Just as to one grievously scorched and set aflame by a long ardor of thirst, a cold spring, most joyful and most wholesome, presents itself; so to us, set in grief and pressed down by the excessive weight of tribulations, the chant of the prophetic voice today rouses us to joys: Come, he says, let us exult in the Lord (Ps. 94). Come: whither? or from where? Out of yourself, man, into yourself, where there is no change of places, but a conversion of the senses, which drives away adversities, puts sorrows to flight, casts off despairs, shuts out anguish, and enters the dwelling-place of a sincere heart, and prepares an eternal mansion for divine gladness. Let us exult in the Lord. And where is that saying: Blessed are they that mourn (Matt. 5), and Woe to you that laugh (Luke 6)? Plainly blessed are they that mourn as regards the world, and woe to those who laugh as regards the world:
but blessed are they who exult in the Lord, who know nothing of plunderings, nothing of frauds, who know not how to rejoice over the tears of their neighbors. Let us exult in the Lord. He exults in the Lord who by word, act, and work exults not in himself, but in his own Maker. Let us exult in the Lord. He exults in the Lord for whom God alone and wholly is ever his gladness. Let us make a joyful noise, he says, to God our Saviour. This is not the voice of the sheep, but of the shepherd, who by sweet jubilation and varied melody either leads the flock out to pasture, or under a shady grove keeps the weary cattle at rest, or urges them by desire of the wholesome grass of the high hills to climb, or by every necessity to descend gradually to the low valleys.
But blessed are those sheep which admit the voice of their shepherd, who draws, nourishes, and gathers them together, and who truly make jubilation to their shepherd: which strive to multiply for the Lord the offspring of their flock. Let us come before his face with confession. And who comes before him who is the knower of sinners, the searcher of hearts, the one conscious of thoughts, foreknowing of things to come, present always and everywhere? But he is to be anticipated not by nearness of the senses, but by sagacity of mind; not by swiftness of feet, but by the provident homage of confession: since he did not say, Let us come before him only, but Let us come before his face with confession. That is: while there is hope of mercy, while there is time of pardon, while there is place for penitence, let us confess to the Father, lest we feel the Judge;
let us disclose to compassion what we have done, lest we be forced to render to severity what we keep silent: let us in the time of indulgence tell our transgressions, lest, if we keep silent, we lament to receive sentence. And what more, brethren? The most merciful prophet urges us to anticipate not the Judge, but the judgment. And in psalms, he says, let us make joyful noise to him. Lest an irrational jubilation, unspoken to our heart, should be supposed. In psalms let us make joyful noise. That in psalms the divine sacrament may resound, and that which may advance the minds of the hearers to the progress of salvation. For God, he says, is a great Lord. Here he opens the sacrament of the Lord's body, because God is a great Lord even in our body. And a great king above all gods. According to that saying:
Who among the sons of God shall be like to God (Ps. 88)? For all the heavenly powers, though they rule the rest, are themselves ruled by Christ. For in his hand are all the ends of the earth. Because those things which are in the hand of God cannot be obtained without God: if we desire to enlarge our borders, to extend our boundaries, to recall what is lost, let us therefore entreat God by the strength of faith, by whose offense these things perish for us; and by his propitiation they return enlarged—he who gives as he wills, and takes away when he wills. If he cannot restore, he is not held to be almighty; he does many things for the token of his majesty, for the example of our amendment and correction. Foreign defenses are of no avail, if the aids of our King have not come to help.
For the sea is his, and he made it. Do not think it was sought and found, and not created by God. The sea is his, and he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Where are those who fancy that God fashioned the world out of matter, and especially out of water? Our God, in heaven and on earth, not as a discoverer, but as a founder of matter, made all things out of nothing. Come, he says, let us adore. What follows, brethren, shows to the ignorant that the prophet was as it were forgetful of his exultation, while, having provoked to joys, he presently calls to weepings. Come, he says, let us adore and fall down before him, and let us weep before the Lord who made us. He had said: Come, let us exult;
yet here the prophet desires us to pour out with him the tears of his joys: because tears, just as they are brought forth by great sorrow, so also by joy—tears which at any rate lay bare and testify to the affection of the inner heart. Those therefore who were prostrating themselves to stones and to wood, having at last come to know the true God, he wishes us to adore, to fall down, and to repay with tears, and by continual homage of devotion, that which for a long time we have neglected. He weeps therefore, while he repents of the past, rejoices over the present, burns and fears over the future. That there were tears of perfect gladness, the following words thus show: Come, let us adore and fall down before him, and let us weep before the Lord who made us. And as though he were asked, why?
he renders the causes, opens the reasons: For he is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. From this it is certain that just as he who rejoices is devout, so surely he who is saddened is ungrateful. But now let us hear more attentively what he admonishes: Today if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me: they proved me and saw my works. Forty years was I near to that generation, and I said: They always err in heart; but they have not known my ways, to whom I swore in my anger, if they shall enter into my rest.
When he says Today, he addresses you, he speaks to you, whoever you are, O hearer, lest, having heard his voice, you incur the guilt of contempt, the crime of obstinacy—you whom neither precepts nor example have corrected. For on this account he narrated the Jewish hardness in a long discourse, that he might make you, O Christian, more cautious—you with whom God dwells and abides not for forty years only, but who at every time of your life obeys and wars for your salvation.