The Third Sunday after Easter
Homily of Augustine on Psalm CXXI
Third Sunday after Easter Home
ALMIGHTY God, who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ's Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Source of Collect: Sacramentary of Leo, Bishop of Rome [440-461AD]. The Vigil of Easter was the traditional time for Baptism, and this collect speaks to the newly baptized "all those who are admitted into the fellowship". One had to be baptized to be present during the Eucharist. Christiana professione censentor
Isaiah lix 8 , Psalm 120, 121, 122 | 123, 124, 125; 1 St. Peter ii. 11. St. John xvi. 16.
Homily of Augustine on Psalm CXXI
I WILL lift up mine eyes unto the hills; from whence cometh my help?
Isaiah lix 8.
Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.
And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.
But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.
Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
Psalm120, 121, 122 | 123, 124, 125
1 St. Peter ii. 11.
DEARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
St. John xvi. 16.
JESUS said to his disciples, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Homily
Augustine
Psalm CXXI
1. ...Let them "lift up their eyes to the hills whence cometh their
help" (ver. 1). What meaneth, The hills have been lightened? The Sun of
Righteousness hath already risen, the Gospel hath been already preached
by the Apostles, the Scriptures have been preached, all the mysteries
have been laid open, the veil hath been rent, the secret place of the
temple hath been revealed: let them now at length lift their eyes up to
the hills, whence their help cometh..."Of His fulness have all we
received," [5407] he saith. Thy help therefore is from Him, of whose
fulness the hills received, not from the hills; [5408] towards which,
[5409] nevertheless, save thou lift thine eyes through the Scriptures,
thou wilt not approach, so as to be lighted by Him. [5410]
2. Sing therefore what followeth; if thou wish to hear how thou mayest
most securely set thy feet on the steps, so that thou mayest not be
fatigued in that ascent, nor stumble and fall: pray in these words:
"Suffer not my foot to be moved!" (ver. 3). Whereby are feet moved;
whereby was the foot of him who was in Paradise moved? But first
consider whereby the feet of him who was among the Angels were moved:
who when his feet were moved fell, and from an Angel became a devil:
for when his feet were moved he fell. Seek whereby he fell: he fell
through pride. Nothing then moveth the feet, save pride: nothing moveth
the feet to a fall, save pride. Charity moveth them to walk and to
improve and to ascend; pride moveth them to fall...Rightly therefore
the Psalmist, hearing how he may ascend and may not fall, prayeth unto
God that he may profit from the vale of misery, and may not fail in the
swelling of pride, in these words, "Suffer not my feet to be moved!"
And He replieth unto him, "Let him that keepeth thee not sleep."
Attend, my beloved. It is as if one thought were expressed in two
sentences; the man while ascending and singing "the song of degrees,"
saith, "Suffer not my foot to be moved:" and it is as if God answered,
Thou sayest unto Me, Let not my feet be moved: say also, "Let Him that
keepeth thee not sleep," and thy foot shall not be moved.
3. Choose for thyself Him, who will neither sleep nor slumber, and thy
foot shall not be moved. God is never asleep: if thou dost wish to have
a keeper who never sleepeth, choose God for thy keeper. "Suffer not my
feet to be moved," thou sayest: well, very well: but He also saith unto
thee, "Let not him that keepeth thee slumber." Thou perhaps wast about
to turn thyself unto men as thy keepers, and to say, whom shall I find
who will not sleep? what man will not slumber? whom do I find? whither
shall I go? whither shall I return? The Psalmist telleth thee: "He that
keepeth Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep" (ver. 4). Dost thou
wish to have a keeper who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth? Behold, "He
that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep:" for Christ
keepeth Israel. Be thou then Israel. What meaneth Israel? It is
interpreted, Seeing God. And how is God seen? First by faith:
afterwards by sight. If thou canst not as yet see Him by sight, see Him
by faith...Who is there, who will neither slumber nor sleep? when thou
seekest among men, thou art deceived; thou wilt never find one. Trust
not then in any man: every man slumbereth, and will sleep. When doth he
slumber? When he beareth the flesh of weakness. When will he sleep?
When he is dead. Trust not then in man. A mortal may slumber, he
sleepeth in death. Seek not a keeper among men.
4. And who, thou askest, shall help me, save He who slumbereth not, nor
sleepeth? Hear what followeth: "The Lord Himself is thy keeper" (ver.
5). It is not therefore man, that slumbereth and sleepeth, but the
Lord, that keepeth thee. How doth He keep thee? "The Lord is thy
defence upon the hand of thy right hand."...It seemeth to me to have a
hidden sense: otherwise he would have simply said, without
qualification, "The Lord will keep thee," without adding, "on thy right
hand." For how? Doth God keep our right hand, and not our left? Did He
not create the whole of us? Did not He who made our right hand, make
our left hand also? Finally, if it pleased Him to speak of the right
hand alone, why said He, "on the hand of thy right hand," and not at
once "upon thy right hand"? Why should He say this, unless He were
keeping somewhat here hidden for us to arrive at by knocking? For He
would either say, "The Lord shall keep thee," and add no more; or if He
would add the right hand, "The Lord shall keep thee upon thy right
hand;" or at least, as He added "hand," He would say, "The Lord shall
keep thee upon thy hand, even thy right hand," [5411] not "upon the
hand of thy right hand."...
5. I ask you, how ye interpret what is said in the Gospel, "Let not
your left hand know what your right hand doeth"? [5412] For if ye
understand this, ye will discover what is your right hand, and what is
your left: at the same time ye will also understand that God made both
hands, the left and the right; yet the left ought not to know what the
right doeth. By our left hand is meant all that we have in a temporal
way; by our right hand is meant, whatever our Lord promiseth us that is
immutable and eternal. But if He who will give everlasting life,
Himself also consoleth our present life by these temporal blessings, He
hath Himself made our right hand and our left...
6. Let us now come to this verse of the Psalm: "The Lord is thy defence
upon the hand of thy right hand" (ver. 5). By hand he meaneth power.
How do we prove this? Because the power of God also is styled the hand
of God...Whereof John saith, "He gave unto them power to become the
sons of God." [5413] Whence hast thou received this power? "To them,"
he saith, "that believe in His Name." If then thou believest, this very
power is given thee, to be among the sons of God. But to be among the
sons of God, is to belong to the right hand. Thy faith therefore is the
hand of thy right hand: that is, the power that is given thee, to be
among the sons of God, is the hand of thy right hand...
7. "May the Lord shield thee upon the hand of thy right hand" (ver. 6).
I have said, and I believe ye have recognised it. For had ye not
recognised it, and that from the Scriptures, ye would not signify your
understanding of it by your voices. [5414] Since then ye have
understood, brethren, consider what followeth; wherefore the Lord
shieldeth thee "upon the hand of thy right hand," that is, in thy
faith, wherein we have received "power to become the sons of God," and
to be on His right hand: wherefore should God shield us? On account of
offences. Whence come offences? Offences are to be feared from two
quarters, for there are two precepts upon which the whole Law hangeth
and the Prophets, the love of God and of our neighbour. [5415] The
Church is loved for the sake of our neighbour, but God for the sake of
God. Of God, is understood the sun figuratively: of the Church, is
understood the moon figuratively. Whoever can err, so as to think
otherwise of God than he ought, believing not the Father and the Son
and the Holy Ghost to be of one Substance, has been deceived by the
cunning of heretics, chiefly of the Arians. If he hath believed
anything less in the Son or in the Holy Spirit than in the Father, he
hath suffered an offence in God; he is scorched by the sun. Whoever
again believeth that the Church existeth in one province only, [5416]
and not that she is diffused over the whole world, and whoso believeth
them that say, "Lo here," and "Lo there, is Christ," [5417] as ye but
now heard when the Gospel was being read; since He who gave so great a
price, purchased the whole world: he is offended, so to speak, in his
neighbour, and is burnt by the moon. Whoever therefore erreth in the
very Substance of Truth, is burnt by the sun, and is burnt through the
day; because he erreth in Wisdom itself...God therefore hath made one
sun, which riseth upon the good and the evil, that sun which the good
and the evil see; but that Sun is another one, not created, not born,
through whom all things were made; [5418] where is the intelligence of
the Immutable Truth: of this the ungodly say, "the Sun rose not upon
us." [5419] Whosoever erreth not in Wisdom itself, is not burnt by the
sun. Whosoever erreth not in the Church, and in the Lord's Flesh, and
in those things which were done for us in time, is not burnt by the
moon. But every man although he believeth in Christ, erreth either in
this or that respect, unless what is here prayed for, "The Lord is thy
defence upon the hand of thy right hand," is realized in him. He goeth
on to say, "So that the sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by
night" (ver. 6). Thy defence, therefore, is upon the hand of thy right
hand for this reason, that the sun may not burn thee by day, nor the
moon by night. Understand hence, brethren, that it is spoken
figuratively. For, in truth, if we think of the visible sun, it burneth
by day: doth the moon burn by night? But what is burning? Offence. Hear
the Apostle's words: "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended,
and I burn not?" [5420]
8. "For the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil" (ver. 7). From
offences in the sun, from offences in the moon, from all evil shall He
preserve thee, who is thy defence upon the hand of thy right hand, who
will not sleep nor slumber. And for what reason? Because we are amid
temptations: "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. The Lord
preserve thy soul:" even thy very soul. "The Lord preserve thy going
out and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore" (ver. 8). Not
thy body; for the Martyrs were consumed in the body: but "the Lord
preserve thy soul;" for the Martyrs yielded not up their souls. The
persecutors raged against Crispina, [5421] whose birthday we are to-day
celebrating; they were raging against a rich and delicate woman: but
she was strong, for the Lord was her defence upon the hand of her right
hand. He was her Keeper. Is there any one in Africa, my brethren, who
knoweth her not? For she was most illustrious, noble in birth,
abounding in wealth: but all these things were in her left hand,
beneath her head. An enemy advanced to strike her head, and the left
hand was presented to him, which was under her head. Her head was
above, the right hand embraced her from above. [5422] ...
Let us pray in the words of Augustine.
Turn we to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts offer to him, so far as our
meanness can, great and true thanks, with all our hearts praying his exceeding kindness, that of
his good pleasure he would deign to hear our prayers, that by his Power he would drive out the
enemy from our deeds and thoughts, that he would increase our faith, guide our understandings,
give us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to his bliss, through Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, who
liveth and reigneth with him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[A prayer which he was wont to use after his Sermons and Lectures.]
NPNF (V1-08) St. Augustine
Notes:
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[5406] Lat. CXX. A sermon to the people on the day of St. Crispina.
[5407] John i. 16.
[5408] Here some earlier editions, as quoted by Ben., add, "Christ, the
Son of the supreme Father, is therefore our salvation, and our help,
and with the same Father He is God Almighty, and with Him ever abiding
in respect of that He is. To those mountains, therefore, which I have
mentioned, if thou lift not up thine eyes." There are several other
additions in the commentary on his Psalm, which however seem scarcely
worthy of St. Augustin, and for which no ms. authority is given.
[5409] Al. "by which thou wilt not be admonished."
[5410] [Familiarity with Scripture is the Catholic principle, here
everywhere presupposed.--C.]
[5411] Manum dexteram.
[5412] Matt. vi. 3.
[5413] John i. 12.
[5414] [See p. 418, note 8, supra.--C.]
[5415] Matt. xxii. 37-40.
[5416] Donatists. [So in the Roman province, as asserted by the modern
dogma of the Trent schism. A.N.F. vol. viii. p. 643.--C.]
[5417] Matt. xxiv. 23.
[5418] Nicene Creed.
[5419] Wisd. v. 6. Here old editions add: "of this Sun Father
Athanasius, the Bishop, hath thus beautifully spoken. `The Son of God,'
he saith, `is of the Father alone, neither made, nor created, but
begotten;'" whence Possevinus, Torrensis, and Bellarmine have quoted
St. Augustin as assigning the Athanasian Creed to St. Athanasius. But
Petavius, Theol. Dogm. de Trin. l. vii. c. 8, note 7, says the words
have been foisted into St. Augustin, and in fact they are not in any of
our mss. nor in the editions of Amsterdam, of Erasmus, and of
Louvain.--Ben. Some other additions are mentioned in the Benedictine
notes on this Psalm, but they seem of later date than St. Augustin.
[5420] 2 Cor. xi. 29.
[5421] St. Crispina.
[5422] Song of Sol. ii. 6. [He thus concludes: "Although the Psalm is
short, yet our exposition and discourse on it hath been long. Imagine,
my brethren, that owing to the birthday of the blessed Crispina I have
invited you, and have been immoderate in protracting the banquet. Might
not this have happened to you, if any military officer had invited you,
and compel you to drink at his table without measure? May it be lawful
for us to do this in a sacred exposition, that ye may be inebriated and
satisfied to the full."--C.]
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