'Where I go, you cannot come,' He added: 'Let not your heart be troubled,' and further on: 'I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am you also may be.' Then Peter, troubled, who feared to be forsaken, said: 'Lord, where are You going?' The Lord saw that he was troubled and answered him: 'Where I go you cannot now follow Me, but you shall follow afterward.' So too on the sea, when Peter began to falter, he cried out to Christ, and Christ stretched out His right hand to him, lest, being utterly forsaken, he should perish. No one ought to be puffed up because he is never forsaken, nor to grieve because he is at some time forsaken, since the Son Himself says that He was forsaken, as you have it: 'My God, my God, look upon me; why have You forsaken me?'
And He indeed was never forsaken by the Father, with whom the Father always is; for it is written: 'Behold, the hour is now come that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.' But it was according to the body, in which He was handed over to the Passion, that this utterance went forth, since we seem to be forsaken when we are set amid perils. Whence Paul also says of God the Father: 'Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.' He seems to have forsaken Him, because He did not spare Him whom He handed over to death; yet He did not utterly forsake Him, to whom it is said: 'For You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will You give Your Holy One to see corruption.' II. THE LETTER BETH.
'Wherein does a young man correct his way?' Our discussion of the preceding eight verses turned out not unprofitable, and therefore it was our zeal to pursue also what follows. And first the interpretation of the second letter, that is 'Beth,' must be considered, which, rendered into Latin, is declared to mean 'confusion.' But he who corrects his way shall not be confounded. Yet because he who corrects was before in error—for how is one corrected, unless he had previously been turned aside from the truth?—
being set indeed in a fall, and caught by the dissoluteness of adolescence and the allurements of a wanton age, when, advancing to the borders of youth, he comes to his senses with a sober mind, then, as one confounded in soul, he ponders long within himself in what manner he may lay aside the things to be blushed at and take up things full of probity; and, wavering with diverse thoughts, he weighs and examines, forgetting the things behind and reaching toward the things that are before, how he may correct his way and veil the offense of his more youthful age with the grave countenance of manhood. And lest he hesitate long in such matters and stick fast in uncertainty, the prophet gives counsel, as though deliberating together with him; for then we believe counsels to be more wholesome, if they seem to have been examined with more attentive meditation.
But the very undertaking of deliberation is marked off by a learned definition, so as to remove the confluence of diverse thoughts, saying: 'Wherein does a young man correct his way?' For this is the goal of one deliberating, namely how he may correct his way. And he answers: 'In keeping Your words.' And rightly, being turned to God, he answers the one deliberating, as though, his prayer and supplication having been offered up, he had found this counsel by the Lord's inspiration, so that it might be believed a remedy not of human presumption but of divine grace. For our mind, sprinkled with the seeds of heavenly words, which before was degenerating into wild stocks, begins to put forth better cultivation and to bring forth fruits. Let us therefore make straight our paths, and not follow the windings of the twisting serpent.
For the ways of the Lord are straight, but perverse are the ways of those who go astray, of whom it is said: 'O you who have forsaken the straight paths!' In rows the glad crop is set forth, and the vineyards are placed in a certain order; the course of stags is straighter, that of the little fox is winding. Therefore of Herod it is said: 'Go, tell that fox,' because he had turned aside from the straight road and had not corrected his way in his youth—worthy of Jeremiah's lament, in which are bewailed the sinners who refused to take up the yoke of the word in youth. Therefore they were led captive, therefore they are bewailed as dead, because they knew not the paths of life and did not turn aside from works worthy of the tomb of corpses. Weeping then over the perpetual death of the Jews, Jeremiah says: 'It is good for a man when he bears the yoke in his youth;
he shall sit alone and keep silence, because he has taken it upon himself.' We ought not only to take up the yoke of the word, but to take it up in youth; for if we take it up too late, we begin rather to have repentance for things past than to hold fast grace. Let us therefore forestall the years of youth with fitting correction, that we may rather each one say: 'O God, who feeds me from my youth,' than that, holding remembrance of our falls, we bewail them, saying: 'Remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorances.' This is the remedy of weakness, that the strength of salvation. The medicine of salvation is sought for a wound, grace for health. And therefore he says: 'It is good for a man when he bears the yoke in his youth.' But for him who takes up the yoke after the years of youth have run their course, the good is not at once perfect:
for his own sins goad him, the habit of sinning agitates his conscience, and the practice of error makes him unstable. Such a man must wrestle long, that he may abolish things grown old and long-standing. For this man the matter is in peril, for the other in good. Finally, that one shall 'sit alone,' as one who does not easily find an equal, endowed with singular rewards, and 'shall keep silence,' quiet and at leisure from every interruption of worldly anxiety and pleasure, and shall be free for the divine oracles, which are wont to be revealed to those who sit alone, as to holy David, who says: 'For You, O Lord, have singularly established me in hope.' And he indeed did not sit alone in secret, but, although he presided over peoples, yet he was preeminent by a singular grace.
Elijah sat alone, when he was fed by an angel, or even by ravens that brought him food—alone, not only set apart from the crowds, but also separated from the merits of the many. Thus the revelations of divine grace shone upon him; and the fruit of this gift he obtained as a reward, because from his youth he thought the yoke of the word should be taken up, lest his sins be dragged along too long by a lengthy rope.
This young man, who did good by taking up the yoke of the word in youth, though not yet perfect because still rather young, separating himself from the conversations of his peers, which very often corrupt good morals, and wishing to flee the contagions of sinners, may thus be understood to 'sit alone and keep silence,' lest he slip through the easiness of his raw age, but rather give heed to the precepts of his elders, the oracles of the prophets, the teachings of the apostles—worthy of praise for this, that he wishes first to learn the things to be spoken before he utters them, and to perceive what he should feel before he learns to speak, fearing lest in much speaking he contract sin.
Whence I suppose that even Pythagoras, that philosopher, an imitator of this prophetic young man, established his sect so that his disciples, not speaking for five years, might by so great a silence learn to speak; especially since there is no doubt that David too was of an earlier age than Pythagoras—David who says: 'I said, I will keep my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I set a guard upon my mouth.' And because perhaps he had at some time spoken something too incautiously, therefore he afterward begged that a guard be set upon his mouth by God. And who does not know that Isaiah too was earlier than the Pythagoreans? He, when he had heard 'Cry out,' did not cry out before he heard what he ought to cry; for he answered: 'What shall I cry?' Whereupon it was said to him:
'All flesh is grass, but the word of the Lord abides forever,' and with a prophetic voice he cried out. Each young man, therefore, is to be praised. Yet the one is more grave, this one more cautious; the one content with himself and never alone to himself, this one taking on a fair discipline for his slippery age—the discipline of silence—and not yet abounding to himself, but fearing to trust himself to others, yet seeking from youth to gather together those things which in old age may profit both himself and his neighbors, lest it be said to him: 'What you did not gather in youth, how will you find in old age?' Therefore this man, if he sit in the council of the elders, will put his hand upon his mouth, that, hearing their judgments, he may gather what he may keep for a more mature age:
just as Mary, when she heard the words of Christ, pondered all these things in her heart; just as John, when he reclined his head upon the breast of the Lord Jesus, drew in the deep secrets of wisdom. Behold for you a young man who corrected his way in youth! He was a fisherman with his brother; he saw the Lord Jesus while he was folding his nets, and heard Him saying: 'Come, I will make you fishers of men,' and, leaving his nets and his father, he followed Him. He had begun to run the way of the world, but, hearing the commands, he forsook the life of the world and followed Christ—he proved that 'in this a young man corrects his way,' if he keep the words of Christ, saying to Him:
'Let us love Your breasts more than wine'—yet so drinking that he was not swallowed up by the wine, but drew the gladness of his heart from His grace, and did not stagger with the drunkenness of the body. Finally, drinking this wine, he opened his eyes and saw the straight way, and left the winding ways, saying: 'Equity has loved You,' that is: 'No winding journeys follow You, but only the path of righteousness can reach to You.' For he who loves righteousness does not turn himself away from Christ; for how should an innocent conscience fear the judge of the just and the rewarder of merits? In this young man, then, behold the great mysteries which holy Solomon, filled with the Spirit of the Lord, sang forth in the Song of Songs.
Picture the Lord Jesus reclining at the banquet, John leaning himself upon His breast, and others marveling that a servant should recline upon his Lord, that that sinful flesh should recline upon the temple of the Word, that that soul bound by the chains of the flesh should search out the hall of the divine fullness. To these others, then, marveling, the soul of John answers: 'I am dark and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem'—dark through fault, comely through grace. The flesh too says: 'I am dark and comely'—dark with the worldly dust which I gathered in striving, comely with the spiritual oil with which I wiped off the dust and squalor of this world; dark through vice, but already comely through the laver which washes away every offense;
I am dark, because I have sinned; comely, because Christ already loves me, whom He had banished in Eve, has received from a virgin, has taken up from Mary. The synagogue too speaks, whose mysteries seem to most to be expressed in this place; for when she saw herself now cast off because of the impiety of the whole people, she yet consoled herself, because she saw Christ Himself from her own people, and Peter, John, and James cleaving to Christ, because she had the oracles entrusted to her, and therefore she said: 'I am dark and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem'—dark through unbelief, comely through the law; dark through the fall, comely because the Sun loved me, and I was made the first congregation of God. Do not flee from me, because I am dark;
I am dark for this reason, that the Sun of righteousness has left me, who before was wont to enlighten. I have lost the color of my countenance; the keenness of my eyes has been dulled, with which before I saw the Sun; I walk in darkness, because I know not the day of Christ. Yet do not despise me, since He who has left can again look back and have mercy once more. He is wont to gather the scattered, to seek out the forsaken, to gather the destitute. 'All you tribes of Israel, assemble, look upon me as comely though once forsaken; do not look upon me, since I am darkened.' That is: do not look upon this alone, that I am darkened. The Sun has not regarded me, and therefore I am darkened. But the Sun shines upon the just and the unjust—upon the just through grace, upon the unjust through mercy.
to the former granting the reward of their merits, to the latter forgiving their sins. And to the nations He did not shine before, but now He shines, now He rises for those for whom He was rising for me; He who has forgiven them will forgive me also. Do not suppose, because I am darkened, that the Sun has utterly left me and no longer regards me, that He does not seek out the sick one. He has dissembled toward me, because I did not keep His commandments; He will be reconciled when He sees the repentance of my offenses. The Sun did not see me, because I did not receive Him when He came, I did not open the windows that the light of life might enter. When I shall have opened, He will enlighten my eyes—He who came to enlighten the whole world, that even those who see not may see. 'The sons of my mother fought against me, they set me as keeper in the vineyards:
my own vineyard I have not kept.' Some think this is said of those who constrain the synagogue to the precepts of the law, that she might keep the law and guard her own vineyard, which she could not keep; for she kept it to make grapes, but it brought forth thorns instead. As to what manner of vineyard this is, David comes to bear witness to us, saying: 'You brought a vine out of Egypt, You cast out the nations and planted it.' The apostles too can be the sons of her mother, who truly assailed the synagogue, saying: 'Behold, we turn to the nations,' and began to sow the word of God among the peoples. The prophets too can be understood, who by exhorting and admonishing that the synagogue should keep her vineyard, accomplished nothing.
For it brought forth the thorns of wickedness, which ought to have borne the rich fruits of virtue. And therefore she confesses that she could not keep her own people, and deservedly seeks too late to hold him whom, while she held him, she lost—far more unlike that other one who says: 'I have found him whom my soul loves; I held him and will not let him go.' Finally, that other woman invites the Bridegroom into her garden; this one, seeking where He may feed, says to Him: 'Tell me whom my soul has loved.' Why do you say 'whom my soul has loved' and not 'whom she loves'? Why did you let go him whom you were holding? You loved with the faith of the fathers, you lost through unbelief; you held with the bonds of love, you lost through the long rope of perfidy. Therefore you know not where He feeds, where He abides; for if you knew, you would not seek. For you say:
'Where do You feed, where do You rest at noon?' You know noon to be the Church which holds Christ, and do you seek Him in the nights? 'Tell me,' she says, 'O Christ; answer me, if only for this reason, that before you were dear and beloved to me; though I have lost the prerogative of so great a love, yet do You, as one merciful, answer me: Where do You feed, where do You rest?' You have left me, You have gone to the nations, You have withdrawn far from me and become nearer to those from whom You were far. But You became near, because they believed in Your blood; You withdrew from me, because I did not receive Your cross as the redemption of the world, but as the condemnation of a malefactor. But those who received it as the author of salvation are at noon;
for them You shine, for them You give light, for them Your grace grows warm like noon. To me You were as the morning while I still believed, but I did not believe fully, because I was not found at noon like Joseph with his brethren, who dined at noon. For them You became noon, who are fed upon Your riches and hope in You. Therefore, as David said, 'You will lead forth their righteousness as the light, and their judgment as the noonday.' You seek, then, as a stranger, you who were close; as a poor woman, you who were rich. You wish to follow those whom you preceded; and would that you might at least follow those whom you ought to have preceded! You desire to be a hireling, you who before gathered hirelings; for surely this is the voice of a hireling who says:
'Lest perhaps I become as one veiled about, beside the flocks of Your companions.' You who before received proselytes from the nations, now you yourself wish to be received among the nations in place of proselytes, and to be gathered as a foreigner. Jesus answers: 'Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women.' What is it to know oneself, except that each one should know that man was made to the image and likeness of God, capable of reason, who ought to till his own land like a good husbandman with a certain plow and pruning-hook of wisdom, so that hard things may be split open or rank growth cut back, and who ought to govern the lower portion of himself by the command of the mind? Whence also it is written in the Law: 'Take heed to yourself, lest a hidden word arise in your heart.' 'To yourself,' he says, 'take heed';
he says not, to be sure, your money, not your possessions, not the strength of your body, but your soul and your mind, whence all counsels, deeds, and thoughts flow. Take heed, therefore, to yourself there, where you know yourself to be better. 'Know yourself.' This saying the Gentile men assign to the Pythian Apollo, as though he were himself the author of this sentence, when they transfer to their own what was usurped from ours; and Moses, who wrote the book of Deuteronomy, was far earlier than the philosophers who fabricated these things. Whence Solomon too, following the divine oracle, wrote in the Song of Songs: 'Unless you know yourself, O fair one among women.' That is:
unless you acknowledge yourself mortal and rational, and quickly confess your sins, quickly declare your iniquities, that you may be justified; unless you turn and first accuse your own offenses, the day of death comes and there is no longer any remedy of conversion; you are forestalled while you give it no thought. Light your torch before the door of the Bridegroom is shut against you, who is not wont to wait long for the negligent. 'Unless you know yourself,' He says, 'O fair one among women,' and say: 'I am dark and comely'—I am dark, because I have sinned, but comely, because I am loved, because I am of the race of Abraham, a chosen race, beloved of God—the grace of the fathers will profit you nothing; for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
And elsewhere in the Gospel you have read that the devil bound a daughter of Abraham with the chains of his wickedness, whom the Lord loosed on the Sabbath day. Unless, therefore, you know yourself, it will profit you nothing, even though you say, 'I am a daughter of Abraham,' you who do not believe, who do not correct your error. Abraham indeed is saved, but the nobility of your race will not help you, unless faith has kept it. Let not the promise given to the fathers deceive you. I do not accept the person of a man, I do not accept the prerogative of race, unless I see a nobility of morals befitting the race, that there may be an election of a just race. But if you know and acknowledge yourself, that you are liable to sin, you must go out among the heels of the flocks. Go out, then, with bare foot, and feed your kids in the tents of the shepherds.
He who is without sin feeds lambs, feeds sheep; but she who is liable to sin feeds the kids that are on the left hand; for she cannot be on the right hand of the good Shepherd. Let her rather follow Him who says to Peter: 'Get behind Me, Satan.' By following, Peter merited to be placed on the right hand, and therefore it is said to him: 'Feed My little lambs.' But where she is to go out, hear: 'to the tents,' He says, 'of the shepherds,' that is, to the nations, to the dispersion. And therefore He said: 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered,' that the whole world might be filled with the flock of Christ—signifying that the synagogue would then be saved, when she too shall have joined herself to this dispersion which has filled this world; for the tents of the shepherds are the kingdoms of the earth.
And therefore the prophet David, announcing that the nations would believe, says: 'Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God.' Let the young man, then, know himself, that he may correct his way. But you say: 'How can a young man know his way, so as to correct it, when the prophet says: There are three things impossible for me to understand, and a fourth which I do not recognize: the tracks of a flying eagle, the way of a serpent upon a rock, and the path of a ship sailing through the waves, and the ways of a man in his youth? If Solomon confesses that he does not know the ways of a man in his youth, how can a young man know them?'
To this it will be answered, that those ways of a man in his youth are not known which are alongside the ways of the serpent upon a rock, alongside the paths of a ship sailing through the waves, and the tracks of a flying eagle—the eagle, which has sharp talons and flies above the clouds, wanders in the air and slays the fish in the sea. And yet this fourth thing is not impossible, as those three are; for the Lord knows those who are His, and wills that each one should know himself, that the people of God should know itself. But granted that the ways of those who go astray are not known, as the Lord says: 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.'
This young man, however, who can correct his way, may perhaps be younger in age but not in morals, and may have in the first flower of his youth a senile understanding, of which it is said: 'Gray hair is understanding to men, in whom there is maturity of counsel and gravity.' Whence also it is said to Jeremiah: 'Say not, I am a youth.' And he was indeed young in age, but He forbids him to call himself a youth who was of more mature prudence. Daniel, when he was a boy, received a spirit by which he was deemed worthy of the first-fruits of old age, so as to confute the elders—himself not older in length of days, but in grace; for in him there was the age of old age, a life unspotted, to whom that Davidic saying well befits: 'I have understood beyond the elders.'
And therefore the divine oracle pronounced concerning him as concerning a man of veteran counsel and senile knowledge: 'Who is wiser than Daniel?' Now let us consider, if it be possible, whether a young man may correct his way or not. If he cannot, then the prophet lies; but since he does not lie, it is possible—yet so possible that what seems impossible becomes possible, if the young man keep the words of God; but if he keep them not, it is impossible. Whence that Gospel saying: 'It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Which, however impossible He said it to be, we so understand to be impossible, because the rich do not keep the commandments of God;
but if they keep them, that becomes possible which seemed impossible. This is the camel which enters through the narrow way, and the way which before could not receive him while he coveted, now receives him while he keeps the divine commandments. But for the keeping of the words of God, because he kept them, Moses is chosen as an elder; and now, to those to whom by this Spirit of God the office is committed of choosing elder men, they choose without doubt among the elders a young man who corrects his way in keeping the words of God. And if they choose a man of elder age, they have not chosen him as one long-lived, but as one keeping the words of God; and if this is found in a younger man, he too is assuredly to be chosen.
It is clear, therefore, from these things, that it is not length of old age that is chosen, but the keeping of the words of God. Finally, Moses himself approved Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb, young men, above the rest, whose counsel in the choosing of the land both he himself followed rather than that of the many elders, and God preferred. Whence also that saying concerning Jacob, which we mentioned above, 'O God, who feeds me from my youth,' is made manifest to us to have been said of him who took up the yoke of the word in his youth, and, withdrawing from Esau and those like him, sat alone, awaiting within himself the time when he might bring forth his discourse with discipline; and therefore he was endowed with spiritual nourishment, still whole in age, but a veteran in counsel.
For it is not fitting that we should believe that so great a patriarch said concerning bodily food, 'O God, who feeds me from my youth,' since he did not even desire bodily bread, when he said: 'If the Lord God be with me, let Him give me bread to eat and a garment to put on; of all that You give me, I will give You a tithe.' For if our fathers ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink, how much more was holy Jacob fed with spiritual food!
That understanding also fits in this place and is not foreign to the truth: that that younger people gathered from among the nations, which, before it believed in Christ, wandered through a twisting maze, in this corrects its way, because it kept the words of God which the people of the Jews would not keep, and therefore that people could not find the way of salvation. Let us consider also the following verse: 'With my whole heart have I sought You; cast me not away from Your commandments.' If God casts away each one whom He thinks should be cast away, let us see whether He give an excuse to the one who, when he wished to follow God, was repelled. And first, how does the good God repel one following, unless that one deserve to be repelled? As the Lord Himself says:
'Foxes have holes,' and therefore as a fox He repels him; and elsewhere: 'For to everyone who has it shall be given, but from him who has not, even what he seems to have shall be taken away from him.' To which He adds—except to him who seeks Him with his whole heart, that what is lacking to nature he may acquire by the working of God and by grace? As Solomon, who, seeking God with his whole heart, asked for wisdom, and, because he begged not royal riches for himself but the gift of divine grace, merited to receive the discipline of wisdom, and was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, that he might know all the commandments.
But he who has not the means to seek the Lord in his heart, and does indeed do the work of God, but does it negligently, is subject to a curse, as we read: 'Cursed is everyone who does the work of God negligently.' Deservedly, therefore, he is repelled, because he is worthy of a curse, because he rather defiles and hinders the work which he thought should be carried out negligently. Let us consider, then, whether it be goodness to repel from a work the one who is negligent, or rather to retain him; and let us take an image of this matter from other arts. The physician cures the sick man, but through the negligence and idleness of the physician the poison of the wound creeps on.
How much better, then, to remove such a physician, who wastes time while the wounded man feels no improvement, so that the office of healing may be transferred to that physician who can more speedily come to the aid of the sick by his diligence! Is not he more merciful who repels the one accomplishing nothing than he who retains him to the danger of the sick? Set someone over those who build or even weave, who ought to bring the sum of the work to completion:
which of the two seems to you more commendable—if he diligently insists upon it and, should he perchance notice anyone careless among those who work in some house being built, repels him, judging it better not to build than that what is built should fall apart with gaping cracks, and substitutes in his place someone who builds with diligence? Likewise also the overseer of a weaving-shop, who repels the negligent in order to substitute the diligent, lest long carelessness ruin the weaving-shop—will you not approve him more than the one who suffers the slothful to persist in their negligence? Pass now to those who build up the commandments and weave together the law and have received the soul of each one to be healed.