Latin original · 38 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 14:526–14:563 (1019 verses in all)
ℹ️ This corpus has no morphological tagging. Glosses are matched by word form against a dictionary — a match does not prove it is the same word (an inflected form can coincide with another word’s lemma). Verify against the original and a specialist lexicon where precision matters.
ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
Whence, when you see some men eager to enlarge their possessions, to heap up powers, to court adornment, you will say that word of Isaiah: 'These weave the spider's web' — which cannot last even through the space of a single day, but is quickly torn apart, and its whole work is dissolved; for it is not set upon any solid foundation, but is suspended in the void. Nothing loose, nothing soft befits the true soldier of Christ; for behold, they who are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. All the avaricious seem to themselves clever and industrious. What is more clever, what more anxious than the spider, which always strives at its work by day and by night, and at no cost and no expense completes its garment? Yet vain is all that it makes.
So is every man who does not establish his work upon the foundation of Christ; he too is vainly troubled by night and day, since for the most part, even in the very effort of his wickedness, the ruin of his own work entangles him after the manner of a spider. And therefore the wise man, who recognizes the vanity of this age, does not pray for a long lease of this life, but hastens to those eternal things, and longs to be released from the labor and pain of this body, just as the prophet is known to have desired, saying: 'Hear, O Lord, my prayer and my supplication; give ear to my tears. Be not silent toward me, for I am a stranger with you on the earth and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.' One thing is a native inhabitant, another a stranger, another a settler:
a native inhabitant is one who belongs to the place and dwells in his birthplace; a stranger is one who comes from elsewhere; a settler is one who dwells for a time and is changed by the turning of the years. This, then, is what David says: 'With you I am an alien while I am on the earth; I am not now an inhabitant of your paradise.' Whence he himself set this forth by adding: 'and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.' This too the Apostle Paul disclosed, affirming that, while we are in the body, we are pilgrims away from the Lord, because, even though faith is in us, yet we walk by faith and not by sight — that is, not face to face as if present; for we walk as yet in a riddle, not in truth. Finally he added: 'We are bold, therefore, and we are confident rather to be pilgrims from the body and to be present with the Lord.'
'We are bold' is a word of presumption in God's faith, not of rashness, and 'we are confident,' that is: willing, we acquiesce, and, desiring it, we will that what we long for be true — yet not as though by our own judgment we depended principally on the authority of a fuller knowledge — so that we may draw near to the Lord, from whom the distance of things future and present seems to separate us. We are bold therefore to be present, and so, he says, 'we strive.' You recognize the word of one still wishing to arrive, not of one who has arrived; in this saying, then, the affection, not the effect, is shown. Finally, question the very affection of his saying — nay, hear him speaking, or rather hear him doubting, when he says:
'Therefore we strive, whether absent or present, to please him' — absent still through faith, present through sight. Whence this too may be understood: that both placed here and there we desire to please him who is our judge and likewise the redeemer of our souls. For it is necessary that we stand before him through sight, that each one may, by the examination of a worthy lot, attain the deserts of his own works — either the just one in rest, or the wicked one in distress. He pours forth tears, therefore, because, when a stranger has come into the land, he is delayed and separated from his homeland, held back by a long exile. Consider now for me that Adam, cast out of paradise, relegated to a stronghold, gazing back at the place from which he was cast down, weeping copiously, because he remembers what he lost and into what he fell.
And therefore let us give thanks to God, who has freed us from perpetual exile, opening the door by which we may return to our homeland. Whence the Apostle presumed to say: 'Therefore you are no longer strangers and pilgrims, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of God's household.' Wishing to receive this, David, before Christ came into the lands, said: 'Forgive me, that I may be refreshed before I depart, and shall be no more,' that is: 'Forgive me here, where I have sinned. Unless you forgive me here, I shall not be able to find the rest of remission there; for what has remained bound on earth shall remain bound in heaven, and what has been loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'
For the prophet, and the herald of the Church that was to be gathered, foresaw by the Gospel spirit the Lord's pardons, and the Lord was revealing to him the things to be enjoined upon the apostles — nay, this was the ancient sentence, that whoever had bound himself on earth should depart from the body bound. Therefore the Lord, which was a thing prior to his own judgment, gave to the apostles the equity of remitting sins, and of loosing things, lest things long bound should remain bound. Finally, hear him saying: 'To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' 'To you,' he says, 'I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that you may both loose and bind.' This Novatian did not hear; the Church of God heard it;
therefore he is in falling, we in remission; he in impenitence, we in grace. What is said to Peter is said to the apostles. We do not usurp the power, but we serve the command, lest afterward, when the Lord comes and finds bound those who ought to have been loosed, he be moved against the steward who has kept bound the servants whom the Lord had commanded to be loosed, saying that 'he who knew the will of his lord and did not act according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes; but he who did not know and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few.' Rightly therefore does David ask that it be remitted to him, knowing that this was not assigned to the priests who were after the order of Aaron, but was reserved for the Gospel.
To whom, then, it is not remitted, he is in exile, he persists in the injury of his pilgrimage. Here, therefore, pardon is to be sought — for here it was said: 'Blessed are you who weep, for you shall laugh' — here is the place for asking pardon. Let us then lament on earth, that we may merit indulgence. Unless sin be remitted here, we shall not have rest; if there be no rest, there will be no eternal life; if there be no eternal life, we shall not be. Therefore he asks that it be remitted to him before he departs, that he may be. For if it is not remitted, 'I shall not be,' he says, 'with those who are, with those who are counted worthy to ascend into paradise.' But he who is not shall be consumed with those who go down into the pit, who is left behind in chains and in prison.
He does not therefore say 'I shall not be' definitively, since elsewhere he says: 'I will sing to you on the harp, O God, Holy One of Israel. My lips shall rejoice when I sing to you, and my soul which you have redeemed' — he presumes, then, upon redemption. And elsewhere hear him saying: 'I will please the Lord in the land of the living' — he shall be, then, who presumes to please. It can also be understood thus, since he said: 'I am an alien with you on the earth and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were,' and therefore 'forgive me, that I may cease to be a pilgrim; forgive me the exile to which I have been relegated. If you forgive me before I depart hence, I shall be no longer an exile and a pilgrim;'
for when you forgive me, I shall not be a pilgrim, but I shall be a citizen of your saints, I shall be with my fathers, who themselves also were formerly pilgrims, but now indeed are already citizens. I shall be a member of God's household, so that I may not fear punishment, but may merit grace through our Lord Jesus, with whom be to you praise, honor, glory, perpetuity, with the Holy Spirit, from the ages and now and always and unto all ages of ages. Amen. EXPLANATION OF PSALM 39. In the previous psalms he proclaimed penance, then he spoke of his own patience and of man's perturbation. But in the thirty-ninth psalm he announces a new testament; for he who does penance for evils waits, but it is not the part of the perfect to wait, but to have waited;
for no one shall be saved except him who has persevered unto the end. Therefore he added: 'Waiting I waited for the Lord.' Where then is this rightly said but in the Gospel? In which now he who was awaited has come to us, in which now for us the shadow of the Law no longer grows dim, but the truth shines, because Christ has shone forth, who heard the supplication of his own and led us out of the pit of misery and from the mire of the dregs, where we were already held submerged in the abyss of our sins, and our whole man was clinging fast, nor could our mind extricate itself, overwhelmed by the stain of manifold disgrace.
Let us therefore give thanks to the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, our Redeemer, who, about to remit all our sins, descended from heaven, that he might rescue us from the pit and slime of this world and from a certain miry marsh of the earth, and from the body of this death as well, and might establish the inner footsteps of our mind in his own flesh, so that, confirmed in the word of God and absolved through the cross of the Lord's body, we might now walk no longer in the reproach of disgrace, but in the remission of sin. Confirmed therefore and rooted in Christ, he recalls that his feet's steps were set upon the rock. Whence the Apostle says: 'And they drank of the rock that followed, and the rock was Christ.'
The rock, in that it follows the thirsty, may confirm those who are slipping, lest water be wanting to the thirsty, and a firm support to those slipping. To me therefore who waited, O Lord Jesus, you came at length, you directed my steps in the Gospel, you put into my mouth a new song, which is the New Testament. Rejoicing now we sing a hymn to our God, because we have come to know the precepts of new virtues, that we should leave all our things and follow Christ and love our enemies. We have also drawn in new manners, that we should offer prayer to the Lord for those who persecute us; behold, we who are cursed bless, we do not know how to vaunt our works or to conceal our sins, and after the manner of angels we even refuse marriages. Why say much?
From that wretched sinner he has now been made a blessed man, no longer looking upon the varied vanities of this world; for 'vanity of vanities and all is vanity' — this whole world is, as the wise Solomon said. For what is it but vain to pursue those things which cannot endure and all pass away like a shadow? But the false madnesses are either these contests of wars, in which so much blood is shed for a temporal possession, or the dissensions of theatrical contentions, or the studies of the circus full of frenzy that are displayed, or the deadly teaching of heretics, or the feigned gestures and composed words of false prophets in the manner of heavenly oracles. For thus said the prophet:
'Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord, and who has not looked upon vanities and false madnesses.' There are therefore also true madnesses, and perhaps of the prophets, who, placed in ecstasy of mind, prophesied filled with the Spirit of God, so that to some they seemed to be mad, when, unmindful of their own safety, mostly naked and barefoot, like holy Isaiah, they ran through the peoples, crying out not what they themselves wished, but what was commanded them by the Lord. From these, then, it is understood that the remedy of salvation flowed in, since he who was awaited is present. Adam, cast out of paradise, awaited him, that he might be freed from his long exile. He awaited him in righteous Noah, who was reserved for the seed of those to come, that from him the seeds of righteousness might sprout up in men.
They thought him to be the author of public salvation, who had merited to survive the flood; him the prince of wisdom, who had cultivated the vine and become inebriated with its fruit — for what is the vine but wisdom? — as David, the heavenly interpreter of the oracle, opened to us, saying:
'Your wife is like a fruitful vine abounding on the sides of your house,' in that in him was the fullness of wisdom which was awaited in Christ, who, filled with the new sacrament of wisdom — which eye has not seen nor ear heard — hastened to bring us an unaccustomed mystery, so that he might lie naked and pour forth the unheard-of cups of overflowing wisdom, that, forgetting the former things, we might rise again into new manners and a new sobriety of eternal life, whereby through the foolishness of preaching God might be acknowledged, whom through wisdom this world did not know. Finally, in that figure of the sleeping and naked father, he who laughed at the foolishness was cursed; they who reverenced him obtained the grace of blessing.
And therefore those who shall have believed that the death of the only-begotten Son of God, the Father and Creator of all, was to be cast up as a stumbling block or a reproach to our faith, are held bound by the bonds of their sins unto the perpetual distress of cursing; but those who receive it as the absolution of the whole human race are upheld by the protection of eternal virtue. For the cross of Christ is, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, as the Apostle said, but to us who believe in our Lord it is the power of God and wisdom.
He was awaited in Moses, when he had cleft and passed through the waves of the sea and opened, in the billows, a way for a path on foot impossible to human strength, when the rock followed and spewed forth waters, that it might satisfy the inner bowels of the thirsting fathers in the midst of the desert. He was awaited also in Aaron, the chief of priests, who stood in the midst between the living and the dead and stayed the serpent-like plague of death, lest from the corpses of the dead it should pass over to the destruction of the living. For what is so proper to Christ as to stand as an advocate of the peoples before God the Father, to offer his own death for all, to repel slaughter, to reform life for those about to perish?
He was awaited also in Joshua son of Nun, and surely he came, who received both his power and his name, that he might both lead the people into the land of promise and truly be called by the name of Jesus. He dried up the streams, turned the waves back to their own source, made the sun stand still, until he should consummate the victory in strength. But that was as yet a figure, not the truth. Finally, the true leader of the heavenly host shone forth, and Joshua son of Nun adored him, although he had not yet truly stood present in the body, but had as yet come in a figure. When therefore did the true one come? Hear him saying: 'I announced and spoke, they were multiplied beyond number. Sacrifice and oblation you did not will, but a body you have perfected for me. Then I said: Behold I come, in the head of the book it is written of me;'
'that I may do your will, O my God, I have willed it.' What is more evident than that the true Jesus came to us with the gift of his Gospel? He himself spoke, and countless peoples of believers were gathered, who before scarcely believed one by one. He himself came in the flesh, and the sacrifice of the Jews ceased, the oblation for sin ceased, because the remitter of sins had come. There was no remedy of the Law necessary where the author of the Law stood present. 'Then I said: Behold I come, in the head of the book it is written of me.' It is indeed written of Christ in the beginning of the Old Testament, that he was to come, that in the redemption of men he might do the will of God the Father, when it is written that he formed Eve, in the likeness of the Church, for the aid of man.
For what can be a protection to us in this infirmity of the body and the perturbation of this age, except only the grace of the Church, by which we are redeemed, and our faith, by which we live? In the head of the book it is written: 'Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.' Who this is that has spoken, or concerning whom this sacrament is, hear him saying: 'This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church.' Whence too he admonishes that a man should so love his wife as Christ loved the Church, since we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.
What greater salvation, then, than to be with Christ and to cleave to him in a certain unity of body, in whom there is neither any stain nor any filth of sin? It is written in the head of the book that the offering of righteous Abel pleased God, but the oblation of the fratricide displeased him. Did not the Lord Jesus openly signify that he himself was to be offered for us, that in his passion he might consecrate the grace of a new sacrifice and abolish the rite of a fratricidal people? And what more express than that a son was offered by the holy patriarch, and a ram was immolated? Did he not openly show that the flesh of man, which is common to all earthly living creatures, and not the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God, would be subject to the wound of the sacred passion?
It is written in the head of the book that a man would come who would command the heavenly powers. It was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus came into the lands and the angels ministered to him, as he himself deigned to say: 'Henceforth you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending to the Son of Man.' It is written in the head of the book: 'A lamb without blemish, clean, full-grown, male, a yearling shall be for you, and the whole synagogue shall slay it.' Who this lamb is, you have heard him saying: 'Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.' This is he who was slain by all the people of the Jews, whom they still persecute with hostile hatred.
And it indeed behooved him to die for all, that in his cross there might be the remission of sins and his blood might wash away the defilements of the world. But woe to those who denied the author of their own salvation! 'You made,' he says, 'a counsel, but not through me.' How could he approve the fratricide who did not approve the counsel? And yet how great the mercy! He indeed abhorred the counsel, but if they would be converted he did not refuse the remedy. It is written also, not only in the head, but in the whole compass of the Law, that a man would come to preserve the human race, who would will all things that God willed. Whence you understand that he who is of the same will is of the same divinity.
Whence he also came of his own will to the sacrifice of the passion, and rightly foretold: 'I will sacrifice to you freely.' But perhaps you will say: 'How did he say in the Gospel: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will?' And there seems to be a difference of will. But we understand that one thing is what is expressed according to the unity of divinity, where he says: 'I and the Father are one,' another thing what he spoke according to the affection of man, whom he instructed that he ought to be cautious and not to presume what he could not easily fulfill, lest, while he seeks a reward, he fall into sacrilege. Whence he says: 'When they persecute you in this city, flee into another.'
Rightly therefore here too, about to undergo the passion of the body, he began to be sorrowful and to be sad, and, having taken Peter and the two sons of Zebedee: 'My soul is sorrowful.' He premised it before and added afterward: 'Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' You see that everywhere he speaks according to the man, prays according to the man, is sorrowful according to the man, said according to the man: 'My Father, if it be possible.' What indeed is impossible to God? But it is the part of man to doubt, of God to confirm. Therefore he took the more ready ones, as it were the elect witnesses of his final judgment, who would recognize the sacrament of his words. Finally, the others were sleeping, these alone were keeping watch with a faithful mind.
Hence also through Jeremiah, before yet He had taken on a body, He Himself says: 'I was led like a lamb, and I did not know.' What is it that the Wisdom of God does not know, who is ever in the secret place of the Father? And so the Son of God has declared all things, because He Himself is the Wisdom of God the Father. How then did He foreknow that He would be led like a lamb, and yet says He did not know whither He was being led? Or how, in the verses above, through the mouth of David Himself, does He say: 'My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?' How is the Son forsaken by the Father, who says: 'And I am not alone, because the Father is with me,' and elsewhere: 'I was delivered up, and I did not go forth,' and elsewhere: 'I arose, and I am still with Thee'? Unless you should perceive that He is expressing the feeling of men, who think themselves forsaken by their Lord when they are in peril.
Then hear what follows: 'Far,' He says, 'from my salvation are the words of my transgressions.' That is: the words of transgressions are one thing, the mysteries of eternal salvation another. The words do not prejudice the power; the divine substance is upheld by its own strength. A man is seen, a man is heard, but God is acknowledged in His works. And yet of this man it is said: 'And He is a man, and who shall know Him?' What does 'who' mean? Not that no one, but that few, that the wise, as in that saying: 'Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?' 'Who is wise and will understand these things?' Then elsewhere: 'The foolish man shall not know, and the senseless shall not understand these things.' You too, therefore, when you read the Gospel, as one wise and not foolish, understand what you read; let the splendour of eternal Wisdom enlighten you.
They are indeed words, but these very words cleanse, these very words enlighten, these very words confirm, these very words give life. Hence Peter says: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we will not forsake Thee.' Then, that we might perceive that He speaks according to His humanity, a little after He said: 'Behold, the hour draws near that the Son of Man be delivered into the hands of sinners,' and to Judas who kissed Him He said: 'Judas, dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?' That is: dost thou pour out poison with the kiss by which the grace of love is poured in, the kiss which is the token of holy peace, the kiss by which faithful friendship is made firm, the kiss by which holy faith is sealed?
With this kiss, then, dost thou betray to peril Him whom for the kiss's sake thou shouldst have revered? And dost thou, a man, betray the Son of Man, who for the salvation of men came down from heaven? For so it is written: 'The Son of Man who is in heaven, He it is who came down from heaven.' Dost thou betray the Son of Man, who made thee from a sinner an apostle? Dost thou betray the Son of Man, who came that in His own blood He might wash away the sins of all? I do not refuse the kiss; see thou to it, who hast violated the kiss's holiness. Or hast thou not read that the wounds of a friend are more profitable than the willing kisses of an enemy? Not without reason was Judas struck with a heavier dart of such great honour than if He had smitten him with a thunderbolt.
Then he who betrayed the Majesty could not bear the patience of the Lord, so much so that he could not wash away from himself the guilt of so great a crime. And so he gave back the money, that is, he condemned his own avarice as the author of so great an impiety, and returned to the synagogue the price of his treachery. The betrayer is not excused, who could find no place for repentance, but rather the sacrilege of the Jews is made the more bitter, who are convicted even by the words of the betrayer. He acknowledged his own crime, saying that he had betrayed innocent blood; they both received the price of the crime and with sharper zeal persecuted the Prince of righteousness.
Therefore, to the perpetual condemnation of all these, the crucified thief is absolved, because he acknowledged Christ in his own torments, whom these did not acknowledge in their benefits, and he confessed his sin to Christ, who knew how to forgive, because upon his cross he beheld with his mind the kingdom of the Lord, which at Christ's banquet Judas could not see. Therefore upon the prayer of the thief there followed a heavenly voice of this kind: 'Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.' Thou didst dance for joy, O dragon, that thou hadst stolen an apostle away from Christ: thou hast lost more than thou didst take, who seest a thief carried over into paradise. There is none who can be shut out, when a thief, thy minister, was received and came thither whence thou thyself wast cast down.
We have woven in these things on account of that little verse, because He said: 'That I might do Thy will, my God, I have willed,' that is: 'In the Godhead I have, together with Thee, O Father, one will; and because the will is one, the substance is one, and the majesty and power of the Trinity is inseparable.' But the voice of the flesh is another, and yet even it consented to the will of God, saying: 'Not what I will, but what Thou wilt,' and elsewhere: 'If this cannot pass unless I drink it, Thy will be done.' It is a common feeling to fear death, which Christ took upon Himself, that He might crucify, as He did crucify, even the flesh; for He wrestled for me, that He might conquer for me. Although the flesh of Christ was strong and not liable to sin, yet He took upon Himself sins;
He took it on in weakness, although He had nothing in Himself to grieve over. Then hear Him saying: 'Because He grieves for us, until He bring forth judgment unto truth.' For He took on not another flesh, but this very flesh, as the Apostle teaches, saying: 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality.' Although born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit, yet He is the Son of Man, because a virgin is human. And therefore that which is born of flesh is flesh, and He who is born of a human being is called human: the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Therefore, being incorruptible, He took on this flesh that He might make it incorruptible, and being immortal, that He might make it immortal. If anyone, then, follows Him, he shall put on immortality;
if anyone does His will, he shall not die forever, but Christ shall say to him: 'This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.' What does 'this day' mean? It means: 'Thou hast passed out of the night, thou shalt be with me in the light; do not dread the darkness, thou whom the eternal Light has received.' Beautifully also He added: 'Thou shalt be with me in paradise,' that is: 'Do not doubt concerning the flesh, for thou hast seen me too in the flesh. Do not fear that thou too shalt fall from paradise as Adam fell, but hear that thou shalt be with me, where thou canst not fall while I am present.' The flesh had fallen in paradise, before it was taken up by Christ. There shalt thou be received, where also He is who received it, who did not lie when He said: 'I will that where I am, they also may be with me.'
The Shepherd will not depart from His flocks, although now thou canst not fear the wolf in paradise, of whom it was said: 'I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.' Therefore before the consummation the adversary is cast down into the fire, and is bound with everlasting chains, that thou mayest now dread no snares. And Adam, that he might fall, was deceived by the serpent and was swayed by his wife. Therefore now there are no marriages in paradise, but all shall be without the celebrations of marriage, like the angels in heaven. He had not said to Adam 'Thou shalt be with me,' because He knew that he was about to fall, that he might be redeemed by Christ. O happy fall, which is repaired unto something better! Therefore now the good Shepherd, the good merchant, does not forsake His flock and His own merchandise.