not in these is there at once the rest of a completed journey: for in these the way is begun, not finished. For it follows: and worketh righteousness. Good is not so much to be thought as to be carried out; and benevolence is not to be merely undertaken, but to be fulfilled. For to will righteousness will here be the fruit—that it be done. And indeed in these things the course toward the Lord is useful; but the things remaining are more.
For there remains: He that walketh without spot and worketh righteousness, who speaketh truth in his heart. Those former things, although they are great and excellent, yet are wont to be common with the Gentiles also, that they may avoid vice, that they may acquire a reputation for goodness. But this is the virtue of the animal, not of the spiritual man. For the apostle set forth both the carnal man and the animal and the spiritual: the carnal, neglecting things divine and human after the manner of a beast, whose life is a servant of the body, busy with food, sleep, and lust; but the animal is he who, from the judgment of human sense, perceives what is becoming and honorable, and by his own authority refrains himself in soul from all vices, discerning by his own proper sense what is useful and honorable.
that he should scorn money, that he should be sparing in his fasts, that he should be free from ambition, that he should resist pleasures, that he should be venerable for his goodness — yet its usefulness will be present in these things only, and among men, for man. Of such things the teacher of the nations says: 'according to the doctrines and precepts of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in superstition and lowliness of mind, in not sparing the body, not in any honour, but for the satisfying of the flesh.' But he is spiritual whose zeal in those higher things is directed to the Lord, and who does whatever he does through the knowledge of God, understanding and recognizing what is His will, understanding and knowing the mystery of the secret counsel hidden from the ages of the world through the revelation and gift of the Holy Spirit.
what is the reason for the flesh assumed by God, what is the triumph of the cross, what the power over death, what the working in the might of the resurrection. These things, as the same apostle teaches, 'the natural man does not perceive, which are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, nor can he understand, because it is spiritually examined. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.' The Holy Spirit therefore, aware that those higher things — innocence of life and works of righteousness — are shared even by the heathen and by heretics: for many of them wear out their bodies with fasts, and testify to continence by the lavish giving away of their estates, and perfect their chastity by virginity.
But because these things and many of this kind would abound among them, the Lord spoke thus to His disciples: 'Amen, I say to you, when the Son of Man shall come, do you think He will find faith upon the earth?' He knew that virginity and continence and fasts were to be cultivated, and that these things do not avail unto holiness unless they are fulfilled in Christ — that is, unless they accord with the truth of Christ. To that which he had said above, the prophet added: 'and he speaks the truth in his heart,' showing that those higher things are useless unless they are undertaken in the truth of confession. And in this indeed, for those ascending to the rest of the Lord's mountain, the step is lofty — namely in innocence and in works and in confession:
but, although we have advanced through many things, yet still others remain. For many are wont to put forward a glorious appearance of understanding in words, and to feign the beauty of their will and judgment even by the seemliness of their speech, while they think and speak well concerning God, yet by their conduct and works lie against their own words and meaning. These are they who hate the very things they say and are enemies, in the actual facts, to the things they preach. Therefore to the truth of the heart he joined, saying: 'who has wrought no deceit in his tongue' — that he may not betray in words the truth which he feels, so that his working may correspond to the profession of catholic doctrine and to this judgment of thinking and preaching; because, according to the apostle's testimony, 'as with the heart it is believed,
so with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Therefore, that there may be a worthy ascent into the rest of God, one must live in the truth of words and of the tongue, so that through the faithfulness of our works our words may not be false. But this is a strait path, and difficult amid the wickedness and vices of the world. For a lie is often necessary, and sometimes falsehood is useful, when either we lie to a murderer about one who is hidden, or we thwart testimony on behalf of one in peril, or we deceive a sick man about the difficulty of his cure; and it behooves us, according to the apostle's teaching, that our speech be seasoned with salt. Therefore now the Holy Spirit has tempered the inclination toward falsehood by the conditions of a lie, saying:
'who has wrought no deceit in his tongue nor done evil to his neighbour,' so that the guilt of a lie should be reckoned only in another's harm. But although the things we have said above be fulfilled, and the innocent man enter in and work righteousness, embracing truth in his heart, not deceiving himself in the things he has spoken, doing no evil to his neighbour — yet he will not be perfect in these things. There is still something in us to be tamed, spat out, destroyed: and what that is, the same prophet who spoke above confirms, saying: 'and he has not taken up reproach against his neighbours.' He drives out, that is, the vices of insolence and self-confidence, and takes away that common evil of pride.
For what is so empty, so wretched, as a man being proud toward a man, as one trusting in something of his own? Do we not see many who, through the insolence of wealth, when they have reproached the poor with their neediness, having lost all things, come to need, and, having despised the misery of others, in turn have needed men's pity? Many too, through the presumption of a long-innocent life, have slipped into crimes, and, when they reproached others with their faults, have themselves scarcely attained the pardon of repentance. Reproach, therefore, is not to be entered upon against one's neighbours; but if anything careless is found in them, anything negligent, anything wanton, anything intemperate, it must be corrected without the bitterness of reproach, by the gentle coaxing of amendment.
This humility takes care of, this self-distrust through fear — which is the strongest guardian of confidence — that admonition may not be insult, that amendment may not be reproach, that teaching may not be abuse. Thus the Lord in the Gospels condemned the confidence of the praying Pharisee, when, standing in the midst, he thus discoursed: 'I give thee thanks, O Lord, that I am not as the rest of men — adulterers, avaricious — as also is this publican.' But the publican was praying in secret: 'Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.' To this prayer of his the Scripture added: 'that the publican went down more justified than the Pharisee.' The publican earned the mercy of God by the confession of his sin:
but the Pharisee, through the insolence of reproach, lost the honour of those things which he put forward concerning himself. But perhaps someone now believes himself worthy of the promises of God, if he has attained all these things: since after innocence, after goodness, after a measure of prudence, he has also moderated himself with humility. But many things still remain. For as he signified that there is sin in that lie, if the falsehood of the one lying should procure evil for another, so now, where he decrees that reproaches are not to be taken up against neighbours, he added that account must nonetheless be had of humility itself. And what this account is, coheres in the verse: 'and he has not taken up reproach against his neighbours. The malignant one is brought to nothing in His sight.'
Humility ought not to lack constancy, and the liberty of God is to be retained by us in that servitude which we owe to all, lest we be terrified at the assaults of the powerful, lest we yield to the whims of the malevolent. For sometimes we even serve kings who demand unjust things with base flattery, and, through the weakness of our conscience, we fawn upon others' vices. Therefore, if one has already broken forth into a profession of iniquity, as is explained in the verse — 'the malignant one is brought to nothing in His sight' — it behooves that a man of this sort be with us of no judgment at all, but of none whatever, so that he may be to us as nothing, abolished, destroyed.
For it befits one who handles spiritual things and contemplates heavenly things to despise the momentary movements of human wickedness, and with a lofty and exalted mind to reckon a man of this malevolence as though he were nothing. But perhaps the prophet will be judged to have raised up the greatness of our faith too far against the wicked. Yet it must be observed what follows: 'the malignant one is brought to nothing in His sight; but He magnifies those who fear the Lord.' Therefore, as without exception of person no one who is malignant ought to be anything to us, so also without exception of person everyone who fears the Lord is to be honoured.
Let not the innocent poor man move us, nor the fasting old woman, nor the faithful slave, nor the stranger trusting in his dwelling in the Church; but let us reverence all with equal judgment, so that such humility may be found in the magnifying of those who fear the Lord as the liberty that ought to be in esteeming the malevolent as nothing. And because in the nativity of our regeneration we swear into these sacraments, renouncing the devil, the world, and sins, when we answer those who question us, he has established that the faith of this confession must be retained even unto the end, saying: 'who swears to his neighbour and does not deceive.' For although one may have remained long in the commandments of God, yet if at some time he has deceived, he no longer remains once he has deceived, and the former righteousness is lost in the time of unrighteousness.
And therefore in the Gospel: 'blessed are they who shall have remained unto the end'; and therefore in Solomon all praise is sung at the ending, because in those things which have been promised to God one must never at any time deceive. But the heavenly admonition extends even to perfect consummation. For to him from whom he has wiped away every vice, he also turns away the covetousness of money, which detains us overmuch, saying: 'who has not given his money at usury.' This is taught to be a deceitful benefit, and a fraudulent kindliness, and a ruinous benevolence. For what is so intolerable as that you should so bestow a benefit upon the needy that he needs it the more, and that, meaning to bring aid, you heap up the misery of the poor?
If you are a Christian, what reward do you expect from God, when you yourself expect from men not benefits but losses? If you are a Christian, why do you set your idle money out to yield a return, and make your brother's need — the brother for whom Christ died — into your treasury? If you are a Christian, I do not ask that you give lavishly; at least demand back what is owed in such a way that you do not despoil, and remember that he from whom you exact usury is needy and poor — the one for whose sake Christ willed to be needy and poor. And so, whether you do an injury or a benefit when you deal with the poor, know that you are doing it to Christ, because for his sake, though He was God, He deigned to take his neediness and his name.
But lest this saying of admonition should be thought harsh, as though he had utterly removed under the name of usury all care of possessing: he did not therefore take away the concern of acquiring, nay rather he tempered the moderation of receiving a gift, adding to what he had said: 'who has not given his money at usury and has not taken bribes against the innocent.' There is a certain custom of gifts which brings honour to the giver, so that it is of the greatest grief to have one's offering despised — a loss to have given what was accepted. Therefore he has restrained those gifts which would work another's injury. For if he had removed the use of gifts altogether, it would have been enough to say: 'and he takes no gifts.'
But because the simple use of gifts comes either from reverence toward man or even toward God, he forbade those gifts which would corrupt the integrity of judgment, which would purchase injury to the innocent, which would contain in themselves no office of mutual charity. For as concerning those things which we offer to God — of these indeed He has no need, but through us the offices of due reverence are fulfilled — so he teaches that such a rule is to be observed in gifts, that those things be received by us which are pleasing and useful to the offerers, not those which make us venal, nor are treacherous to the innocent, nor costly to the givers: taken by way of office rather than of covetousness, brought forward by honour rather than fear, received in charity rather than for gain. 'He who does these things shall not be moved for ever.'
Through these things, therefore, is the dwelling in the tabernacle, through these the rest on the mountain. There remains, then, the keeping of the precepts and the doing of the commandments. The psalm is to be stored within the inmost parts, written on the heart, sealed in the memory; and by night and day this treasure of abundant brevity is to be laid up with us, so that, having acquired this wealth as provision for eternity, and dwelling in the Church, we may at last rest in the glory of Christ's body. PSALM 51 (52). Unto the end, understanding for David himself, when Doeg the Idumaean came and announced to Saul and said to him: David has come into the house of Abimelech. 'Why do you glory in malice, you who are mighty in iniquity all the day long? Your tongue has devised iniquity,' and the rest.