In whose pastures the prophet rejoiced to be placed, saying: In a place of pasture, there he has set me; for he himself feeds and refreshes us. The divine sacraments are good pastures. There you pluck the new flower, which gave the good odour of resurrection; you pluck the lily, that is, the splendour of eternity; you pluck the rose, that is, the blood of the Lord's body. Good pastures also are the words of the heavenly Scriptures, in which we are fed by daily reading, in which we are recreated and refreshed, when we taste the things that are written, or, having lightly sipped them with the surface of the lips, we more frequently ruminate them. With these pastures the flock of the Lord is fattened. Good also are the pastures of Christ, who feeds among the lilies, in the splendour of the saints; good pastures also are the mountains of the valleys;
for among these too Christ feeds like a roe or a young hart of the stags. The mountains of the valleys are like the luminaries of this world, shining with assiduous humility, who excel by the summit of diverse virtues and rise above the world by their merits. These are they of whom it is said: They are not of this world, as I am not of this world, because they who follow Christ are above the world. But the valley is the world, and therefore he has set in the valley of weeping, because in this world there are weeping and tears. And the foreseeing Lord has set in this world his testament, that we may rather here weep for our sins than keep deeds to be wept over. Our pastures also are these little verses, of which we are about to treat today, in which David says:
I fed the sheep of my father, showing the true lamp, learning humility. In such pastures the true David, truly humble and strong in hand, who thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but emptied himself and, born a man through the Virgin's birth, humbled himself even unto death, fed the sheep of his Father with divine preaching, when according to the Scriptures he proved his coming, when with five loaves and two fishes he satisfied many thousands of men. These, therefore, are our pastures, these the pastures of those who can say: How sweet are thy words to my throat! these the pastures of those who say: Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, O Lord. For our mouth is fed with the word, when we speak the commandments of the God of the Word.
Our inner eye also is fed by the light of the spiritual lamp, which shines before us in this night of the world, lest, like those walking in darkness, we should stagger with uncertain footsteps and be unable to find the true way. The stepping of the feet, then, is intelligible, intelligible also the lamp, because the Word of God is the lamp. Was not this Word in the beginning with God? How then is it a lamp? Was not this the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world? How then is it called a lamp? Isaiah cries: The people that sat in darkness saw a great light: how does he here say 'lamp'? But let us see whether perhaps the same Word of God is to some a great light, to others a lamp. To me it is a lamp, to the angels a light.
To Peter it was light, when the angel stood by him in prison and a light shone upon him. To Paul it was light, when, as he went to persecute the Christian people, a light from heaven shone round about him and he heard one saying to him: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And a great light indeed; in short, the light of Paul's lamp vanished where the splendour of the divine light flashed forth. And truly Christ is to me a lamp, when he is reviewed by this mouth of ours. He shines in the mire, that treasure glitters in an earthen vessel, which we have in earthen vessels. Put in oil, lest it fail you, because the light of the lamp is oil—not earthly oil, but that oil of heavenly mercy and grace with which the prophets were anointed.
Your oil is humility, by which the hardness of our neck is softened. Your oil is your mercy, by which even bodies dashed upon the rocks of sinners are cherished. This oil that evangelical Samaritan poured upon the man wounded by robbers as he went down from Jerusalem, who, seeing him, was moved with mercy and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. This oil heals the sick—for mercy frees from sin—; this oil shines in the darkness, if our works shine before men; this oil shines in the solemnities of the Church. In short, those for whom oil did not fail, neither did the light of faith fail, but with their lamps they deserved to enter into the place of the marriage;
but those who did not bring oil in their vessels—that is, who did not have faith, prudence, mercy in the soul placed within this body—were deservedly shut out for their unbelief. Therefore do you too always have a burning lamp or a shining torch. For if neither your lamp nor your torch shines, you will be called a foolish virgin, nor will you enter into the bridal chamber of your bridegroom above, but you will remain in the darkness of blindness, like one who hates the light, lest your shameful works be exposed; for everyone who does evil hates the light. Have faith, have prudence, that you may always have in your vessels the oil of mercy, the grace of devotion, because the prudent took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Anoint, O men, your lamps; when you fast, anoint your head. Let us pour oil upon our minds, that our body may be full of light. Let the word of God shine ever as a lamp for you, and let the lamp of your body, your eye, shine also. Your conscience, shining well within this body, is the light of the lamp; it is itself your eye. Let your eye be pure. If your conscience is clean, your flesh is clean; but if your conscience is dark within you, then your body too is darkened by the night of your conscience. We also, therefore, are lamps wholly covered over by the body, scarcely having any little means whereby we may be able to give light. And indeed John too was a lamp, as the Lord said of him: 'He was a burning and a shining lamp.'
A good lamp, which received its light from Christ, that it might be able to shine in this world, deservedly burning, deservedly giving light, because he was the herald of Christ, illuminating by the preaching of faith the hearts of each one. But to these lamps also he granted that they should be the light of the world, saying to the apostles: 'You are the light of the world.' Therefore, if the glory of the saints shone in this world now as a lamp, now as the light of the world, what shall we say of the word of God, which is also 'a lamp unto my feet'? And perhaps where there are no shadows, the word of God is not a lamp, but above a lamp, because it is light. There is no darkness for those who see the light; indeed then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
And perhaps according to the Law the word of God is a lamp, but according to the Gospel it is a great light. To the Jews it is a lamp, and a lamp under a bushel. The Law shines, but is not seen, because their teaching is covered both by the contagion of vices and by the blindness of unbelief; but to the people from the nations it is light. Indeed, to the people that sat in the region of the shadow of death a light is risen. Open therefore your windows, that the splendor of the great light may enter in to you. Make ready a safe lampstand, that your light be not covered by the covering of your body and by the measure of this earthly frailty, but that beyond the measure of bodily infirmity you may shine forth by the virtue of your soul.
Or if you are held to a measure, see that those very measures do not overflow; let them not overflow, but be content with good seeds. Let not your speech be idle, let not your word strike at nothing and stand empty, lest it become a lamp under a bushel. God is able to set your lamp upon a lampstand, that it may shine to all who are in the house, that those who enter may see the light. Our chief faculty is the lampstand. Set your speech in your governing principle, and it shines to all who enter into the Church. Receive yet another lampstand. Consider your mouth, consider also your speech. Is not your mouth a lampstand and your word a lamp, when it is brought forth from your mouth? Let this lamp shine always for you, that is:
Let your word shine and never be extinguished. You ask that I teach how it cannot be extinguished. It is written: 'The light of the righteous is ever inextinguishable, but the light of the wicked shall be put out.' This was the light of the lamp which shone in the tabernacle of testimony, and which today shines in the Church, the wise man. This is the eye of the Church, which does not say to the hands, that is, to those who labor but are not keen in understanding: 'I have no need of you.' Therefore upon the lampstand shone he who said: 'But our conversation is in heaven.' For David too already dwelt in heaven with his whole mind, and yet still said: 'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.'
Or perhaps, like a good master, he desired to go before me, that I might learn to follow the light and walk in his footsteps. He showed me, therefore, to learn to follow the lamp, set as I am in the darkness of this ignorance, in the darkness of this bodily covering, so that following Christ I might run into no stone of stumbling. Peter erred in the darkness of ignorance, he denied that Christ was to die, because he did not yet see that he was to die and rise again for us. The Lord, turning to him, said: 'Get thee behind me.' He showed him the lamp which he ought to follow, saying 'after me.' According to the word of God he was confirmed, and afterwards he began to cleave to Christ, fearing lest he should again fall away into some error. Was not he too, like the one who said:
'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,' hastened to this lamp, when he said upon the sea: 'Lord, bid me come to thee upon the water'? But because he did not follow the lamp, he was moved and wavered, troubled by the mass of a more violent nature. Let us therefore follow this lamp as a lamp, and as in the night let us walk toward the light. Many pits, many crags are not seen in the gloom of this world. Carry before you the lamp which the prophet showed; see whither you ought to move your step, behold where to set the foot of your inner mind. Let there be care at each single step; trust your advance to none, unless the light of this lamp goes before.
And where you think there is light, there is a whirlpool; it seems to shine, but it defiles; and where you think there is solid or dry ground, there it is slippery, if the lamp be too far from you. Let therefore the faith of your journey go before you, let the divine Scripture be your way; good is the heavenly guidance of the oracle. From this lamp do you also kindle a lamp, that your inner eye may shine, which is the lamp of your body. You have many lamps; kindle them all, because it has been said to you: 'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.' Because the darkness is great, many lamps are needful, that the light of our merits may shine forth amid so great darkness.
The Law signified that these lamps ought always to shine in the tabernacle of testimony—not those which the Jews kindle daily. Those shine under a shadow and are extinguished daily, because they do not see what they do, they know not what they read, taking according to the letter what is commanded according to the spirit.
For this tabernacle of testimony is this body of ours, into which Christ came through a greater and more perfect tabernacle, as it is written, that through his own blood he might enter into the holy place and cleanse our conscience from every work of the dead and from defilement; whereby in our bodies—which by the testimony and quality of our deeds bear witness to the hidden and secret things of our thoughts—the clear light of our virtues may shine after the manner of lamps. These are the burning lamps which shine day and night in the temple of God. If you keep the temple of God in your body, if your members are members of Christ, your virtues shine, which none extinguishes, unless your own crime has extinguished them.
With this light of a chaste mind and pious devotion let the feasts of our solemnity shine again. Let therefore your lamp always shine. Christ reproves even those who use a lamp, if they do not always use it, saying: 'Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.' Let us not rejoice in the light only for an hour. He rejoices for an hour who hears the word in the Church and is glad, but when he has gone out forgets what he heard or neglects it. This is he who walks in his house without a lamp, and therefore walks in darkness, who does the works of darkness in revelings and drunkenness, in chamberings and wantonness, in strife and envyings, clothed in the garments of the devil, not in Christ. These things happen when the lamp of the word does not shine.
Let us therefore never neglect the word of the Lord, from which we have the origin of all virtues and a certain advancement of all our works. If the members of our body cannot rightly perform their function without light—for the feet stagger without light and the hands go astray—how much more must the steps of our soul, the going of our mind, be directed to the light of the word! There are also hands of the soul which touch well, as Thomas touched the tokens of the Lord's resurrection, if the light of the present word shine for us. Let this lamp be kindled in every word, in every work; by this lamp let our step, outward and inward, be moved. But let us go on to what remains, and let the word of God become a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my paths.
A lamp is enough for the feet to walk by, but for the paths it is not enough to illuminate. Yet the same word is both a lamp for the feet and a light for the paths, because the same only-begotten Son of God is both an advocate for the sinning and a rewarder of the strong, a remitter of sins, a bestower of rewards. And so for him whose lamp the word of God has become, his paths shine wherever he goes, as they shone for holy David; and therefore, as one walking in light, he says: 'I have sworn and am steadfastly purposed to keep the judgments of thy righteousness.' [I have been humbled exceedingly.] It is the voice of one walking in the light to say with authority: 'I have sworn and have purposed.' For he who has purposed is not moved, he fears not lest he fall, because to be purposed is more than to stand.
David therefore stands, founded in the station of his mind, and fears not lest he go astray in these shadows of this world. For if he feared, he would not swear; if he trembled as to whether he could keep the divine judgments, he would not have settled it with the sacrament of an oath. No one swears well save he who can know what he swears. To swear, therefore, is a token of knowledge, a testimony of conscience. And he swears well who directs his feet to the lamp of the word, who discerns the light in his paths. Let the light go before, if you purpose to swear—that is, let the knowledge of truth precede—that the bond of the oath may not be able to harm you. Where religion is holier, there the faith of the truth is fuller.
Indeed, therefore the Lord, who came to instruct the little ones, to imbue the new, to strengthen the perfect, says in the Gospel: 'Swear not at all,' because he was speaking to the weak. Indeed he was not speaking to the apostles alone, but to the crowds—for he willed that you should not swear, lest you forswear yourself—and he added: 'Swear not, neither by heaven nor by earth nor by Jerusalem nor by thy head,' namely by those things which are not subject to your power. The Lord swore, and it shall not repent him. Let him swear, therefore, who cannot repent of his oath. And what did God swear? That 'Christ is a priest forever.' Was that uncertain, was it impossible, which God swore? Could it be changeable?
Do not, therefore, usurp the example of an oath, you who have not the power to fulfill the oath. What then did David swear? To keep the judgments of the righteousness of the Lord. In no respect, indeed, was he now imperfect. Now instructed, the judgments of divine righteousness moved him. How many are moved when they see some righteous man bereft of children and reduced by frequent losses to the necessity of utter destitution, so that he cannot have even the supports of nourishment, broken by grievous sickness and harassed by perpetual weakness, so that he cannot fulfill the common offices of nature! But he who is firm is not moved, and he the more understands that the righteousness of God is to be proclaimed, because 'the Lord chastens whom he loves.' Is not a son more often chastised than a servant?
Is then the love of a father unjust, more than the severity of a master? A father exercises his son with harsher means than a master his home-born slave, yet the harsh scourges of a father are not reckoned as inflicted, because he wills the son to be better than the slave. Instruction, therefore, is full of righteousness. Holy Job was bereft of his children, over whom the Lord gave power to the devil. Is God then unjust? Far from it. Nay, he is just. Because he was about to prove his righteous one by trials of this kind, in which his patience was proved, he made him the more worthy to be proved. For the more glorious the merit of the one crowned, the richer the righteousness of the one who crowns. He was stripped of his goods. Though he was rich, he underwent these losses too, God permitting.
These were no longer losses of money, but of life, when nourishment was lacking, all things being taken away. Who would accuse the righteousness of God, since, if Job had not lost all his money, he would not have found so great grace? God willed to anoint his athlete, stripped naked, with the oil of patience, that both by undergoing he might make him stronger for the contest, and by deserving worthier of the reward. Pierced over his whole body with grievous sores, he sat upon the dunghill, scraping the matter that flowed from the cruel weals of his wounds; and this the devil had inflicted on the righteous man by the Lord's permission. The devil would have seemed to himself to have conquered, had he not, having received the power he had demanded, been himself also overcome.
What then was that temptation, what was the want of goods, the loss of children, the endurance of wounds, save an exercise of faith, a mark of patience, a glorious instruction in virtue, a confession full of victory—so that he who before had the devil contradicting him should afterwards have him no more? Let no one therefore think those things hard which are just. They did not seem hard to him who could say: 'Naked was I born, naked shall I go forth. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' For the righteous man blesses the Lord when he labors, the sinner when he riots. Did not then the commands of righteousness seem hard out of our infirmity, we who think hard whatever through weakness of mind we cannot bear? Take away persecutions, and martyrs are lacking.
But God suffered even persecutors, that is, the powers of the world, to rise up, lest there should lack those who would conquer for Christ. Who then among the weak did not say: 'Lord, why hast thou given thy people into the power of those who persecute?' But who today would deny that they are more blessed who suffered, than those whom no torments of persecutors troubled? The righteous man, therefore, desires to be proved; he fears not to be tempted; for he who has purposed to keep the judgments of God fears not temptations. Where has he purposed, save in his heart? For there we ought to be rooted and grounded, not wavering nor moved by every wind of doctrine. Let us therefore purpose within, in our heart, in our breast, in our mind, that there may come to pass for us that prophetic word: 'The thoughts of the righteous are paths.'
In these paths the righteous man walks; therefore he says: 'Prove me, O Lord, and try me.' Indeed in this place, answering his own authority, he who had sworn and purposed to keep the judgments of God's righteousness says that he wished to be proved, he who believed that humility was to be undergone for Christ. And therefore he says: 'I have been humbled exceedingly.' Not only humbled, but he rejoices to have been even exceedingly humbled. Blessed is he who glories in humility rather than in power. Power deceives, humility does not forsake. Good is humility, which even in Christ found the praise of virtue. This I venerate in him more than the creation, because we were created for labor, but redeemed for rest.
Indeed he himself, calling the peoples to his mercy, glories of his own humility, saying: 'I was made manifest to those that sought me not; I appeared to those that did not ask after me'; and elsewhere: 'I gave my back to the scourges, my cheeks to the palms, and my face I turned not away from the confusion of spittings.' Rightly therefore did David wish to humble himself, that he might fill up in himself what was lacking of the tribulations of Christ. And he himself too can be understood to have spoken this through the person of David, to have said: 'I have been humbled exceedingly,' he who said in the Gospel: 'Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.'
Let us therefore learn from him who willed to teach us what would profit unto salvation and says to us: 'Learn of me.' It is no small thing that he says 'learn' and adds 'learn of me.' Not easily can anyone puffed up teach humility; however much the mind of the flesh may exalt human wisdom. And he who is content with poverty is not content with injury, and he who can bear the pains of stripes is provoked by the insults of words, and he who can despise administrative offices grieves that someone has been preferred before him in honor. It is a great thing in all things to keep the measure of humility. Pride first cast man down. While we desire more, we are wont to lose even what is less.
Good is humility, which by desiring nothing obtains all that it despises. The Lord Jesus himself humbled himself, that he might raise us up, and he humbled himself even unto the cross. Wherefore, it says, God exalted him, that at his name every knee should bow. How great things has the Lord done—I dare to say—and have I not bowed my knee to him? But I bowed it to him after he humbled himself; for thus, that is, through humility, through the cross, he gathered the Church to himself. David was a king; he testifies that the uncertain and hidden things of wisdom were laid open to him, but for that very reason he humbled himself the more. But Hezekiah, on the contrary, fell from the height of his heart.
That praiseworthy king, who was delivered from siege, from sickness, by the benefits and wonders of the Lord, fell through pride and diminished the grace of his former merit. What would Joseph have been, had he not been humble? He knew that it had harmed him that he was preferred above his brothers; even pious love had found the misery of preferment. Preferment armed his brothers. Humility reconciled strangers; preferment stirred up his own kindred. Humility made the king subject to him. So that we may truly think it was said as though from the person of Joseph what this very man said above: 'I have been humbled, and he saved me'—although, if we consider what this man endured, we shall find that he said it from his own person. When Goliath was overcome, the young maidens met him singing:
'Saul among thousands, David among ten thousands.' The king's gall was stirred, and he sought to kill him. And David humbled himself before Jonathan the king's son and turned his affection, so that the one whom he might have held as a suspect successor of his father's kingdom, he kept against his father's designs, saying to his father: 'Why dost thou sin against the blood of the innocent?'—and thus he wrung from his unwilling father the avowal that David did not deserve to be killed. Rightly therefore he says: 'I have been humbled, and he saved me.' And again, when the prophet had come to him and announced the indignation of the Lord in the matter of the woman Bathsheba, he humbled himself and said: 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said to him: 'Because thou hast repented, the Lord hath taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die the death.'
Good therefore is humility. Indeed he was humbled and was saved. And in another place, when on account of the numbering of the people the Lord was offended and had sent the prophet Gad to say to King David: 'Choose what thou wilt have done—three years of famine upon the land, or three months of fleeing before the face of thine enemies who pursue thee, or three days of death upon the land,' David answered: 'These three are straits to me; but rather let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is exceeding great, than that I should fall into the hands of men.' And when the Lord had sent death upon Israel from morning until the hour of the noon meal, seventy thousand men being dead, David looked unto the Lord, and when he had seen the angel smiting the people, he said:
'Behold, I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly; but these in this flock, what have they done? Let thy hand be against me and against my father's house.' And the Lord was made propitious, when the sacrifice of reconciliation was offered to the Lord. Good therefore is the humility which saved both king and people. And so, the Lord being reconciled, David said: 'It is good for me that I have been humbled.' Good therefore is humility, especially if voluntary devotion be joined to it. And therefore he asks to be quickened according to the word, that he may live according to the word and do all things with reason, not according to the will of the flesh. Whence that mystical saying can also be taken morally: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.'
'All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made.' And do you also be an imitator of God. How an imitator? Can you make heaven, or earth, or sea? By no means. But so as to do all things through the word, nothing without the word, all things with reason. Nothing without reason, because you are not irrational, O man, but rational. There follows the fourth verse: 'Approve the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me thy judgments.' He who humbles himself is quickened according to the promise of God; he who is quickened by the Spirit of God is a willing minister. For it matters very much whether you do something of your own will or of necessity, that it may please God. Indeed, the willing minister has a reward, the one compelled dispenses a service, as we have learned from the teaching of the apostle.
For he wrote: 'Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation is committed unto me.' Behold the willing executor of the heavenly will. He was free from all, and was made the servant of all—of his own will, certainly, not of necessity—that he might gain the more. To these also who were held by the bond of the Law he showed himself as though he were under the Law, when he was not under the Law, that he might save those who lived under the Law. To the weak he became weak, that by the assumption of his own infirmity he might sustain the weak: to all he became all things, not by the necessity of law, but by the obedience of his will.