Homilies on Psalms 36–38 (LXX numbering; Psalms 37–39 in English Bibles) 3.3–3.9

While dealing with these passages I want to open up something more, so as not always to speak to you of lower things, but sometimes to knock at higher ones too. I consider, then, that as the Savior is God’s arrow, as it is written, “He made me like a chosen arrow,” so doubtless, by a similar example, Moses too, in whom God spoke, is God’s arrow. And as for the other prophets and the apostles of Christ, in whom Christ himself spoke, it is certain that through God’s arrow they wounded and pierced the hearts of those to whom they spoke the word of God, so that those who heard the word of God from them said, “I am wounded with love.” So again, on the contrary, as Christ is God’s chosen arrow, so the Antichrist is the devil’s arrow. And as all in whom Christ spoke or speaks, the prophets and the apostles, were themselves, according to this likeness, arrows of God, and any righteous man and preacher who speaks the word of God to bring about people’s salvation can be called God’s arrow, so too all sinners in whom the devil speaks can be called arrows of the devil. If, then, you ever find yourself wounded by the devil’s arrows through the mouth of a sinner, pity him who offers himself to the devil as a minister for this work; but as for you, remember yourself and take up the shield of faith, so that with it you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. The devil’s darts are aimed at us not only in words but also in deeds. For if you see a woman lying in wait for you to deceive you, is not she too a flaming dart of the devil, when she speaks to you so as to kindle the fire of lust in you? Similarly, if someone provokes you to anger with bitter and harsh words, is not he too a flaming dart of the evil one, by which you are inflamed and kindled to fury? And if someone provokes and goads you to something else, so that, bearing it impatiently, you fall into sin, understand more carefully and notice that all these are flaming darts of the evil one, with which he inflames the upright in heart and wounds them to sin. But what is more unhappy, I see few arrows of God: few speak in such a way as to inflame the hearer’s heart, draw him away from sin, and turn him to repentance. Few speak so that, striking the hearer’s heart, they draw the tear of repentance from his eye; who, opening up the light of future hope and the greatness of the age to come, and testifying to the glory of the kingdom of God, can persuade people to despise what is seen and seek what is not seen, to spurn what is temporal and seek what is eternal. Very few are such, and even they, if there are any, are few; and through envy and spite things are so contrived that there may not be even a few, or that they may not be able to benefit anyone. But the devil’s arrows abound everywhere; the whole earth is filled with them. The peoples of the world and the soldiery are for the most part arrows of the evil one. Would that the enemy prevailed only there and among them, so as to have only them as his arrows! But as it is, I fear even for those who are within, and I fear for myself, lest the devil lead me into some scandal and use me as an arrow against someone’s soul; for whoever has scandalized someone, whether in word or in deed, has become an arrow and dart of the devil to the soul he scandalized. And see what still more unhappy thing happens to us. Sometimes we think we are speaking against someone, and we utter words incautiously while we argue too contentiously and strive to win with any words whatever; then the devil uses our mouth as a bow, through which he aims arrows and shoots at the upright in heart, namely those who hear us saying things by which they are scandalized. And as God set his bow in the clouds so that there would be no flood and the storm would cease, so on the contrary the devil sets a bow, not to make things cease but to raise up storms, to disturb the calm in the soul, to drive out peace, to stir up wars, and to raise whirlwinds and tempests. When you see someone driven by vices and passions going about and disturbing everything, do not doubt that he is an arrow of the devil, that the devil has made his mouth his bow and stretched his words as arrows to shoot at the upright in heart. But those who are protected by the arms of God could not be wounded by such people.

And when he added “to slaughter the upright in heart,” after saying above “to cast down the needy and poor,” he joined the upright in heart to the poor. I think the Lord likewise joins them in the Gospels, for where he calls the poor blessed, there he also blesses the pure in heart; and I think there is no difference between the pure in heart and the upright in heart. They are slaughtered in this way. If someone comes to the Church with a simple mind and a desire to advance and become better, and he sees us, who have long stood in the faith, either not acting rightly or speaking in a way that causes stumbling, we become for him a fall into sin. And when he has sinned, he has been slaughtered; the blood of his soul flows out, and all his vital power leaves him. And if you hear it said in Genesis, “I will require the blood of your souls from every brother and from every beast,” do not think that the command concerns this bodily blood so much as the blood of the inner man, that is, the life of the soul and spiritual blood. For the blood of a scandalized soul is shed when it has fallen into sin, and therefore he said that its blood is required from the brother. And why from the beast as well? If the one who scandalized you is a believer, he is a brother, from whom your blood is to be required; for it is your brother who shed your blood, and therefore it is said, “From the hand of the brother I will require the blood.” But when the opposing power, wild and wicked, presses hard on someone, and the one through whom it lays its snares is an unbeliever, if it can shed the blood of your soul, that is, cast you down into sin, it is a beast from which the Lord requires your blood. And the prophet Ezekiel, when he says that he has been set as a watchman for the house of Israel, who is not guilty of blood if he announces the coming sword, but is guilty of blood if he does not announce it; and the law, when it says, “If he does this and this, he will be innocent of blood”: doubtless here too the blood of the soul is meant, which is shed through sin. Therefore let us all fear lest the blood of someone who is scandalized be required of us, as the prophet indicates. We had to repeat these things to show more fully how the sinners drew the sword and bent their bow, who the poor man was whom they would cast down, how the upright in heart are slaughtered, and what their blood is that is shed.

Now let us see what the divine word says in turn about these sinners who do such things, that is, who use the devil’s sword and the evil one’s darts. “Let their spear,” it says, “enter into their own heart, and let their bow be broken.” The framea is a kind of weapon called by this name. These words, then, which the wicked and the sinners utter against the righteous at the devil’s prompting, to slaughter the upright in heart, will be turned against those who utter them, so that they return to where they came from. For as the Lord says to the righteous and holy apostles: “Into whatever house you enter, say, ‘Peace to this house’; and if a son of peace is there, your peace will come upon him; but if not, your peace will return to you,” so here too, on the contrary, the sword of the ungodly, drawn to slaughter the upright in heart, is said to return upon them and sink into their own heart, and their bow to be broken, when the Lord delivers the righteous man from their snares.

“A little is better for the righteous than the many riches of sinners.” According to the letter, this is at once a useful admonition even for all the simpler people, and we must speak of that first, although it also has something deeper, which let him grasp who can. Let us see, then, what the letter teaches us. In this world both righteous and unrighteous share the common care of life, to have what is necessary for food. But the righteous are not so much inclined to the care of their livelihood as they are earnestly concerned for righteousness, so that, even if they must seek what is necessary for food, they seek it without unrighteousness, and their very earning, which is necessary for daily use, is done with all righteousness. The unrighteous, however, care nothing for righteousness, but spend all their care on how to acquire. All their zeal is in this, to snatch gains in whatever way and of whatever kind. They do not ask whether they acquire well, whether with righteousness; they are not anxious that their possessions be found, at the judgment of Christ, to have been acquired with righteousness. How can those care about this who join field to field and bring house near house, so as to take something from their neighbor? Since, then, one of two things must happen, either to acquire much with unrighteousness or a little with righteousness, “a little,” it says, “is better for the righteous than the many riches of sinners.” And truly, great riches are reckoned, as by a special title, as belonging to iniquity. Hence I too think that our Lord and Savior spoke of the Mammon of iniquity as if it were truly a god and lord, when he says: “Make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous Mammon.” So much according to the letter. Let us see now whether the saying contains anything secret. There are many and various studies of letters in this world. You may see very many people beginning with the grammarians and learning by heart the songs of the poets, the plots of comedies, the fictitious or ennobling narratives of tragedies, the long and various volumes of the histories; then passing to rhetoric and there seeking all the paint of eloquence; after this coming to philosophy, examining dialectic, investigating the chains of syllogisms, trying out the measurements of geometry, examining the laws of the heavenly bodies and the courses of the stars, not omitting music either. And so, educated in all these diverse and various disciplines, in which they have learned nothing of the will of God, they have gathered many riches indeed, but riches of sinners. But you may see someone from the Church, unskilled indeed in speech and learning, yet filled with faith and the fear of God, who because of the fear of God dares to sin in nothing, who is afraid even to open his mouth lest an evil word proceed from it, and who takes care not to sin even in the least things, from which he who is rich in the wisdom of this world cannot keep himself. Comparing these, then, the divine word says: “A little is better for the righteous than the many riches of sinners.” So the riches of sinners are the wisdom of this world, in which they are rich and abounding in eloquence, yet by it they cannot keep themselves from sin. But the little of the righteous man is that he has faith like a grain of mustard seed, small but lively and strong, by which he fortifies himself and keeps himself from sin. This little of faith, then, is better for the righteous than the many riches of sinners, which they have in the eloquence and wisdom of this age, which is being destroyed. Yet if someone could have riches and still not have the riches of sinners, but gather some things from the treasures of Moses the lawgiver, acquire others from the wealth of the prophets, of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, of Ezekiel, examine also the secrets of Daniel and penetrate the hidden and obscure treasures of the other prophets: such a one is no longer compared with the wise of this world so as to be called better than they, but is rather made equal to those who were told, “You have been made rich in all speech and in all knowledge,” and who, destroying the wisdom of this world and having become, as it were, its conquerors, say that they are ready to take captive every understanding that exalts itself and rises against the knowledge of Christ. And if he is the one we spoke of above, unskilled and unlearned but faithful and fearing God, that little of faith is better for this righteous man than the many riches of sinners, which they have amassed with the wisdom of this age. But above both of these is he who is rich in the word of God and in the knowledge of truth, that is, who, according to Paul, is rich in all speech and in all knowledge, and is no less rich in good works. If you want to know what it is to be rich in all speech, I will teach you briefly. Begin your study from the first word of Genesis, then the word of Exodus, after that the word of Leviticus, then Numbers and Deuteronomy; grow rich from Joshua son of Nun, grow rich from all the Judges together, and so on in order from each single book of divine Scripture, until you come to the riches of the Gospels and the Apostles. For example, if someone has applied himself to the one word of the Psalms and sings the whole psalter whenever he wishes, he is rich indeed, but not in all speech and all knowledge; he is rich only in the word of the Psalter. Or if someone devotes his study to reading the Gospels and the Apostle, and exercises himself in the commandments of the New Testament, he too is rich, but not in all speech, only in that of the Gospels and the Apostle. But if he can learn the New and the Old Testament with equal zeal and be instructed by all their teaching, so that he is ready to give an account of every single thing that is written, and to fit his life to the word of truth contained in the Scriptures, he truly is rich in all speech and in every good work. And these, I think, are the riches of which it is said: “The ransom of a man’s soul is his own riches.” “A little, then, is better for the righteous than the many riches of sinners.” “For the arms of sinners will be broken.” How can this stand according to the letter, even if someone ignorantly tries to force it? Many things are placed in the Scriptures in such a way that they can stir even one who is very dull and half asleep, indeed compel him to leave the letter behind and rise to the spiritual understanding; and so do these arms of the sinner which it threatens with breaking. In another place too it says: “Break the arm of the sinner and of the malicious.” What, then? Shall we think that this bodily arm of the sinner and of the malicious is to be broken? We do not see this easily happen. But if we observe how sinners, when they have been lifted up in pride, have prepared their bows and aimed against the righteous those arrows of which we spoke above, then, when all this effort of theirs has been destroyed by the power of the Lord, the sinner’s arm is rightly said to be broken. Or in another way, since hand and arm are a sign of work: if you see a sinner not stretching out his hand to a good work, to a work of mercy, it will not be absurd to say that his arm is broken. But such a breaking must be believed to come not from God but from the devil, for it is he who binds and constrains the arms of sinners so that they are not stretched out to mercy. There is, then, a breaking of sinners that comes from God, when he destroys and frightens them as they lie in wait for the righteous; and another that comes from the devil, when he hinders the pursuit of good works, as though the arms of unbelievers were bound and broken. And there is another breaking, permitted by God but carried out by the devil, of which the devil said to the Lord: “But put forth your hand and touch all that he has, and see if he will not bless you to your face”; and then he received Job into his power. Hence Job himself says: “For it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me.”

“But the Lord upholds the righteous.” Those who are weak and fragile need someone to uphold them. Where ruin and a fall threaten, there support is sought. And every human being, as regards human frailty, is both weak and prone to fall. In this psalm it is written that the Lord upholds the righteous, and in another it says: “The Lord upholds all who fall, and the Lord raises up all who are crushed.” It only remains for us to wake up at last and keep watch, so that if ever a fall threatens us through weakness, we may pray the Lord to send us his word and his wisdom, which upholds those about to fall and raises them up.

“The Lord knows the days of the spotless, and their inheritance will be for ever.” According to the Scriptures, as we have observed in many places, the Lord does not know all things, but only those that are good; he is said not to know evil things. Not that anything truly escapes his knowledge; but he is said not to know what is unworthy of his knowledge. We have shown this from the Scriptures too, where the Apostle says: “If anyone among you is a prophet or spiritual, let him know that what I write to you is the Lord’s. But if anyone does not know this, he will not be known.” And in the Gospel, where the Lord says to sinners: “I do not know you; depart from me, you workers of iniquity.” As, then, it is said elsewhere, “The Lord knows those who are his,” so here the Lord is said to know the days not of the ungodly but of the spotless; for the days of the spotless are worthy of the Lord’s knowledge. But I do not know whether this can be expounded consistently according to the letter. For what days of the spotless can there be that are not also days of sinners, since the day of this world is one and the same for all, and in it righteous and sinners alike move in the same light, as the Lord himself says of the Father that he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad? How, then, is the Lord said here to know the days of the spotless as something excepted and set apart? Let us see whether each one perhaps makes his own day for himself. When we put away falsehood and speak the truth with our neighbor, we move in the day of truth and the light of truth. Similarly, when we withdraw from those who hate their brothers and walk in darkness, and remain in the love of the brothers, we make for ourselves days of love. And when we keep righteousness, and, visiting widows and orphans in their affliction, keep ourselves spotless from this world, we make for ourselves days of the spotless. These are the days he is said to know when he knows the days of the spotless. But if we wish to search out a still more sacred sense in this place, we can say that the days of this age are evil, according to what is written: “Because the days are evil.” But the good days are different; they belong to the spotless, and the Lord knows them, and in them their inheritance remains for ever. That will doubtless be when the righteous receive the inheritance of eternal life, obtaining what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love him. These are the days of the spotless, in which not this sun will shine, which setting receives and whose light the following night extinguishes, but the sun of righteousness, which knows no night and is eternal light, as it is written that the Lord himself will be their everlasting light.