Tenth Sermon on Psalm XC: On Sin and its Punishment, and on the Deliverance from Both Which the Resurrection Shall Bring Us

“ There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.”

Brethren, it is no discovery of mine, nor is it anything novel to you, but something very familiar, the truth, namely, that as regards the principal objects of our faith it is more easy to know and more dangerous to be ignorant of what they are not than what they are. It seems to me that the same holds good of hope, and no less than of faith. For the human mind, from its experience of evils, so great and so many, understands far more easily what it is to be without suffering and misery than what it is to be in the enjoyment of bliss. There is an intimate relation between faith and hope. The happiness which the former believes shall be, the latter looks forward to enjoy with confident expectation. Justly, therefore, does the Apostle define faith as “the substance of things to be hoped for.” For surely no one can hope unless he first believes in the object of his hope, any more than one can paint a picture on the empty air. Faith, therefore, seems to say, ‘‘ God has prepared a treasure of inconceivable happiness for His faithful servants ” ; hope, “ It is for me that happiness is prepared ” ; and then charity, “ As for me, I am

222° already speeding to the enjoyment of that happiness.” But, as I observed before, it is extremely difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to form an adequate idea of the good things in store for us, except perhaps for one to whom the Lord Himself reveals by His Spirit ‘‘what things God hath prepared for them that love Him,” which as the Apostle says, ‘‘ eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man ” to conceive. There is undoubtedly a certain kind of imperfect perfection (if I may be allowed the expression) possible to us even in this life, otherwise St. Paul would not have said, “ Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded,” which must evidently be interpreted in accordance with his previous words, “ Not as though I had already attained or were already perfect.” But to whatever perfection a man may attain whilst living in the flesh, he will always be obliged to confess with the same Apostle, “ Now I know (only) in part,” and, “ We see now through a glass, in a dark manner, but then face to face.’’* Consequently, that kind of happiness which is known to be more easily intelligible to man, is more frequently proposed to him in the Scriptures, out of a loving consideration for his weakness, For it is natural for the afflicted to repute as highest happiness deliverance from their miseries, and to esteem a life without suffering or sorrow as the most blissful of all lives. Hence the Royal Prophet sings in one of the psalms, “ Turn, O my soul, into thy rest, for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee ’’;

mons on the Canticle of Canticles, vol. ii. pp. 151-2 (note).— (Translator.)

and without making any mention of receiving other benefactions appertaining to happiness, he goes on, “ For He hath delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling.” By these words he plainly indicates how great a rest he deems it, and how great a benefit from God, to be delivered from tribulations and dangers.

Similiar to this in meaning shall be found the verse of the ninetieth psalm, which I have to examine to-day, namely, “‘ There shall no evil come to thee : nor shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.” The signification of these words, appears to me to be manifest enough, and some of yourselves, probably, have already divined it. For you are not so uninstructed or so wanting in spiritual enlightenment, as not to be able to distinguish with ease between yourselves and your tabernacles on the one hand, and between the “evil” and the “scourge’’ on the other. You have even heard the Apostle saying, when he had “‘ fought the good fight,” that the time was at hand for the dissolution of his earthly tabernacle. But wherefore do I cite for you the words of St. Paul? As if, forsooth, a soldier could be ignorant of his own tabernacle and requiring to have it pointed out to him by means of a foreign example ! Some, indeed, we behold who have changed their tabernacles into permanent dwellings of most shameful captivity, no longer living in them like soldiers in wartime, but rather as most wretched bondslaves. Nay, what is still more strangely perverse, some wander so far out of the right path, and arrive at such a degree of forgetfulness, such a pitch of spiritual madness, that they appear to identify themselves with their outward earthly tabernacle. For how can they be otherwise iP Sara oe than entirely forgetful, not only of God, but of themselves also, they, who, “as dead from the heart,” devote all their attention to the body, and are so solicitous for their tabernacles as if they expected them to. stand for ever? Nevertheless, these tabernacles are doomed to fall, and that in a very short time. Or, do you not consider those to be ignorant of themselves who are so occupied and engrossed in ministering to flesh and blood as if they judged themselves to be nothing distinct from these material elements ; who so “receive their souls in vain,” as if they were utterly unconscious that they have souls at all? “Tf thou wilt separate the precious from the vile,” saith the Lord by His Prophet Jeremias, “ thou shalt be as My Mouth.” That is to say, “ If thou wilt prudently distinguish between the external and material part of thy nature and the interior, spiritual part, in such a manner that thou wilt be more solicitous to defend the latter from evil than the former from the scourge, then thou shalt be as My Mouth.” For the evil in question here is that whereof the Psalmist says in another place, ‘“‘ Decline from evil and do good.” This is the evil which deprives thy soul of her Soul,* in that it “ maketh a division between thee and God.” And whilst it reigns in thee, as a body without a soul so is thy soul without God, utterly dead in herself, like one of those whom the Apostle declared to be « living without God in this world.”

they stand to each other in the relation of form and matter.— (Translator.)

I, P

However, I would not advise you to have a hatred even for your flesh. On the contrary, I would have you to love it, as given you to be your helper in this life, and the associate of your immortal felicity in the next. But let the soul love the body in such a manner that the spirit shall not seem to have been turned into flesh, and thus deserve to hear from the Lord the words of reproach, ‘‘ My Spirit shall not remain in man for ever, because he is flesh.” Yes, my brethren, let the soul love her body: but let her love her own Soul much more dearly. Let Adam by all means love his Eve, yet not in such a way as to be more willing to obey her voice than the voice of God. For to be so loved is not expedient even for the flesh : I mean, if your love of it leads you to shelter it in this life from the scourge of paternal correction, whilst treasuring up against it the wrath of eternal damnation in the life to come. “Ye brood of vipers,” said the Baptist to the Pharisees and Sadducees, “ who hath showed you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance.” As if he should say in the words of the Psalmist, ‘‘ Embrace discipline lest at any time the Lord be angry,” that is: “submit to the rod of correction lest you should feel the bludgeon of vengeance.”’ Why do carnal men say to us, “This manner of life is cruel : you have no compassion for your flesh ?” I grant, we do not spare the flesh any more than the farmer spares the seed. Yet what kindness to the seed could be greater than such apparent cruelty? Is it not happier in being allowed to renew and multiply itself in the ground than if it were permitted to rot in the granary ? Alas! “the beasts have rotted in their dung,” as the Prophet Joel speaks. Is it thus you spare your flesh ? We indeed may seem to be cruel in condemning our bodies to penance during this life, but you are much more cruel in sparing them. For even now our flesh “‘ resteth in hope.” : but consider to what dishonour your flesh is subjected here and what misery awaits it hereafter. ‘‘ There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.” Here, my brethren, we have a double robe,* and a twofold immortality is commended to our desire. What causes death but the separation of soul and body ? Hence we speak of a dead body as soulless (exanime). But what causes this separation if not the scourges of the present life, the violence of pains of every description, and the corruption of the body itself, which are all the penalty of sin ? Justly, therefore, does our flesh fear and hate the scourge, which compels it to separate, with indescribable bitterness, from the sweet and honourable companionship of the soul. Nevertheless, it has to be endured, however unwillingly, until the hour when the soul returns to reanimate the body. And is it not better for thee to submit to pain in this life in such a manner that thou shalt escape it altogether in the next, and “ the scourge shall (no more) come near thy tabernacle ” ?

My brethren, I have already reminded you of what it is expedient for you never to forget, namely, that God is the true Life of your souls. But the soul too, may be separated from her Life, not by the scourge, as the body, but by the evil, the evil proper to the soul, which is nothing other than sin. Alas, dearest brethren! How can we take delight in frivolous occupations, how can we freely indulge our propensity to sloth, in the immediate neighbourhood of these two serpents, that are watching to take from us our double life, the life of our soul and the life of our body ? How can we go to sleep in security? Is not negligence in presence of danger rather a sign of despair than of real security ? We ought to desire indeed deliverance from both the scourge and the evil ; yet sin is more to be dreaded than the penalty of sin. And we must be the more careful to avoid the evil than the scourge, in proportion as it is a greater misfortune and a more utter ruin for the soul to be separated from God than for the body to be separated from the soul. For when all sin has been entirely removed, it must needs be that the effect shall be taken away with the cause. Consequently, just as no evil can then ‘‘ come to thee,” so neither ‘‘ shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.” That is to say, suffering of every kind shall be as far removed from the body as sin from the soul. For, as you may notice, the Psalmist does not say, “ There shall be no evil in thee,” or “ The scourge shall not be im thy tabernacle,” but ‘‘ There shall no evil come to thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.”’

There are some men, my brethren, in whom sin appears not only to dwell but even to dominate: so much so that it seems to have come as near to them as is possible, at least until it shall begin to reign in them in such a manner that never more can it cease to reign. You may meet with others in whom sin is still dwelling, yet no longer reigns or dominates. It has been plucked up, but not yet cast forth ; it has been overthrown, but not yet driven out. “ But from the beginning it was not so,”’ as is sufficiently evident. Before that primeval transgression of the divine command, not only did sin not reign in our first parents, but it did not even dwell in them. Nevertheless, it must be supposed to have come near them, even at that time, since it so easily obtained their consent and so speedily gained admission. Yea, and it was then nigh when God gave them solemn warning, in the words addressed to Adam, “ In what day soever thou shalt eat of it (the tree of knowledge) thou shalt die the death.” Happy, therefore, is our expectation and blessed our hope, since the promised resurrection shall make us so much more glorious than was our primitive condition.* For after the resurrection there shall be neither sin nor punishment, neither the evil nor the scourge. They shall never again, rather let me say, they never again can either dominate or dwell in our souls or bodies. “ There shall no evil come to thee,” says the Psalmist, “nor shall the scourge come near thy tabernacle.” And what can be farther away from thee than that can never come nigh thee ?

But what are we doing, brethren? I fear we have been discovered in the act of transgressing our Rule. For, as you know, our common Abbot, the great St. Benedict, has appointed this hour, not for spiritual instruction, but for manual labour. However, I think he will easily pardon us, especially when he remembers

` that pious fraud whereby the monk Romanus ministered so faithfully to his wants of old, during the three years he lived in the cavern. This holy man, so we read,* was wont on certain days to steal an hour from the vigilance of his superior, in order to bring surreptitiously to the Saint a portion of the bread given him for his own use. As for me, dearest brethren, I make no doubt that many amongst you possess in themselves a greater abundance of spiritual refreshment than I can communicate : but the little I have is not lost to me by being shared with you. Nay, rather I shall enjoy whatever the Lord may be pleased to bestow, with all the more sweetness and security, when I enjoy it in common with you. This kind of treasure is not lessened by communication : it rather increases according as it is dispensed. Yet if I preach to you more frequently than the custom of our Order sanctions, I do so, not by my own presumption, but at the bidding of my venerable brother-abbots, who have enjoined on me what, nevertheless, they consider unlawful for themselves; because they know that there is special reason and special necessity for me to make myself useful in this way. For were I able to join in your manual labour, I should not be addressing you now. Participation in your toil would indeed be a more efficacious manner of preaching and more acceptable to my own conscience. But since that is denied me through the merit of my sins, and the manifold infirmities (so well known to you) of this burdensome body, as well as by the necessities of the present times, God grant that, saying and not doing, I may deserve to be found even the least in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.