Third Sermon on Psalm XC: On the Spiritual Snares and Hunters, and on the Necessity of Penance and Fear

“ My God, in Him will I trust. For He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters, and from the sharp word.”

These words, my brethren, fill me with compassion for myself and with sorrow for the miseries of my soul. Listen: “ He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters.’’ Are we therefore only beasts of the field? Beasts, and no more! For “ man, when he was in honour, did not understand: he is compared to senseless beasts and is become like to them.” Men, consequently, are beasts, wandering sheep, that have no shepherd. O man, wherefore art thou proud? Why dost thou boast of thy little knowledge? Behold, thou art become as a wild beast, so that even the hunters set their snares to catch thee. But who are these hunters? They are hunters of the greatest malice, wickedness, craft, and cruelty. They are hunters who sound no horn, so that they may not be heard, but “shoot in secret the undefiled.” They are “the rulers of the world of this darkness,” most cunning in evil and in devilish guile, so that, in comparison with them, the most astute amongst mortals is only as a beast before the sportsmen. I except, of course, such men as can say, like the Apostle, “ We are not ignorant of his (Satan’s) devices.” For to these it is given in the wisdom of God to discover the deceits of the malignant one. I beseech you, therefore, ye “new plants ” of the Lord, ye whose minds are not as yet sufficiently disciplined to discriminate between good and evil, do not follow the counsels of your own heart, do not ‘‘ abound in your own sense,” lest, being still inexperienced, you be ensnared by the crafty hunters. The devil openly spreads his net for the wild beasts of the forest, that is to say, for the men of this world, because he has no doubt that they will allow themselves to be easily caught. But you, my brethren, are like the prudent stags which slay the reptiles and long after the living fountain. For you, therefore, the hunters lay more cunning snares, and devise more crafty means of deception. I beg of you, then, to ‘‘ be humbled under the mighty Hand of God,” your Shepherd, and to follow the advice of those who are acquainted with Satan’s wiles, taught by the study of many years, and by the constant experience of themselves and others. i

I have now explained to you who these hunters are, and what the beasts. The next question for discussion is the meaning of the snare. I will not excogitate any theory of my own, nor will I offer you any doubtful interpretation. The Apostle himself shall inform us what that snare means, for he is well acquainted with the hunters’ crafty designs. Tell us, then, O blessed Paul, what is the infernal snare which the faithful soul rejoices to have escaped ? “ They that will become rich,” he answers, “ fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil.’’ Consequently, my brethren, -the wealth of this world is a snare of Satan. Alas! how few do we find to congratulate themselves on escaping this snare! How many rather lament that they have not been caught in it as fully as they desire, and still do all in their power to entangle themselves in its meshes more and more! But you that have left all things and have followed Him Who had not where to lay his Head, the Son of man, rejoice and say, ‘‘ For He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters.” Confess to Him with your whole heart, with your whole mind, and with all your strength; render Him thanks with all the power and sincerity of your souls, saying each for himself, “ For He hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters.” And that you mayunderstand how great a benefit this is, that you “may know the things that are given you from God,” attend to what follows: “ And from the sharp word.” Oman, or rather beast, hast thou no fear ofthe snare? Well, at least be afraid of the bludgeon. “From the sharp word.” What is this “sharp word,” my brethren, but the cries that resound through the place of everlasting woe, as the shouts of the hunters when the quarry is taken: “ Hither with him, hither with him; strike him ; tear him ; kill him at once; take away the spoil quickly ” ? What, I ask, is this “ sharp word ” if it be not that which we read in the Prophet, “ Take away the impious that he may not see the glory of God?” * Oh, how the hunters will exult when they have run down the poor beast! How joyously they will cry, “ Slay him, slay him; pierce him with the spits; place him over the fire; put him into the boiling pot.” That also was a “sharp word” which the “ provoking house,” the Jewish people, uttered of old, ‘ Away with Him, away with Him ; crucify Him, crucify Him.” Oh, how sharp it was, how cruel, how horrible! Verily, their “ teeth were weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” This “ sharp word ” Thou didst endure, Lord Jesus. And wherefore, unless in order to deliver us from that other “ sharp word” ? Grant us now in Thy mercy that we may not have to hear that to save us from which Thou hast vouchsafed to suffer so much.

When we try to persuade worldlings to do penance they are wont to answer us, “ This saying is hard and who can hear it?” This is what we read in the Gospel. The Lord was discoursing on penance, but figuratively, because He was speaking to men to whom it was not “ given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.” When, therefore, they heard Him declaring, “ Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you,” they uttered these words, “ This saying is hard and who can hear it?” And many of them “ went back and walked no more with Him.” But why should we not understand the expressions, “eat My Flesh ” and “ drink My Blood,” as an injunction to participate in His sufferings and imitate the example which He has given us in the flesh? * The same lesson of Grace and the Doctor of Love understand these words of the Eucharist. In the short Treatise, De Corpore Domini, is taught us in the most holy Sacrament of the altar, wherein we receive the Lord’s Body ; that, as in this mystery, the species of bread visibly enters our bodies, so we may know that, by the example of His earthly life, the Lord Himself comes into us invisibly to “ dwell by faith in our hearts.” For when justice enters our souls, He also enters “ Who of God is made unto us justice,” as St. Paul speaks. And according to St. John, “ He that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God in Him.” Nevertheless, many still repeat to us, “ This saying is hard.” Hard, then, do they consider “ that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation,” and “ which worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory” ? Is it hard to redeem with a very light and short-lived labour those pains and torments which shall endure for ever, which no created mind is capable of conceiving ? Do the words, “ Do penance,” seem a “ hard saying ” to you? If so, you labour under an illusion.

St. Bernard combines the two interpretations thus: “‘ Nisi manducaveritis Carnem Filii hominis et biberitis Ejus Sanguinem non habebitis vitam in vobis ( Joan. vi. 54). Vis ergo manducare Carnem Filii hominis ut habeas vitam aeternam ? Ut dignus sis, recollige ea quae pro te passus est, assidua recordatione memoriae tuae commenda passiones Animae, et Corporis necessitates, revolve per singula omnia usque ad mortem crucis, et sic exhibe suo exemplo et imitatione, corpus et animam tuam ‘ hostiam viventem, sanctam, sibi placentem,’ ut te totum exhibeas Ei sacrificium acceptabile in odorem suavitatis, sicut Ipse se totum in tua redemptione expendit. Ultimo vero crede firmiter, absque, omni mentis scrupulo sanctum Panem et sanctum Vinum super altare secundum formam sanctae Ecclesiae verum suum effici Corpus et Sanguinem in manu sacerdotis.” Indeed, since the literal interpretation has been adopted by three General Councils (the Council of Ephesus, the second Council of Nice, and the Council of Trent, s. xiii., c. ii.) it is not lawful for Catholics to put it aside. Cf. A Lapide, loc. cit. ; also Wiseman’s Lectures on the Blessed Eucharist, i. and ii.—(Translator.)

And some day you may hear what is in truth a “ hard saying,” yea, a “ sharp word,” and an “ evil hearing ” : “ Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” I say to you, therefore : fear this “ sharp word ” ; esteem this a “ hard saying.” So shall you find out for yourselves that the yoke of the Lord is sweet and His burden light. For even if that yoke should not in itself appear sweet to you as yet, you certainly must esteem it very sweet in comparison with the bitterness of final reprobation.

But as for you, my brethren, you are those “ winged ones ” before whose eyes, as the Psalmist sings, “ the net is spread in vain.” You that have renounced altogether the riches of this world, being thus delivered from the “snare,” what have you to fear from the “sharp word” ? You are that happy Iduthun,* to whom several of the psalms are inscribed, because you have passed through the “snare,” and from the “ sharp word ” are fled afar. For to whom will Christ address the words, “‘ Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat ’’—to whom, I ask, are these words to be addressed except to those who shall have abounded with the goods of this world ? Do not your hearts leap with joy at what I am now saying to you, and are not your souls filled with sweetness? Does your poverty not appear more precious in your eyes than all the treasures of earth ? For your poverty it is that delivers you from the “sharp word.” How indeed can God require from us what we have voluntarily renounced for the love of Him? And nevertheless you do also really accomplish what is only an obligation for the rich, since by the labour of your hands you feed and clothe Jesus Christ in His poor, so that nothing may be wanting to you.* Give thanks, therefore, to God, and say, “ For He hath delivered Me from the snare of the hunters and from the sharp word.” Rejoice, I say, but as yet let your joy be tempered with fear. I would have you to be always joyous, but—in this life—never secure, always rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, yet always fearful too, and guarding yourselves against a relapse.

Is there, then, something which you ought be to afraid of still? Yes, my brethren, there is yet one cause of fear for you, and that the gravest of all. It is the sin of Judas, the sin ofapostasy. You have done well in taking wing like the dove and flying away to be at rest. For there is no rest in the world, nothing but labour, and sorrow, and affliction of spirit. What, therefore, can be a source of fear to the soul that has taken flight, except that possibly she may perceive on provide new relief for the poor and helpless.” —History of St. Alban’s, p. viii. (Preface).

the earth below her a carcass or something similar, and drawn down by the desire of it, may beseen by those most cruel hunters and caught in the snares they have set for her? Then shall her last state be worse than her first. This, I repeat, is greatly to be feared, lest any of us, either in heart alone, or both in heart and in body, should return to the vomit. For we read of the children of Israel that they returned in their hearts to Egypt. And they might have returned in body also were they not prevented by the Red Sea, whose waters had come together again after their crossing. Yes, my brethren, this is what every one of us ought to fear most of all, lest perhaps we should ever go so far in offending God that we shall be manifestly rejected by Him and vomited out of His Mouth : or if shame, like the Red Sea, prohibits a visible apostasy, lest tepidity, little by little, should bring about in us an apostasy of the heart ; so that under the habit of religion we should conceal the hearts of worldlings, and greedily embrace whatever of earthly consolation we may be able to discover in the cloister. For we are not holier than was the Apostle, who yet was afraid lest, when he had preached to others, he should himself become a cast away. And this fear must remain with us until “the snare is broken and we are delivered,” when the soul lays aside this mortal body. For the body is itself a snare. Hence we read in the Prophet Jeremias, “ My eye hath wasted my soul.” Consequently, no man has a right to feel secure so long as he carries this snare about with him; but it is safer for us all to “ dwell in the aid of the Most

High” by Whose power alone this snare can be avoided.