21. "Arise, O Lord, help us" (ver. 26). And indeed, dearly beloved, He has arisen and helped us. For when he awaked (i.e. when He arose again, and became known to the Gentiles) on the cessation of persecutions, even those who had cleaved to the earth were raised up from the earth, and on performing penance, [1361] have been restored to Christ's body, feeble and imperfect though they were: so that in them was fulfilled the text, "Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in Thy book shall they all be written." [1362]
"Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for Thy Name's sake;" that is to say, freely; for Thy Name's sake, not for the sake of my merits: because Thou hast vouchsafed to do it, not because I am worthy that Thou shouldest do it unto me. For this very thing, that "we have not forgotten Thee;" that "our heart hath not gone back;" that we "have not stretched out our hands to any strange god;" how should we have been able to achieve, except with Thy help? How should we have strength for it, except through Thy appealing to us within, exhorting us, and not forsaking us? Whether then we suffer in tribulations, or rejoice in prosperities, redeem Thou us, not for our merits, but for Thy Name's sake.
[1315] Lat. XLIII.
[1316] Calvitium.
[1317] Matt. xxvii. 33. Calvariæ.
[1318] Rom. viii. 36.
[1319] Ps. xxii. 1.
[1320] 1 Cor. iv. 6.
[1321] Ps. xxii. 4-6.
[1322] Ps. xl. 7.
[1323] [So Cyprian, A.N.F. vol. v. p. 516; also others passim.--C.]
[1324] Complacuisti in eis.
[1325] Agit.
[1326] "Tu es Ipse."
[1327] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[1328] Col. iii. 4.
[1329] 1 John iii. 2.
[1330] Vulgate, ventilabimus. [To which St. Jerome's Hebraic Psalter adheres.--C.]
[1331] Ps. xxii. 16-18.
[1332] Laudabimur.
[1333] [Here is the Diapsalma in the Septuagint; and in St. Jerome, following the Hebrew.--C.]
[1334] Ps. lxxxiv. 4.
[1335] Or "hosts," virtutibus.
[1336] Virtus.
[1337] Exod. xvii. 12.
[1338] Conversely, in like manner the Fathers (so under Ps. iii. ver. 7) often explain, "Rise, Peter, kill, and eat," and passages where the preachers of the Gospel are represented by beasts of prey. See p. 16, supra, between notes 5 and 6. [A fanciful rendering, perhaps; but the assimilation of unclean Gentiles, and their identification with the clean body of the Church, is strikingly illustrated by it.--C.]
[1339] [St. Augustin's Psalter has jubilationibus.--C.] For which Vulgate, commutationibus.
[1340] E.V. "by-word."
[1341] Ps. xxii. 7. E.V. "They shoot out the lips," etc.
[1342] In nobis.
[1343] Matt. xxv. 34. St. Augustin, Ser. xviii. 4.
[1344] Rom. xi. 6.
[1345] Oxf. mss. "hast showed us a way. What way? How," etc. He seems to mean that God has removed such ways as men like from the path of His Saints, and given them narrow ways. St. Ambrose takes it as a complaint of difficulties, so great that we cannot perfectly keep to the right way. E.V. "Neither have our steps declined from Thy way," rightly continuing the negative.
[1346] Matt. vii. 14.
[1347] Matt. vii. 13, 14.
[1348] Matt. xiii. 6, 20, 21.
[1349] E.V. "broken us in the place of dragons."
[1350] Gen. xxii. 12.
[1351] Luke xxii. 33.
[1352] Inspecta vena.
[1353] Accessio.
[1354] Oxf. mss. om. "not."
[1355] 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
[1356] Testimonium posuisse. Rom. viii. 36. [Also Rom. v. 3; Eph. iii. 13.--C.]
[1357] [See p. 140, note 19.--C.]
[1358] Halare.
[1359] Ps. cxxi. 4.
[1360] Ps. i. 4.
[1361] [A debased rendering of our author's words, agentes poenitentiam; for the primitive discipline exacted true contrition. See Chrysos. Hom. xxi. p. 215, vol. xii. ed. Migne. The "attrition" of the Trent Catechism is indeed a perfunctory "performance."--C.]
[1362] Ps. cxxxix. 16.
Psalm XLV. [1363]
1. This Psalm, even as we ourselves have been singing with gladness together with you, we would beg you in like manner to consider with attention together with us. For it is sung of the sacred Marriage-feast; of the Bridegroom and the Bride; of the King and His people; of the Saviour and those who are to be saved....His sons are we, in that we are the "children of the Bridegroom;" and it is to us that this Psalm is addressed, whose title has the words, "For the sons of Korah, for the things that [1364] shall be changed."
2. Why need I explain what is meant by, "for the things that shall be changed"? Every one who is himself "changed," recognises the meaning of this. Let him who hears this, "for the things that shall be changed," consider what was before, and what is now. And first let him see the world itself to be changed, lately worshipping idols, now worshipping God; lately serving things that they themselves made, now serving Him by whom they themselves were made. Observe at what time the words, "for the things that shall be changed," were said. Already by this time the Pagans that are left are in dread of the "changed" state of things: and those who will not suffer themselves to be "changed" see the churches full; the temples deserted; see crowds here, and there solitude! They marvel at the things so changed; let them read that they were foretold; let them lend their ears to Him who promised it; let them believe Him who fulfils that promise. But each one of us, brethren, also undergoes a change from "the old" to "the new man:" from an infidel to a believer: from a thief to a giver of alms: from an adulterer to a man of chastity; from an evildoer to a doer of good. To us then be sung the words, "for the things that shall be changed;" and so let the description of Him by whom they were changed, begin.
3. For it goes on, "For the things that shall be changed, to the sons of Korah for understanding; a song for the beloved." For that "beloved" One was seen by His persecutors, but yet not for "understanding." For "had they known Him, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory." [1365] In order to this "understanding," other eyes were required by Him when He said, "He that seeth Me, seeth My Father also." [1366] Let the Psalm then now sound of Him, let us rejoice in the marriage-feast, and we shall be with those of whom the marriage is made, [1367] who are invited to the marriage; and the very persons invited are the Bride herself. For the Church is "the Bride," Christ the Bridegroom. There are commonly spoken by balladists [1368] certain verses to Bridegrooms and Brides, called Epithalamia. [1369] Whatever is sung there, is sung in honour of the Bride and Bridegroom. Is there then no Bridechamber [1370] in that marriage-feast to which we are invited? Whence then does another Psalm say, "He hath set up His tabernacle in the Sun; and He is even as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." The nuptial union is that of "the Word," and the flesh. The Bridechamber of this union, the Virgin's womb. For the flesh itself was united to the Word: whence also it is said, "Henceforth they are not twain, but one flesh." [1371] The Church was assumed unto Him out of the human race: so that the Flesh itself, being united to the Word, might be the Head of the Church: and the rest who believe, members of that Head....
4. "Mine heart hath uttered a good word" [1372] (ver. 1). Who is the speaker? The Father, or the Prophet? For some understand it to be the Person of the Father, which says, "Mine heart hath uttered a good word," intimating to us a certain unspeakable generation. [1373] Lest you should haply think something to have been taken unto Him, out of which God should beget the Son (just as man takes something to himself out of which he begets children, that is to say, an union of marriage, [1374] without which man cannot beget offspring), lest then you should think that God stood in need of any nuptial union, to beget "the Son," he says, "Mine heart hath uttered a good word." [1375] This very day thine heart, O man, begets a counsel, and requires no wife: by the counsel, so born of thine heart, thou buildest something or other, and before that building subsists, the design subsists; [1376] and that which thou art about to produce, exists already in that by which thou art going to produce it; and thou praisest the fabric that as yet is not existing, not yet in the visible form of a building, but on the projecting of a design: nor does any one else praise thy design, unless either thou showest it to him, or he sees what thou hast done. If then by the Word "all things were made," [1377] and the Word is of God, consider the fabric reared by the Word, and learn from that building to admire His counsels! What manner of Word is that by which heaven and earth were made; [1378] and all the splendour of the heavens; all the fertility of the earth; the expanse of the sea; the wide diffusion of air; the brightness of the constellations; the light of sun and moon? These are visible things: rise above these also; think of the Angels, "Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, and Powers." [1379] All were made by Him. How then were these good things made? Because there was "uttered forth a good Word,'" by which they were to be made....
5. It proceeds: "I speak of the things which I have made unto the King." Is the Father still speaking? If the Father is still speaking, let us enquire how this also can be understood by us, consistently with the true Catholic Faith, "I speak of the things that I have made unto the King." For if it is the Father speaking of His own works to His Son, our "King," what works is the Father to speak of to the Son, seeing that all the Father's works were made by the Son's agency? Or, in the words, "I speak of My works unto the King," does the word, "I speak," itself signify the generation of the Son? I fear whether this can ever be made intelligible to those slow of comprehension: I will nevertheless say it. Let those who can follow me, do so: lest if it were left unsaid, even those who can follow should not be able. We have read where it is said in another Psalm, "God hath spoken once." [1380] So often has He spoken by the Prophets, so often by the Apostles, and in these days by His Saints, and does He say, "God has spoken once"? How can He have spoken but "once," except with reference to His "Word"? [1381] But as the "Mine heart hath uttered a good Word," [1382] was understood by us in the other clause of the generation of the Son, it seems that a kind of repetition is made in the following sentence, so that the "Mine heart hath uttered a good Word," which had been already said, is repeated in what He is now saying, "I speak." For what does "I speak" mean? "I utter a Word." And whence but from His heart, from His very inmost, does God utter the Word? You yourself do not speak anything but what you bring forth from your "heart," this word of yours which sounds once and passes away, is brought forth from no other place: and do you wonder that God "speaks" in this manner? But God's "speaking" is eternal. You are speaking something at the present moment, because you were silent before: or, look you, you have not yet brought forth your word; but when you have begun to bring it forth, you as it were "break silence;" and bring into being a word, that did not exist before. It was not so God begat the "Word." God's "speaking" is without beginning, and without end: and yet the "Word" He utters is but "One." Let Him utter another, if what He has spoken shall have passed away. But since He by whom it is uttered abideth, and That which is uttered abideth; and is uttered but once, and has no end, that very "once" too is said without beginning, and there is no second speaking, because that which is said once, does not pass away. The words "Mine heart hath uttered a good Word," then, are the same thing with, "I speak of the things which I have made unto the King." Why then, "I speak of the things which I have made"? Because in the Word Itself are all the works of God. For whatever God designed to make in the creation already existed in "the Word;" and would not exist in the reality, had it not existed in the Word, [1383] just as with you the thing would not exist in the building, had it not existed in your design: even as it is said in the Gospel: "That which was made in Him was life." [1384] That which was made then was in existence; but it had its existence in the Word: and all the works of God existed there, and yet were not as yet "works." "The Word" however already was, as this "Word was God, and was with God:" and was the Son of God, and One God with the Father. "I speak of the things I have made unto the King." Let him hear Him "speaking," who apprehends "the Word:" and let him see together with the Father the Everlasting Word; in whom exist even those things that are yet to come: in whom even those things that are past have not passed away. These "works" of God are in "the Word," as in the Word, as in the Only-Begotten, as in the "Word of God."