"But I" (ver. 17). I for whom they were seeking evil, I whose "life they were seeking, that they might take it away." But turn thee to another description of persons. But I to whom they said, "Well done! Well done!" "I am poor and needy." There is nothing in me that may be praised as mine own. Let Him rend my sackcloth in sunder, and cover me with His robe. For, "Now I live, not I myself; but Christ liveth in me." [1168] If it is Christ that "liveth in thee," and all that thou hast is Christ's, and all that thou art to have hereafter is Christ's also; what art thou in thyself? "I am poor and needy." Now I am not rich, because I am not proud. He was rich who said, "Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are;" [1169] but the publican was poor, who said, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!" The one was belching from his fulness; the other from want was crying piteously, "I am poor and needy!" And what wouldest thou do, O poor and needy man? Beg at God's door; "Knock, and it shall be opened unto thee." [1170] --"As for me, I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord careth for me."--"Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass." [1171] What canst thou effect for thyself by taking care what canst thou provide for thyself? Let Him who made thee "care for thee." He who cared for thee before thou wert, how shall He fail to have a care of thee, now that thou art what He would have thee be? For now thou art a believer, now thou art walking in the "way of righteousness." Shall not He have a care for thee, who "maketh His sun rise on the good and on the evil, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust"? [1172] ...
"Thou art my Help, and my Deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God" (ver. 17). He is calling upon God, imploring Him, fearing lest he should fall away: "Make no tarrying." What is meant by "make no tarrying"? We lately read concerning the days of tribulation: "Unless those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." [1173] The members of Christ--the Body of Christ extended everywhere--are asking of God, as one single person, one single poor man, and beggar! For He too was poor, who "though He was rich, yet became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich." [1174] It is He that maketh rich those who are the true poor; [1175] and maketh poor those who are falsely rich. He crieth unto Him; "From the end of the earth I cried unto Thee, when my heart was in heaviness." There will come days of tribulations, and of greater tribulations; they will come even as the Scripture speaks: and as days advance, so are tribulations increased also. Let no one promise himself what the Gospel doth not promise....
[1087] Lat. XXXIX.
[1088] Al. "very small."
[1089] Ps. xxxiv. 15.
[1090] Ps. xxxiv. 16. E.V. "against." Lat. Vulgate, super.
[1091] Attendebat te; sed non attendebat tibi.
[1092] Or thus, "What horrible pit is that? It is the depth of iniquity. From the lusts of the flesh, for this is meant by the miry clay.'"
[1093] Ps. cxxx. 1.
[1094] Eng. Vers. "When the wicked cometh, then cometh also contempt."
[1095] Prov. xviii. 3.
[1096] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[1097] Phil. iii. 12, 13.
[1098] 1 Tim. i. 13.
[1099] Matt. x. 22.
[1100] Ps. vi. 7.
[1101] Eph. v. 23.
[1102] Rom. viii. 34.
[1103] Matt. xxv. 35.
[1104] Acts ix. 4.
[1105] Hab. ii. 4.
[1106] Civitatis Natalem.
[1107] [A clear exposition of the Catholic (Nicene) doctrine concerning the merits of the saints.--C.]
[1108] Ps. cxxi. 1.
[1109] A street perhaps so named.
[1110] Matt. vii. 13.
[1111] Phil. iii. 14.
[1112] mss. want putas; with it, the sense is, "What you see, you think to be good things."
[1113] Col. iii. 5.
[1114] Luxuriam.
[1115] Ignaviam.
[1116] Mariambulum.
[1117] 1 Cor. iv. 9.
[1118] Matt. xiv. 28.
[1119] Matt. xiv. 30.
[1120] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[1121] Munus.
[1122] Ps. xix. 4.
[1123] Al. "may be drawn to curiosity.
[1124] Et venit. Some mss. en venit veritas, "Lo, the Truth came," which makes easier sense.
[1125] Corpus perfecisti, Augustin; aures perfecisti, Vulgate; corpus aptasti, Heb. x. 5, Vulgate.
[1126] Judicium. So Vulgate.
[1127] 1 Cor. xi. 29.
[1128] Perierunt.
[1129] Reprobaremus.
[1130] Intemporale.
[1131] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[1132] 1 Cor. v. 8.
[1133] Supra, ver. 3.
[1134] Capite.
[1135] Capite.
[1136] Ps. i. 2.
[1137] Rom. viii. 17.
[1138] Gen. xxii. 18.
[1139] Ps. xix. 4.
[1140] Matt. xxiii. 3.
[1141] Isa. xxix. 31.
[1142] Sona labiis, propinqua corde. [Audible confession, in the great congregation, was the primitive discipline. But St. Chrysostom, who teaches the like discipline, urges to private penitence before God as all-sufficient. Hom. xxxi. In Hebr. tom. xii. p. 216, ed. Migne.--C.]
[1143] Rom. x. 10.
[1144] Corpus illud non vacabat cæteris membris; lingua vacabat et cor.
[1145] Luke xxiii. 42, etc.
[1146] E.V. "Thy." So Vulgate also, tuam.
[1147] Hab. ii. 4; Rom. i. 17.
[1148] John xiv. 6.
[1149] Luke ii. 30.
[1150] Factus in puero puer. He alludes to Matt. xviii. 3, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children."
[1151] Ps. xix. 12.
[1152] Ps. xxxiv. 18; Isa. lvii. 15.
[1153] Ps. cxxxviii. 6.
[1154] Luke xviii. 9-14.
[1155] Natural light.
[1156] Luke xxii. 33.
[1157] Matt. viii. 2.
[1158] Oxf. mss. repeat respice.
[1159] Ps. cxlii. 4.
[1160] E.V. "driven backwards." Text, convertantur.
[1161] Luke xxiii. 34.
[1162] Priorem.
[1163] Matt. xvi. 22.
[1164] Matt. xvi. 18.
[1165] E.V. "Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame, that say unto me, Aha! Aha!"
[1166] 1 Cor. i. 31.
[1167] Rom. iv. 5.
[1168] Gal. ii. 20.
[1169] Luke xviii. 11.
[1170] Matt. vii. 7.
[1171] Ps. lv. 22.
[1172] Matt. v. 45.
[1173] Matt. xxiv. 22.
[1174] 2 Cor. viii. 9.
[1175] Compare Matt. v. 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," and Luke vi. 20, "Blessed be ye poor."
Psalm XLI. [1176]
To the people, on the Feast of the Martyrs.
1. The solemn day of the Martyrs hath dawned; therefore to the glory of the Passion of Christ, the Captain of Martyrs, who spared not Himself, ordering His soldiers to the fight; but first fought, first conquered, that their fighting He might encourage by His example, and aid with His majesty, and crown with His promise: let us hear somewhat from this Psalm pertaining to His Passion. I commend unto you oftentimes, nor grieve I to repeat, what for you is useful to retain, that our Lord Jesus Christ speaketh often of Himself, that is, in His own Person, which is our Head; often in the person of His Body, which are we and His Church; but so that the words sound as from the mouth of one, that we may understand the Head and the Body to consist together in the unity of integrity, and not be separated the one from the other; as in that marriage whereof it is said, "They two shall be one flesh." [1177] If then we acknowledge two in one flesh, let us acknowledge two in one voice. First, that which responding to the reader [1178] we have sung, though it be from the middle of the Psalm, from that I will take the beginning of this Sermon.
"Mine enemies speak evil of Me, When He shall die, then shall His Name perish" (ver. 5). This is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ: but see if herein are not understood the members also. This was spoken also when our Lord Himself walked in the flesh here on earth....When they saw the people go after Him, they said, "When He shall die, then shall His Name perish;" that is, when we have slain Him, then shall His Name be no more in the earth, nor shall He seduce any, being dead; but by that very slaying of Him shall men understand, that He was but a man whom they followed, that there was in Him no hope of salvation, and shall desert His Name, and it shall no more be. He died, and His Name perished not, but His Name was sown as seed: He died, but He was a grain, which dying, the corn immediately sprang up. [1179] When glorified then was our Lord Jesus Christ, began they much more, and much more numerously to trust in Him; then began His members to hear what the Head had heard. Now then our Lord Jesus Christ being in heaven set down, and Himself in us labouring on earth, still spake His enemies, "When He shall die, then shall His Name perish." For hence stirred up the devil persecutions in the Church to destroy the Name of Christ. Unless haply ye think, brethren, that those Pagans, when they raged against Christians, said not this among themselves, "to blot out the Name of Christ from the earth." That Christ might die again, not in the Head, but in His Body, were slain also the Martyrs. To the multiplying of the Church availed the Holy Blood poured forth, to help Its seminating came also the death of the Martyrs. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints." [1180] More and more were the Christians multiplied, nor was it fulfilled which spake the enemies, "When He shall die, then shall His Name perish." Even now also is it spoken. Down sit the Pagans, and compute them the years, they hear their fanatics [1181] saying, A time shall come when Christians shall be none, and those idols must be worshipped as before they were worshipped: still say they, "When He shall die, then shall His Name perish." Twice conquered, now the third time be wise! Christ died, His Name has not perished: the Martyrs died, multiplied more is the Church, groweth through all nations the Name of Christ. He who foretold of His own Death, and of His Resurrection, He who foretold of His Martyrs' death, and of their crown, He Himself foretold of His Church things yet to come, if truth He spake twice, has He the third time lied? Vain then is what ye believe against Him; better is it that ye believe in Him, that ye may "understand upon the needy and poor One;" [1182] that "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." [1183] ...
2. "Blessed is he that understandeth upon the needy and poor One: in the evil day shall the Lord deliver him" (ver. 1). For the evil day will come: will thou, nill thou, come it will: the Day of Judgment will come upon thee, an evil day if thou "understand not the needy and poor." For what now thou wilt not believe, shall be made manifest in the end. But neither shalt thou escape, when it shall be made manifest, because thou believest not, when it is kept secret. Invited art thou, what thou seest not to believe, lest when thou see, thou be put to the blush. "Understand then upon the needy and poor One," that is, Christ: understand in Him the hidden riches, whom poor thou seest. "In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." [1184] For thereby in the evil day shall He deliver thee, in that He is God: but in that He is man, and that which in Him is human hath raised to life, and changed for the better, He hath lifted (thee [1185] ) to heaven. But He who is God, who would have one person in man and with man, could neither decrease nor increase, neither die nor rise again. He died out of man's infirmity, but God dieth not....But as we rightly say, Such a man died, though his soul dieth not; so we rightly say, Christ died, though His Divinity dieth not. Wherefore died? Because needy and poor. Let not His death offend thee, and avert thee from beholding His Divinity. "Blessed is he that understandeth upon the needy and poor One." Consider also the poor, the needy, the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick, the prisoners; understand also upon such poor, for if upon such thou understand, thou understandest upon Him who said, "I was an hungred, I was thirsty, I was a stranger, naked, sick, in prison;" [1186] so in the evil day shall the Lord deliver thee....
3. "And deliver him not into the hand of his enemy" (ver. 2). The enemy is the devil. Let none think of a man his enemy, when he hears these words. Haply one thought of his neighbour, of him who had a suit with him in court, of him who would take from him his own possession, of him who would force him to sell to him his house. Think not this; but that enemy think of, of whom said the Lord, "an enemy hath done this." [1187] For He it is who suggests that for things earthly he be worshipped, for overthrow the Christian Name this enemy cannot. For he hath seen himself conquered by the fame and praises of Christ, he hath seen, whereas he slew Christ's Martyrs, that they are crowned, he triumphed over. He hath begun to be unable to persuade men that Christ is nought; and because by reviling Christ, he now with difficulty deceives, by lauding Christ, he endeavours to deceive. Before this what said he? Whom worship ye? A Jew, dead, crucified, a man of no moment, who could not even from himself drive away death. When after His Name he saw running the whole human race, saw that in the Name of the Crucified temples are thrown down, idols are broken, sacrifices abolished; and that all these things predicted in the Prophets are considered by men, by men with wonder astonished, and closing now their hearts against the reviling of Christ; he clothes himself with praise of Christ, and begins to deter from the faith in another manner. Great is the law of Christ, powerful is that law, divine, ineffable! but who fulfilleth it? In the name of our Saviour, [1188] "tread upon the lion and the dragon." [1189] By reviling openly roared the lion; by lauding craftily lurks the dragon. Let them come to the faith, who doubted; and not say, Who fulfilleth it? If on their own strength they presume, they will not fulfil it. Presuming on the grace of God let them believe, presuming (on it) let them come; to be aided come, not to be judged. So live all the faithful in the Name of Christ, each one in his degree fulfilling the commands of Christ, whether married, or celibates and virgins, they live as much as God granteth them to live; neither presume they in their own strength, but know that in Him they ought to glory....