If I do not do penance, how shall I say 'Take away from me my reproach,' since this very thing is a reproach of sin, that I do not do penance? But if I do penance as I ought, rightly do I say: 'Take away from me my reproach which I have suspected; for your judgments are sweet.' Why do I fear to confess, why do I fear to tell my sins? Why am I ashamed to make mention of my reproach before him whose judgments are sweet? What is severe in others, in Christ is sweet, in Christ is pleasant. For he himself is gentle; for 'taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' Sweet are the judgments to him who confesses, because he himself said: 'I, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will remember them no more. But do you remember, and let us be judged together;'
'declare your iniquities, that you may be justified.' Sweet are the judgments to him who does penance, because he himself said: 'There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that does penance, more than over ninety and nine just persons who need no penance.' If, then, the judgments of the Lord are sweet, let us labor to receive the fruit of sweetness. Do you wish to know how sweet the judgments of the Lord are? 'The ungodly shall not rise again in judgment.' But those who rise again in judgment have hope of pardon, since they have believed. They are not ungodly; they may be sinners, they have faith; and if they have not turned away from fault, yet through faith they believe; and he who believes in him is not judged. Sweet, then, are the judgments to believers.
But those who do not believe are not condemned by the judgment of Christ, who came not to judge the world, but to save and redeem it; rather they underwent the judgment of their own impiety, who would not believe unto the remission of sins: for they cannot pertain to the benefit of him whom they refused to acknowledge. Therefore those who have not believed in him are seen to be unworthy of his judgment; for what his judgment is, recognize from his own saying: 'And this is the judgment, that light has come into this world.' Sweet, then, is that which is light; sweet the judgment which mercy precedes; for thus it is written: 'Mercy and judgment will I sing to you, Lord.' And because he knew the judgments to be sweet, he says: 'Behold, I have longed after your commandments;'
'in your righteousness give me life.' He says 'good judgments' with authority. Behold, he loves the liberty of faith who gave liberty; he rejoices to be loved who therefore came into this world because he loved this world; he requires to be loved who loves all, because he is charity. He longed after the commandments of God as a good servant, as a diligent worshipper; he longed, not as a lover for a harlot's embrace, not as a miser for money, not as a voluptuary for wantonness. For of those things the law says, 'You shall not covet,' but it commands the Lord God to be loved and to be longed for with a certain tender and inward affection of desire. And because he is a friend who loves, he is a servant who fears, as a friend who has done all that the Lord commanded him:
'You,' he says, 'are my friends, if you do the things which I command you.' 'In your righteousness give me life.' He dares and says it, inasmuch as that is the true life which lives according to the righteousness of God, which the apostles used to live—nay, which they live: for there are those who, living, are dead, and those who, dead, live. Finally, some descend into hell living, others, though they be dead in body, live by their merits. For there are those who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man returning on the day of judgment, when with glory the saints shall rise again. VI. THE LETTER WAW. The sixth letter, 'Waw,' whose interpretation sounds 'or thus not he'; another interpreter says 'and there is not.'
'And let your mercy come upon me, O Lord, your salvation according to your word.' What the interpretation of the letter signifies, since it is somewhat obscure, I have thought must be gathered from the sequence of the psalm. For when the prophet asks, 'Let your mercy come upon me, O Lord, let your salvation come,' there is no doubt whom he begs to see—that is, in whom may come the fruit both of mercy and of salvation. Finally, in the preceding part he asked the same in the eighty-fourth psalm, in which he more evidently prophesied the coming of the Lord Jesus. For it is well enough known what land he asks to be blessed—namely, that which had contracted sin in Adam, to which it is said: 'You are earth, and into the earth you shall go.'
But God had cursed not the element of the nature of the flesh, but the flesh of transgressors. The flesh, therefore, is blessed in Christ, that by the former curse the flesh might be loosed; the flesh is blessed which the blessed Son of God took up, having assumed the condition of man. And therefore he subjoined: 'God, you turning will give us life, and your people shall rejoice in you. Show us, O Lord, your mercy, and give us your salvation. I will hear what the Lord God speaks in me, for he will speak peace unto his people and unto his saints, and unto those who turn their heart to him. Yet surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.'
This whole passage sounds forth Jesus the Lord, who gave life to the dead—to Lazarus before the passion, to very many at the time of his own passion. He himself is the mercy, inasmuch as he is the remission of sins. Therefore he says 'show,' him whom he might see in the body; for he could not see God in his majesty, since no man has ever seen God. The prophet eagerly desires to see him whom he hopes to hold, whom, if he see him, he desires to grasp with his own hands. And therefore he says: 'And give us your salvation.' The salvation of God is power; the salvation of God is Christ; and therefore his salvation is near to those who fear him. Christ was far from us, far from the nations; he descended to the earth, was made near, and we began not to fear.
For he who fears Christ is not subject to fear, but to devotion; this is a fear of piety, not of weakness. Finally, there is nothing lacking to those who fear him. And how he was made near, hear: 'that glory,' he says, 'may dwell in our land.' Who is the glory but the Lord Jesus? Whence the Apostle Paul also says: 'The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.' Deservedly is the Father well pleased in him, because he is the glory of the Father. He who separates him from the Father does the Father the greater injury, in willing him to be without glory. Whoever does not think him equal to the Father judges the Father also to be inferior, since by no other word can he praise the Father more, because Christ is the highest praise of glory. He is asked, therefore, that the salvation of God may come.
He it is who is asked, that is, the Lord Jesus, and there is no other, as the interpretation of the letter has it. And even so, not the Father alone is asked; there is also he—that is, even the Son—who is asked, and being asked has come, and has given salvation to the world. Therefore 'Soter,' that is, 'Savior'; therefore Jesus, as the angel said: 'who shall save his people.' When, then, the prophet called upon him, he was present, to prove that saying: 'While we are yet speaking, he says, Behold, I am here.' He is present, because, raised up by the daughters of Judaea, he is as it were raised again by the daughters of Jerusalem. The Church hears the sound of his voice and says: 'The voice of my kinsman. Behold, he comes here, leaping upon the mountains, springing over the hills.'
It is a sheaf-like book, having many noble persons as it were triumphal sheaves, and signifying many acts, which we may rather understand than hold expressed. For when she has heard, as it were, the bridegroom approaching, conversing with certain fellow-travelers, the bride says: 'The voice of my kinsman.' While she speaks with the daughters of Jerusalem and asks that they rouse and raise up the bridegroom, suddenly, perceiving as it were the sound of a voice sent from afar, she says: 'The voice of my kinsman,' announcing him whom she was before seeking to have announced to her. Him whom she desired to be roused by others, believing him now to come, raised again by her own prayer from the Father, she joyfully says: 'The voice of my kinsman.'
Well did she add 'my kinsman,' that not others, but she alone as kinswoman might claim his coming for herself. 'Behold,' she says, 'this one comes.' Still I seek him, and he already comes; still I court favors that he may come, and he is already near. I desire love to be roused in me; I think myself wounded with love, and to me love itself the more hastens. I said 'Come,' and he leaps and springs over. I ask him to come with grace, and he works increases of graces, and, while he comes, he carries with him the increments of grace, and by coming acquires it, because he too is eager to please his beloved.
He leaps upon the heights, that He may ascend upon the bride — for the bridal chamber of the bride is the judgment-seat of Christ —, He leaps over Adam, He leaps over the synagogue, He leaps upon the nations, He leaps over the Jews. Let us behold Him leaping: He leaps from heaven into the Virgin, from the womb into the manger, from the manger into the Jordan, from the Jordan onto the cross, from the cross into the tomb, and from the sepulchre into heaven. Show me, O David, the One who leaps; show me the One who runs; for you it was who said, 'He rejoiced as a giant to run His course. His going forth is from the highest heaven, and His circuit even to the height thereof, and there is none who can hide himself from His heat.' Therefore even now He leaps and even now He runs from the heart of the Father upon His saints, from the east upon the west, from the north upon the south.
He it is who ascends above the setting of the sun, He who ascends above the heaven of heavens toward the rising; He ascends upon the mountains, He upon the hills. Would that I, wretched as I am, might say it — let my soul say it: behold, this One comes, and He comes not upon earthly things, not upon the valleys, but He comes leaping upon the mountains! For God is the God of mountains, not of valleys. Where then does He leap? Upon the mountains He leaps. If you are a mountain, He leaps upon you. He leaps upon Isaiah, He leaps upon Jeremiah, He leaps upon Peter, John, and James. The mountains are round about Him. If you cannot be a mountain and have no such strength, be at least a hill, that Christ may ascend upon you and, if He leaps over, may so leap over that the shadow of His passing may keep you. We have spoken of Christ and the Church; let us speak of the soul and the Word.
The soul of the righteous is the bride of the Word. If she longs, if she desires, if she prays — and prays continually, and prays without any wavering, and is wholly intent upon the Word — suddenly she seems to hear the voice of Him whom she does not see, and by her inmost sense she recognizes the fragrance of His divinity, which is the experience of most who truly believe. Suddenly the nostrils of the soul are filled with spiritual grace, and she feels breathing upon her the breath of His presence whom she seeks, and she says: 'Behold, this is the very One whom I seek, the very One whom I desire.' Is it not so that, when we ponder something out of the Scriptures and cannot find its explanation, while we are in doubt, while we are searching, suddenly the loftiest doctrines seem to ascend before us as upon the mountains?
Then, appearing as it were upon the hills, He enlightens our mind, so as to pour into our senses what had seemed difficult to find. Thus, as from one absent, the Word becomes present in our hearts. And again, when something is somewhat obscure to us, the Word is as it were withdrawn, and we long for the coming of one absent; and once more, appearing, He shows Himself to us, as though present to us in the understanding of those things we seek. He leaps therefore frequently within each one's heart; He leaps over and goes out and returns, if you follow, if you seek, if by the gracious discussion of faithful teachers you ask that the Word, which had gone out and passed over, be raised up again for you — like her who sought and found, who said: 'My brother has passed by;
my soul went forth at His word.' Therefore, even if He leaps upon the mountains, follow; and if upon the hills, follow. For upon the mountains and upon the hills are found the Lord's hunters, who track out those who are caught for life. For thus did God say through Jeremiah: 'Behold, I send many fishers and many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain and upon every hill.' There then let the people of God be sought, and let it be found in the teaching of Peter and of Paul, in the grace of discipline, that they may not be in the deep valley where there is weeping, but on the mountains, from which Christ enlightens each one. And when we read Peter, Christ enlightens; and when we read Paul, Christ enlightens.
Paul healed, Christ enlightened, since when the name of the Lord Jesus was invoked, the man rose again who was healed by His gift. Peter raised up a dead woman, Christ enlightened; and therefore it says: 'Thou enlightenest wondrously from the everlasting mountains.' We therefore, who cannot be mountains, let us stand on the mountains or on the hills, so that, when the Lord shall have sent His fishers and hunters to hunt those who are upon every mountain or upon every hill — that is, those who have all their manner of life in the precepts of the law and the prophets and in the knowledge of the New and Old Testament —
that they may come upon us prepared, and may gather us like good ears of grain — reapers sent at the fitting season — because, if anyone be found outside the mountain or the hill, he cannot be gathered like a good ear of grain by those who — to make mention of yet another comparison — shall be sent to separate the wheat from the chaff. The Lord has skilled ministers of very many operations; the same are fishers, the same also hunters and reapers. If at the time of harvest, to which these are directed, you await ripe in merit, you will be able to behold Him leaping on the mountains, and you will see the Lord Jesus 'like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel.' For He leaps upon the Church, which is the house of bread, in that He strengthens the hearts of the faithful.
Rightly is He likened to a roe, since the roe feeds on the heights. The Greek word δορκάς is so called from seeing, for δορκατικόν is the property of a keener sight. What is more fitting than this for Christ, who beheld the Father whom no one has seen, or if anyone has seen in Christ, it is the Son Himself who has revealed Him? Rightly is He likened to a young hart of the deer; the fawn is as it were a son, in whom the strength of the father's nature has grown, so that hidden things do not lie concealed from Him. Serpents flee, poisons do no harm. So at last the serpent, brought forth from its hiding-places — the serpent that was being produced out of man — said: 'Why have you come before the time to torment us?' Let us therefore gaze upon this leaping fawn, that we may not be able to fear the serpent. David did not fear; indeed of these serpents he said:
'And I will answer a word to those who reproach me, for I have hoped in Thy words.' Like a good stag who had drunk from the fountains of waters, he in no way feared the coils of human serpents and the poisons of slanderers. The snake to him was no harm, but prey. The venom of serpentine speech was food, and food of praise. Of this he said: 'O God, be not silent at my praise, for the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful is opened against me.' He was fattened on the speeches of the venomous; they raised their lips in the hiss of detraction and surrounded the innocent man with words of hatred. The good stag, set among many snakes, did not fear, a stag of friendship and an offspring of graces. They feigned love, they poured forth detraction; 'but I,' he says, 'kept praying.'
The good stag, in the midst of vipers, fed unharmed. They darted with three-forked tongues from their mouths, but holy prayer fed this man; nay, he offered food to those who slandered him. He answered a word to those who reproached him, for the Word is food; indeed, 'man lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God.' 'They saw me,' he says, 'and shook their heads.' They cursed; but I was blessing. They cursed who slandered; I was blessing who preached the word of the Lord. How good it is to bear reviling and not return reviling! He who knows not how to be angry with one who reviles him gains God as his protector. Indeed, how great is the grace of patience in him who says: 'They will curse, and Thou wilt bless!' Blessed is he who does not feel curses, blessed is he whom curses do not move:
for he cannot be moved by a curse who, by the divine gift of blessing, shuts out the curses of men. He cannot feel a curse who has the Word, and he cannot return a curse in whose mouth the Word is ever present. But there is also a good serpent, which this stag does not harm: 'Be wise as serpents,' and: 'As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.' In the bronze serpent my Serpent was prefigured; on that wood my Serpent was lifted up, the good Serpent. The good Serpent, who poured forth from His mouth remedies, not poisons. He can refrain from fearing serpents who has learned to adore this Serpent. Of this Serpent she who loves Him says:
'Behold, here He stands behind our wall, looking through the windows, leaning out over the nets. My kinsman answers and says to me: Rise up, come, my neighbour, my fair one, my dove, for behold the winter is past. The rain is gone, it has departed; the flowers have appeared on the earth.' Surely He is a serpent, who, when the winter was over, wished to put off the garment of His body, that He might bloom in beauteous adornment. The same therefore is to her both stag and serpent; a stag bearing the horns of the law and of grace — His two horns are the two Testaments —, swift of step, untiring in His course, who easily runs through the whole world in a single moment, everywhere to be celebrated; a good serpent also, whose forepart bites not with the tooth of the law, whose hinder part wounds not, by the gentleness of the Gospel.
He guards His head from wounding, who came not to abolish the law but to defend it from the interpretations of the faithless. He spreads out free His tail for scourging, desiring rather to scourge His adversaries than to destroy them. The good snake glides easily into the bosom of His beloved and into the very recess of her inmost mind, and, entwining with no harmful touch, He feeds upon the very heart, kindling a fire in the bones. Beautifully was it read today: 'Behold, I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves.' For we celebrate the day of the saints, on which were revealed to the peoples the bodies of the holy martyrs, who, like good serpents, having laid aside the slough of the flesh, the rigour of the wintry temptations overcome, and renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, shone forth upon the world with a summer light, sent truly as lambs in the midst of wolves.
For the wolves are the persecutors, the wolves are all the heretics; they know not how to teach, they have grown accustomed to howl. But let no one be disturbed if he is sent into the midst of wolves. By the benefit of Christ the wolf himself has been changed: 'Benjamin a ravening wolf' — the apostle Paul was made, no longer a layer of ambush for the sheepfolds of Christ, but their defender and guardian. It is good to dwell with this wolf; through this wolf it has come to pass that we are safe in the midst of wolves. No one now fears the wolves; with them we feed, as it is written: 'Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together.' But now let us consider what the prophet means when he says: 'And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for in Thy judgments have I greatly hoped.' The Church or the soul of the righteous had seen Him leaping like a young hart upon the mountains;
and suddenly, beholding her kinsman near, looking forth behind the wall of her house through the windows, leaning out over the nets, she exults and rejoices, because she too is loved by the Bridegroom, who, as though He Himself were wounded by the beauty of His beloved, was present at the first, when He had been absent, when invited to her kisses — for He is invited when it is said:
'Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth' —; then He did not spurn the prayers and endearments of the bride who proclaimed His breasts as dear to her, and graciously led her into the inner parts of the house; finally, as though sporting in playful love, because He wished to test the feelings of the one who loved Him, often going out that He might be sought by the bride, often returning that He might be invited to kisses, He stood behind the wall, looked forth through the windows, leaning out over the nets, so that He might neither be wholly absent nor as it were wholly enter, and that He Himself might call the bride to Himself, so that their mutual comings to one another might become more pleasing exchanges, and they might kindle the force of love by mutual words. 'Arise,' He says, 'come, my neighbour, my fair one, my dove.'
And you too, if you have a well-founded wall — not that middle wall which divides the members of one house, but one built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, so that its compacted structure may grow into a temple and may not divide its inner parts but fortify them — if then you have within you the edifice of God, and your windows ever lie open toward the east, the Word comes, He stands behind your wall — 'for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous' —, He looks forth through your windows. What are these windows? We read of windows of which Jeremiah says: 'Death has entered through the windows,' through which entered avarice, through which entered lust. Your eye is a window; death has entered through your eye.
If you have looked upon a woman to lust after her, death has entered through your eye. If you have looked upon the property of a widow or of a minor and have coveted to seize it, thinking that age or sex was undefended — but those whom the Lord wills to be defended are not undefended —, death has entered through the window. If you have heard of a woman's beauty or of a minor's treasures and have stirred up your desires, death has entered through the window. As therefore death enters through these things, so also life enters, if, looking upon the beauty of a holy maiden, you reverence the Lord Jesus, because the age of old age has come into tender years, a life unstained, and you yourself offer your daughter that she may be consecrated with a holy veil;
if you look upon the property of a minor not as an anxious invader, but as a careful parent guard it with a religious affection. Through these windows Christ looks forth and calls the bride, leaning out over the nets. Well does He 'lean out,' because He alone is the One whom the nets of sinners have not enwrapped. All were within the nets, nay, even now we are within the nets, for no one is without sin except Jesus alone, whom, knowing no sin, the Father made sin for us. For indeed He delivered Him to the snares, He delivered Him to the nets, sending Him not in sin, in which all men were, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, that out of sin He might condemn sin in the flesh.
The flesh was sin, according to that saying, since it was condemned by a hereditary curse; sin was the enticement and the handmaid of sin. The Lord Jesus came and in flesh subject to sin waged the warfare of virtue. Our members were made now not weapons of lust, but weapons of virtue; for where were the incitements of lust, there now are the dwelling-places of chastity. He therefore came hither to the snares, but willingly; He came to the nets, but secure. All things were full of nets, crammed with snares. Hear him who says: 'In the way wherein I walked they have hidden a snare for me,' and in the book of the Wisdom of Sirach you are warned to know that you walk in the midst of snares. As many vices, so many nets; as many sins, so many snares; hereditary bonds already held you fast.
Jesus came to the snares, that He might loose Adam; He came to free that which had perished. We were all held by the nets, and none could rescue another, since he could not strip himself free. Such a one therefore was needful, whom the bonds of human generation, liable to offences, did not hold, whom avarice had not caught, whom deceit had not bound. He alone was Jesus, who, when He had surrounded Himself with the bonds of this flesh, was not captured, was not bound, but, breaking and dissolving them, called the Church the more to Himself, looking forth through the snares, leaning out over the nets, that she too might learn not to be held by the bonds. Indeed, so far was He not far from the bonds that for us He underwent even death — yet not made a slave of death, but free among the dead:
for He was free who had the power to loose death. Indeed let Him Himself teach you, who says: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Let us therefore hear what He says: 'Arise, come, my neighbour,' that is: rise from the dead, arise from the bonds by which you were held encompassed. Arise, because I have risen for you; loose the bond of iniquity, because I have already loosed it for you. Come, because now the nets are loosed. A virgin has given birth, a child has been born of a virgin; he owes nothing to the inheritance of woman. As the son of a woman he is not held. Behold the middle wall of partition now loosed, which divided the harmony of the inner affections and stirred up in diverse directions the dissensions of bodily passions. Come therefore, secure;
I long to see your face and to hear your voice. Come, that now you may see me not through the nets, but, beloved, may enjoy face to face the countenance of your lover. Let these things be run through in their moral sense; but those mystical things, if we are able, let us gaze upon at least in their outermost line. The bride sat within the house, devoted to the Lord, within the wall of the law and the prophets, founded upon the building of spiritual stones, which closed in and walled about the royal house full of delight and gladness. She marvelled at the royal treasures and gazed anxiously, longing for wisdom, that she might gain one to show her these riches. She was in a secret place, but she sought the interpreter of that very secret.
The Lord Jesus came, leaping upon the mountains — to us He seemed to come late, but He was hastening —, He leaped at last and bounded over, that He might leap over the carnal and stony doctrines of the Jews. He stood behind the wall of the house which was in the Old Testament, looking forth through the window of the law, through the openings of the prophets. Not yet were the porches of that house opened, not yet had the keys of knowledge laid bare the bars of the gates, by which the inner things of the law were shut. Yet from the higher, that is, the spiritual part, looking forth, He calls the Church, that through the law and the prophets, rising sublime by the summit of the Gospel, she may trample with fearless foot the nets and knots of the Jewish interpretation.
Therefore she is called 'neighbour,' that she may cleave to Christ and seek not worldly things; therefore 'fair,' that she may bring forth the beautiful feet of those who preach the Gospel; therefore 'dove,' that she may seek spiritual things and forsake earthly ones. 'Behold,' He says, 'the winter is past, the rain is gone, it has departed; the flowers have appeared on the earth.' Before the coming of Christ it was winter; Christ came, He made summer. Then all things were destitute of flowers, bare of virtues; Christ suffered, and all things began to be made fruitful with the buddings of a new grace. The rain of overflowing wantonness is gone, and the clouds that arose from foul vices are now dispersed by the summer serenity of a pure conscience.