Homilies 18.1–19.3

On the same fifth psalm, another homily. Homily 18. “Give ear to my words, O Lord.” What words, prophet? God knows them even before you think them. Teach us, then, what words you brought to God to move him, so that we too may use the same. What words? Hear those in the present psalm; by saying them to God I discipline myself, move him, and admonish my hearers. I said, coming down to it: “For you are not a God who wills lawlessness.” And why did you say this? “Because I hated and abhorred lawlessness.” For he did not simply say words, as most people do; he first showed them in deed, and so with confidence he said to God, “Give ear to my words, O Lord.” I said: “The evildoer shall not dwell with you.” Why? Because I have appeared good in the Lord's sight; that is why, when the wicked man turned away from me, I did not know him. I said: “The lawless shall not stand before your eyes.” And why did you dare to say this? Because I hated the lawless and loved your law; and one who hates lawbreakers will never cooperate with lawlessness. I said: “You hated all who work lawlessness.” What then? Wash me yourself from my lawlessness. I said: “You will destroy all who speak falsehood.” One who knows that the liar perishes would not stain his tongue with falsehood, nor make it a road to destruction by lying. He said: “The Lord abhors a man of blood and deceit.” He called the deceitful man a man of blood. Why? Because the deceitful man, appearing one thing and being another, lies with his mouth; and “a lying mouth kills the soul.” Since, then, he spoke such words as were able to justify himself, move God and teach his hearers, he said: “Give ear to my words, O Lord; understand my cry.” What then? Was there a crowd and an uproar around God, so that he needed the prophet's cry? Those who come to rulers here know that on one side the people in the markets are making a din, on the other the lictors are making a noise, in front the heralds are shouting, and the ruler himself, on his lofty carriage, has his mind on many things; for all these reasons the suppliant is forced to make his approach with a cry. But if there is nothing of the kind around God, how did the prophet speak to him by crying out? He who said elsewhere, “For he knows the secrets of the heart,” and “Your eyes saw my unformed substance,” knew that God had no need of a cry perceptible to the senses. The cry of the righteous is boldness toward God; the cry of the righteous is every praiseworthy work, which those who admire it cry out to him. Since, then, the prophet wore every good deed as one virtue, he showed it to God, who knew it beforehand, saying, “Understand my cry.” Since there were many and various cries of the righteous and of sinners, [he asks] that God may claim his cry as that of a righteous man, a friend and a child, and recognize his own among the many cries. If in herds of countless animals each one recognizes the cry of its own young, and when a thousand calves are lowing each cow knows the lowing of its own, … the mother runs to the voice of each and does not mistake it; much more, when countless sinners are crying out, does God know the cry of the righteous man and recognize it as the pure cry of his own child. “Understand my cry.” The true pearl and the coin are seen one way by the inexperienced and judged another way by the expert merchant; and the words and voices of the righteous and of sinners are received one way by the world and tested another way by God's hearing. Have you not seen someone shouting in the square? He does wrong and shouts, and deceives the many; while the one who is wronged keeps silent and is thought to be in the wrong. So that David might not be thought such a man, he called God the examiner of his cry: “Understand my cry.”

“Attend to the voice of my petition.” And what is the petition of the righteous, and what is its voice? What is a petition? A petition is the lack and shortfall of what each person is without. For “to need” is “to lack”; hence we call needy the man who lacks the food he must have. To show, then, the prophet's deepest poverty and his poverty of spirit (“for blessed are the poor in spirit”; and being such, he said elsewhere, “I am poor and needy; O God, help me”), [he calls] this fine poverty, need and lack “the voice of my petition”. That is: I am so poor and humble in spirit that this need and poverty of mine cries out my good deeds through letters, like the paper of a petition. Humility and reverence are like clean paper, and the letters are the virtues and good deeds. As, then, a petition to the king and the letters of the petition … all of them together are not shown without humility. Witnesses are the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee said that he had good deeds: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, robbers, unjust, adulterers. I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of my possessions.” The words are fine, but reverence is nowhere; the deeds are fine, but humility is nowhere. The tax collector beat his breast, fell down as a sinner, and showed humility; and he defeated the proud Pharisee as his opponent. For “this man went down justified.” “My King.” Why did David call God his King? To show that, though he reigned over men, he served God as a soldier; though he ruled over his own people, he was ruled by the King above; though he wore the royal dignity, he was not ruled by sin. “My King.” For to me the royal dignity is an outer garment: first you made me a man, and then you put the kingship on me; but to you the kingship is innate, grown up with you and coexisting with you. “My King.” And since men reign over men, he added what is special: “and my God”, who as God created me, and as King takes thought for me. And why did I say “and my God”? “For to you I will pray, O Lord.” For prayer is not offered to a man, not to a general, not to a governor, not to a magistrate, not to a king, but to God alone. Therefore I have confessed you not only as my King but also as God. Why? “For to you I will pray, O Lord.” And note the harmony. Since he said, “Attend to the voice of my petition,” because of the petition he said King: “My King.” Since he proposed to pray, he confessed God: “and my God.” He brought his petition as to a king, his prayer as to God. “In the morning you will hear my voice.” The prophets said of the heiress Church: “God will help her early in the morning”: the only-begotten God, rising from the dead at dawn. That morning help I too pray for. “In the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will stand before you,” so that, seeing you rising like a bridegroom from the chamber of the tomb, to present the Church to yourself in glory, I may say with the angels in praise: “The queen stood at your right hand.” So that I may see this, “in the morning I will stand before you, and you will look upon me”, or “I will look”, for both are read. If “you will look upon me”, that is: you saw me shepherding …, you saw me striking down the lion and the bear; you will see me striking down Goliath and the Philistines; you saw me in this age glorifying you with the prophets; you will see me in the age to come singing with the angels, when “before the angels I will sing to you.” If “I will look”, he means: I saw the troubles of this time, the many evil afflictions you showed me; I will look upon the eternal good things: “I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord.” I saw prophets; I will look upon evangelists. I saw [him] coming down from heaven …; “he will come down like rain upon the fleece”; and of the ascension: “God went up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” To him be glory and might, now and to the endless ages of ages. Amen.

Homily 19. On the interpretation of [the fifth psalm], in which also [about] Joseph; [delivered] on the Monday [after Easter]. Let the heiress Church rejoice now too; for her bridegroom Christ suffered and rose again. She mourned for him when he suffered; let her rejoice in him now that he has risen. Let the heiress rejoice; for the disinherited one has been put to shame, because she killed the heir and lost the inheritance. The bridegroom has risen, and the Jew, the bride's adversary, has been put to shame. And why has the Jew been put to shame? Because he slandered Christ's resurrection, saying, “The disciples stole the Lord.” If they stole him from the tomb, how did the apostles raise the lame man in the name of a dead man? A dead man does not raise the lame; a dead man does not give feet; a dead man does not teach walking; what he does not know himself, he does not teach another. The bridegroom has risen, and the holy prophets and apostles, like advocates before a judge, [plead] for the heiress Church … For the resurrection of the bridegroom has raised you up, who were lying on the ground and trampled underfoot. No longer do the altars of demons share out your children, but temples of Christ … No longer do flutes compel men to worship the golden image, but psalms teach them to worship God. No longer do the feet of a harlot dance for the death of John, but the feet of the Church trample on death … The apostasies have ceased, and the singing of hymns has flourished. No smoke rises from the savour of sacrifices, but the incense of prayers: “Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you.” No slaughter of irrational animals is performed; for the Lamb has been slain who takes away the sin of the world. O the wonder! Hades swallowed Christ the Master and could not digest him. The lion swallowed the lamb and was sick to its stomach. Death swallowed Life, and in its nausea vomited up those it had swallowed before. The giant could not bear the dead Christ; the dead man became fearsome to the giant; he wrestled with the living one, and fell, conquered by the dead. If the devil had been conquered by one alive, [he might have said, I could not prevail]; but he wrestled with the living one and fell before the dead one, and lost every excuse. One grain was sown, and the whole world was fed. As man … the world. As an oyster he was trodden underfoot, and as a pearl he adorned the Church. As a sheep he was sacrificed, and as a shepherd he drove off the herd of demons with the staff of the cross. As a lamp on a lampstand he was put out on the cross, and as the sun he rose from the tomb. There was a double spectacle to see: when Christ was crucified, the day was darkened; when he rose, the night was lit up like day. Why was the day darkened? Because it is written of him: “He made darkness his hiding place.” And why was the night lit up like day? Because the prophet said to him: “For darkness will not be dark to you, and night will be lit up like day.” O night brighter than day! O night brighter than the sun! O night whiter than snow! O night more radiant than torches! O night more delightful than paradise! O night freed from darkness! O night that drives away sleep! O night that teaches us to keep vigil with the angels! O night fearsome to the demons! O night, the longing of the year! O night, bridal escort of the Church! O night, mother of the newly baptized! O night in which the devil, drowsing, was stripped! O night in which the Heir brought the heiress into the inheritance! … [death] and its sting, sin … For the Synagogue, like the Egyptian woman, was yoked to the law that fumigated her with sacrifices (the Jewish law is a chief cook, rejoicing in the savour of sacrifices), and wished to be joined to Christ against the law of the Gospel, and to shut out the virgin Asenath, the Church, so that, robbing the bridegroom of his wealth and beauty, she might make the bride disinherited. For these reasons, when Christ came out of the tomb as Joseph came out of the prison, and sat in his royal chariot on the cherubim (“The chariot of God is ten-thousandfold, thousands of the flourishing”), then the saints prayed for her who inherits. And do not be surprised that Joseph bore the image of Christ; the facts themselves will teach you. Of Joseph it is written: “Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons.” Of Christ: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” The father made Joseph a coat of many colours. And Christ: “My soul shall rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and put on me a tunic of gladness, like a bride with a crown.”

Of Joseph it is written: “And Joseph was handsome in form, and very fair in appearance.” And [of Christ]: “Fair in beauty beyond the sons of men,” the prophet said of Christ. … like a physician visiting, and he was found as an enemy; like a shepherd having compassion, and he was seen as a robber … His brothers brought an evil report of Joseph to their father; and the Jews, reproaching the Lord, said, “We were not born of fornication,” meaning, as you are, the son of the unmarried girl. Joseph was sent to his brothers, and Christ was sent, and crucified. Joseph was sold for twenty pieces of gold, Christ for thirty pieces of silver. One of the twelve brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, the one who said, “Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites”; and one of the twelve disciples sold Christ to the Israelites. There Judah made the bargain; here Judas did the selling. Joseph was in the pit, and Christ in the tomb. The slander of the Egyptian woman threw Joseph into prison; and the false witness of the Synagogue handed Christ over bound to Pilate. Joseph stood by two eunuchs, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker; and Christ was crucified with two robbers, one on the right and one on the left. Joseph sent one of the two eunuchs to the palace; and Christ brought one of the two robbers into the kingdom: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Joseph, held by the Egyptian woman, left his garments with her and went out; Christ, held by death, went out and left in the tomb the linen cloths he had worn. The Egyptian woman had the garments, and did not hold Joseph; the tomb had the linen cloths, and did not hold the Lord, “because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Therefore I beg all of you who hear about Joseph: let us become imitators of his chastity. Joseph was sold by his brothers and set free by God; and you, newly baptized, were once sold to sin and have been set free by the grace of Christ, with the freedom with which Christ has set us free. Joseph wandered in the desert and was led by God to become a king; but he who leads Joseph like a sheep found you too wandering like a sheep, carried you as a shepherd, and offered you as a gift to the Father in the palace above. Imitate the chaste man. Joseph was sold to a cook, and turned away from the Egyptian woman as from smoke. The chaste man's eyes were stung by the smoke of the woman, while the harlot's mind was fumed by passion. She held his tunic, but did not rob him of his chastity; she wrestled with his garments, but did not despoil the athlete; raging, she bit his garments, but did not make the young man rabid. Note this: when a rabid dog tears someone, he quickly strips and throws away his clothes, so that the venom, passing through them, may not become a seed of death to the one who wears them. So Joseph threw his garments to the raging Egyptian woman who had seized them, and escaped the deadly venom of adultery. And if his own mistress did not [enslave] him, a slave, to sin, … let not a slave girl become a harlot bedfellow to you who are free. For a concubine is a household slave who enslaves a free man. O the contrariety! The mistress did not enslave Joseph the slave to sin; yet a free master becomes, through passion, the slave of his slave girl.

But Joseph will plead against such a man on the day of judgment, saying: “I, sold in a foreign land, was not sold to sin, nor did I make myself a stranger to God; and this though I had not received the law, nor learned the prophets, nor read the Gospels; yet before those writings I wrote myself out beautifully in my life as a book of chastity. But you, newly baptized, after the law, after the prophets, after the Gospels, after teaching, after the bridal bath, after the spiritual anointing, after the bright garment, have become the slave of a slave girl, enslaved by passion.” Flee the slavery of sin, and receive the inheritance of adoption. “For the end, for her who inherits.” The laws of the Romans do not accept a slave as heir; and the laws of God cast out of the inheritance one who is a slave to sin. You have the door of the law; flee the window of lawlessness. “Whoever does not enter by the door, but climbs in by another way, is a thief and a robber”: a thief, because he escapes notice when he commits fornication; a robber, because he breaks into another man's marriage. But the one who enters by the door of lawful marriage is the shepherd of the sheep, the father of legitimate children: below he leaves an inheritance, and above he becomes an heir in the kingdom of heaven. May we all attain it, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, now and to the ages of ages. Amen.