What is the land which he urges should be dwelt in, but your soul, which you ought to cultivate well, frequently to plough with the spiritual ploughshares, lest it grow rough through long neglect? For the good husbandman exercises his field with daily labor and watchful care, and guards his own country lands, lest the boar from the wood lay them waste and the plunderer snatch the ripe fruits. Plough therefore your land, that, when he comes who sows the word, he may find your soul prepared, lest the seed fall upon the untilled ground of your heart, and the birds of the air come and tear away what was sown. What therefore the land is, hear him saying: Behold, he who sows went forth to sow his field. And while he sowed, some fell by the wayside, some upon the rock, some upon the good ground.
But as for what fell upon the good ground, these are they who, hearing the word in a good heart, retain it and bring forth fruit in patience. Let your heart, therefore, be clean, let your soul be clean, that you may be able to bring forth the fruit of goodness, that is, of spiritual grace. For goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, as it is written: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, modesty, continence. These are the fruits, with whose riches we are fed and with whose abundance we are satisfied. In this land the just Noah planted that fruitful vine, and drank of its fruit, and was loosed in his inmost heart, when the doubled posterity of his virtues clothed him with the praiseworthy mantle of piety.
In another place too the holy prophet showed us these riches, by which he was rich in Christ and abounded in all things that lead to eternal life. And in truth who is richer than he who is rich in the Lord, so that he can say: In the way of your testimonies I have delighted, as in all riches? For what could be lacking to a man who was enriched with heavenly oracles? And therefore he urges in this psalm that we seek for ourselves that eternal treasure and take its delight in the acquiring of it. And therefore he says: Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the petitions of your heart. Why did he not say 'your petitions,' but 'the petitions of your heart'?
For the petitions of the outer man and of the inner man are not common, nor are they all approved by Christ, because the law of the flesh frequently fights against the law of the mind. But those which belong to the inner man, who is renewed in spirit, those petitions the Lord, being asked, grants with effect. Hence elsewhere too he says: May the Lord grant you according to your heart, and confirm all your petitions. 'According to the heart,' he says, not 'according to the appetite of the flesh'; and may he confirm those petitions, he says, which come forth from the inmost heart, not those which are directed by the enticement and the pleasures of this flesh. Reveal to the Lord your way, and hope in him, and he will do it; and he will bring forth your justice as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.
By this one little verse he declared what manner of man you ought to be; for who reveals his way except he who confesses to God, the arbiter of his secrets, the inner things of his breast? Well does he say 'reveal,' that is: open your conscience, lest the shadow of this world or of the flesh weigh it down. For the seeds, as they burst forth, if they are overshadowed, are made thin; exposed to the sun they grow fat. Why do I speak of seeds? The very little trees the woodland shade kills, so that they cannot raise themselves on high, and it prevents them from spreading out their branching arms. Beautifully, moreover, he said:
Reveal your way to the Lord; for human nature, prone to sin, draws a kind of veil over our mind, that we may not confess our sins to the Lord, who is able to heal our wounds — so that a man blushes to ask with his own mouth for the medicine, lest his disgraces be exposed before men. Conscience therefore presses upon a man within, since it cannot lie hidden, and so long defers it until the wound festers, so that now it is laid bare not by the wholesomeness of faith, but by the incurable virulence of the ulcer. 'Reveal,' he says, 'your way to the Lord' — that is: open your way, do not hide it, as Cain hid it, who longed to lie concealed; for everyone who does evil hates the light. David revealed his way, who says: 'I declare my works to the King.'
Open your understanding, that there be nothing for which you fear reproof. Paul too revealed it, who dared to say: 'I am conscious of nothing in myself.' Let such be your deed, such your life, that your way may shine before your Father who is in heaven. But because all human estate is subject to frailty, and it is not within our power to direct our path according to our will, therefore he says to you: 'Hope in the Lord, and he himself will do it' — that is, that he may open your way and not permit you to be such as to flee the light while you fear to be exposed, and to love the darkness, that you may be able to conceal your shameful deeds, saying: 'The darkness covers me; who knows whether the Most High sees?'
For how can one who plots adultery not seek the night suited to his temptations? how can one who devises falsehood not summon a witness to his fraud? how can one who lies in wait to corrupt a judge, that he may crush the innocent, not search out the secret of his iniquity? The robber besets lonely places, cloaks himself in the darkness of night, that the success of his crime may follow. Iniquity therefore is darkness; God is light. And if you would hide your righteousness, God brings it forth into the light, nor does he suffer to lie hidden the judgment whereby you chose the things that are good and rejected the things that are wicked. And he makes your judgment not only to shine, but to shine like noonday. When yonder sun pours itself wholly into splendor, it is noon.
It was noon when Joseph feasted with his brothers, not avenging the wrong, but forgetting it. 'Be subject to the Lord and entreat him.' You are admonished not only to be subject to the Lord, but also to entreat the Lord, that you may be able to fulfill your zeal for submission, as he says also above: 'Reveal your way to the Lord and hope in him.' It befits you not only to reveal your way, but also to hope in the Lord. But good submission is not abject, not base, but glorious and sublime; for he is subject to God who does the will of the Lord. In short, who does not know that the wisdom of the mind is more excellent than the wisdom of the flesh? Now the wisdom of the mind is subject to the law of God; the wisdom of the flesh is not subject. And the Apostle added:
'for it cannot.' Be therefore subject, that is, near to Christ, that you may fulfill the law. For Christ, by doing the will of the Father, fulfilled the law, and therefore he is the end of the law and the fullness of love, because, loving the Father, he applied his whole effort to the Father's will. Whence for the sake of glory the Apostle said: 'But when all things shall be subjected to him, then shall he himself also be subject to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all'; and he himself says: 'Shall not my soul be subject to God? for from him is my salvation.' In short, it was out of piety, not out of weakness, that Jesus was subject to his parents Joseph and Mary.
But the glory of Christ is greatest, that he should pour himself into the hearts of all men and recall all from the impiety of unbelief and from the love of paganism, that he may make them subject to himself. But when he shall have subjected all things to himself, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered and all Israel shall have been saved, and in the whole world there shall be one body in Christ, then shall he himself also be subject, offering his gift to God the Father, and as it were the prince of all priests and partaker of the heavenly altars, that the faith of all may be a sacrifice. This submission therefore is of piety, in that the Lord Jesus, whose body and members we are, shall be subject in his body. Be therefore, O man, subject to Christ, that is:
subject to the wisdom of God, subject to the Word, subject to righteousness, subject to virtue, for Christ is all these things. Let every man subject himself to God; for he teaches not one only, but all, to subject their heart, to subject their soul, to subject their flesh, that God may be all and in all. He therefore is subject who is full of grace and takes up the yoke of Christ and carries out the commandments of the Lord strenuously and without hesitation; but he is without submission who lifts himself up in vain, puffed up with the perception of his own flesh, insolent in devotion and turning aside from the dutiful observance of the godly service which by the very law of nature we owe to our eternal Author. Finally, he who is without sin is subject to Christ, since he has been redeemed by the Lord;
but he who is in sin cannot be called free, but a slave, whom the heavy chains of sin hold fast. There follows: 'Do not be envious of him who prospers in his way, doing iniquity.' Here he has plainly disclosed what he meant above: that the malicious are not to be incited by envy to malice, nor those who do iniquity to be imitated. For it is not iniquity, but the prosperous fortunes that come to those who do unjust things, that often allure us into thinking we should imitate them, that we may be able to attain to their successes, saying: 'Behold, these very sinners, abounding in the world, have obtained riches. And I said: Then in vain have I justified my heart and washed my hands among the innocent, and I have been scourged all the day long.'
If therefore David was scourged, we ought to beware lest we too be scourged and it be said of us that riches, honors, and powers seem to be appointed for this generation as if they were the fleeting and uncertain workings of wealth and the gains of iniquity, not as any rewards of virtue, and therefore that they come like a dream and, with the dream, fail you as you arise. As for the athletes themselves, it is certain that they are crowned when they have won, not before they conquer. For us there is a wrestling with the world; conquer the world before you seek the crown. No one is crowned before he has finished the contest. Those who run in the stadium — do they receive the prize before they have run the course? How many who were foremost fall at the finish and are cheated of the swiftness of their running!
Are you more acceptable to God than Paul? That vessel of election, that teacher of the Gentiles, never dared to demand a crown for himself in this world. Finally, hear him saying: 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; as for the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will render to me in that day.' That Paul who was caught up into the third heaven — who heard things that it is not lawful for a man to utter; whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body, he does not know, as he himself testified — Paul therefore says that the crown is to be rendered to him in that day: do you here insist that it be rendered to you? Fulfill then the time of your contest. Not once does the athlete wrestle, nor once does the soldier fight, that he may be able to complete his service;
and for you the struggle is not with one passion alone. If you have escaped the former passions, anger succeeds, and therefore Scripture says to you: 'Cease from anger and forsake indignation.' There are many vices that steal upon the foolish. Anger is a grievous passion; very often it kindles a man against his will and, wishing to punish more gently, sweeps him into fury, so that he destroys the one he thought should be restrained. Moved, he often runs through an innocent man with the sword; very many have slain friends and brothers through indignation. Therefore the wise man says: 'Anger destroys even the wise.' It is a saying of Solomon, that anger destroys not only any common men whatsoever, but even the wise themselves. And David admonishes the wise man, saying:
'Cease from anger,' lest, when you have kindled it, it cease not before its flame consumes you. 'Forsake,' he says, 'indignation' — that is: nature carries you away, your feelings are stirred, another's fault rouses you or an offense, so that you grow indignant; but not in every degree, so as to know no measure: forsake it, set a limit, lest it drag you into sin. This is what he said above: 'Be angry, and sin not.' For he does not exhort you to be angry, but yields to your feeling for a time, yet gives a remedy, lest the force of the ulcer creep on too long. 'Be angry,' which he says, belongs to your passion. For the physician does not at once apply medicines to the sickness. If the pain burns, he applies soothing fomentations, that the pain may grow mild;
if the fever rages, he waits for the time of the remedy, and is wont to deny even drink to the thirsty. He does not say: 'Do not have fever,' when the heat of the sick man burns, but he says: 'Wait until the fever ceases, until the disturbance is dispersed.' So too the prophet could not say to a man whose flesh is stirred, as by various diseases, so also by the passions of disturbance: 'You shall not be angry,' but he says: 'Cease from anger and forsake indignation, lest you sin; for anger is a grievous mistress of sin.' Another physician also says: 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,' lest, while you defer it long, there come that one who is wont to rouse from sleep the body grown warm, and to goad you, and instill thoughts in you, and sink into the secret places of your heart, saying:
'Avenge your injury, know yourself to be a man; not to take vengeance is the mark of feminine weakness. So a slave despised you, a brother deceived you, a friend mocked you, and do you still not avenge your insult? You must proscribe him, you must rise up with the sword and console your grief with your adversary's death. He was a man who slew his enemy; deservedly is he extolled, because he so avenged himself that no other dared to do him injury.' By these goads a man is the more inflamed, the more moved, so that what is written may be fulfilled: 'Anger destroys even the wise.' Therefore do not listen to him, do not be envious so as to do wickedly, since those who do wickedly shall be cut off.
They are cut off who have no roots, like herbs or hay. Let the weak man eat herbs; but do you plant a vine in your field, set up a vineyard, and if there come an Ahab who says to you: 'Give me your vineyard, that I may plant herbs for myself,' do not consent to him, lest by your consent he sow the perishable and cut away the eternal. Therefore Naboth is counted among the saints, because he thought that the inheritance of his forefathers ought not to be yielded even to the king, and chose rather to be stoned than to give his vineyard up to plunder. The inheritance of our forefathers is the true faith. There arose Hamans, propped up by royal power, who supposed that the temple of the Lord ought to be delivered up to them, threatening harsh punishments.
But far be it that in a mind serving the Lord the dread of punishment should outweigh the beauty of piety. Treachery did not prevail, because faith withstood. There is also a certain vineyard in the breasts of the faithful, of which Isaiah says: 'A vineyard was made for the beloved on a fruitful hill.' This vineyard the Lord planted in our hearts, and therefore we read God saying: 'I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true.' Let no one therefore carry off this vineyard from the field of our soul, for that vineyard is blessed. And so it is said of the saints: 'From the fruit of grain, wine, and oil they have been multiplied.'
It is good therefore to have within you wine-presses overflowing with wine, that wine may flow for you into your vessel from the vineyard of Sorech — how splendid is that inebriating cup! For Sorech means the vineyard of a new beginning, of a new equity. Whence it is also said to us: 'Sing to your God a new song; its beginning, magnify his name from the ends of the earth.' Let this vineyard therefore produce grapes, not iniquity. Therefore the vineyard of the Jews was forsaken, because it produced iniquity, as it is written, and not judgment. Let us therefore bear fruit in Christ, that we may deserve to be everlasting. For those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the earth — that earth, namely, of the living. There is a certain heavenly land that bears fruit for the heavenly ones, of which he says:
'I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.' This earth supplies nourishment to the belly with much sweat of men; that good land of the Lord bears fruit without any toil, in which is the lasting possession of the righteous and the inheritance of the godly mind. And he says well: 'But those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the earth by inheritance.' For this is the earth that does not pass away; for heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of the Lord shall not pass away. And therefore neither shall that intelligible earth of paradise be able to pass away, in which are those who keep the words of the Lord. In this earth Adam was placed, that he might take the fruit of eternal life; but because he could not keep the words of the Lord, therefore he did not deserve to remain in the possession he had received.
But he who keeps the words of the Lord says with confidence: 'Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he regarded me.' But Adam, since he did not wait for the Lord — for how did he wait who fled and feared to present himself? — therefore neither did the Lord deem him worthy to be seen; for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. But him the Lord was so unwilling to see that he asked, saying: 'Adam, where are you?' He who is sought is reckoned as absent. It is faith that presents us to God; it is treachery that makes the impious to be exiles. And so no one is absent from God except him who hides himself as absent; and therefore he says: 'Be it done to you according to your faith'; for 'he who is ignorant shall be ignored.' Therefore Adam, as a sinner, could not keep his place;
cast out of paradise, he was banished into a stronghold, that he might do penance. He received a respite, lest he should at once perish utterly, that Eve might be saved through the bearing of sons, through the faith of holy Abel, the grace of the prophets, the posterity of the Church. But of him who is unwilling to be redeemed through these things and thinks he must persevere in sin, the prophecy says: 'Yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be, and you shall seek his place and shall not find it.' For how shall he be able to exist in the future, since the place of sin cannot be lasting? For this is the earth that opened its mouth to receive the blood of the innocent, and therefore in this earth is the place of sinners. The earth passes away; how shall the place of the sinner be able to be found?
I judge that God therefore commanded a firmament to be between the water and the water, that he might separate sins from virtues, and that the upper water, which praises the Lord, might remain quiet from error, while the lower might be subject to sin. In short, the former sees God, the latter does not see him; that which is above the heavens sees, that which is in the abyss does not see. Whence also it is said: 'The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and were afraid, the depths were troubled; the multitude of the sound of the waters.' Deservedly are the depths troubled, over which are misshapen darknesses, and therefore they cannot have peace. Whence the legion of demons begged to be sent into the abyss, and with great tumult hurled itself into the waters, to strangle the herd of swine it had found.
Sinners therefore seek the abyss, where is the gloom of darkness. 'But the meek shall possess the earth and shall delight in the abundance of peace.' Deservedly do they possess the earth in whom God himself rests, as he re-echoed in the divine oracle through Isaiah, saying: 'Upon whom shall I rest but upon the humble and the quiet and him who trembles at my words?' Who are the meek, but those whom no goad of dissension drives, whom anger does not disturb, whom savagery does not exasperate, whom the madness of cruelty does not inflame?
And therefore because, while placed in the body, they loved not wine, not feasting, not riches, but the peace of the Lord, in return for that delight in bodily pleasures of which they thought themselves to be defrauded, that they might obtain eternal grace, they shall delight in the abundance of peace which our Lord Jesus in his days gave to the human race, as the prophecy, which did not lie, comprehended in declaring: 'In his days shall arise righteousness and abundance of peace, until the moon be exalted.' What then is the peace by which the people of all the churches has been multiplied, but that of which the Lord said: 'My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you'? He gave peace who quelled the wars of souls. There follows:
'The sinner shall watch the righteous and gnash at him with his teeth. But the Lord shall laugh at him, for he foresees that his day will come.' It is indeed the custom of one who is indignant and seething in wrath to gnash with the teeth; but the heart of the malicious also has its teeth, which are wont not to resound but to tear. The ambushes and devices of wickedness are the teeth of the sinner. The sinner therefore lies in wait for the righteous, because he envies; for the life of the righteous refutes the sinner, whom it condemns with a silent authority greater than if it spoke with a clear voice. But the righteous ought not to fear the gnashing of the sinner, because wickedness cannot be everlasting. Ambushes are temporal, but the defenses of virtue are eternal.
The death of the sinner dissolves all his power and fraud. He adds more: 'Behold,' he says, 'the sinners have unsheathed the sword, they have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy.' What is the sword of the sinner but that which is contrary to the sword of the Holy Spirit? Scripture taught me this sword, the Apostle taught it, saying that we have the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Therefore the word of God is the sword of the Holy Spirit; contrariwise, the sword of the most wicked one is the evil word.
With this the apostle Peter smote Ananias and Sapphira by a kind of sword of his speech; with this sword Paul, against Elymas who opposed him, snatched away by his arguments the light of his eyes and poured upon him the night of blindness. Consider now for me sinners quarreling and hurling out bitter things of insolence and bringing forth the reproaches of accusations. Will you not, if you hear them, say: 'The sinners have unsheathed the sword,' when a foul utterance is brought forth from the mouth as from a wanton scabbard — an utterance which it were fitting to restrain and conceal? Just as the word of God is called a sword, so also is the speech of the sinner; thus too the bow which sinners bend is their mind, and the arrow which they shoot is the poisoned word. For just as Christ is an arrow, who is the word of God, to whom it is said:
'I have set you as a chosen arrow that is brought forth from the quiver of God,' so the arrows of the faithless are those which, shot from a certain bow of iniquity, wound the unwary innocent, unless their fiery darts be repelled by the shield of faith. And therefore you ought to be a careful soldier in the battle, because your fight is not only against flesh and blood, but also against those spiritual wickednesses which are not seen. Let strong arms abound to you from God, that you may easily be able to bring forth what weapons you will, lest the enemy be able to overwhelm you poor and unarmed. Be strong for God, rich for God, that it may be said of you: 'The redemption of a man's soul is his riches.' Abound in the treasure of wisdom, be rich in word and in good works, that you may be able to be fortified.
Flee the riches of the sinner, lest he find where he may be able to wound you. Be merciful, that you may remain invulnerable, or may be able to heal yourself if you have been wounded. There is also a poor man whom the adversaries wish to wound, of that number of whom the Savior said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' And therefore 'let the sword of the sinners enter,' he says, 'into their own heart, and let their bows be broken,' that, just as the peace of those who bless returns upon the servants of God from those who have not received it, so also the malice of the sinners, by which they try to harm the righteous, may return to their own destruction, so that they may be slaughtered by their own darts and wounds; for often the darts are turned back upon those who threw them.
This also befell in a recent war, when the faithless and the sacrilegious were provoking one who trusted in the Lord and striving to wrest away his kingdom, threatening the cruel things of persecutions to the churches of the Lord, so that suddenly a wind arose which struck the shields from the hands of the faithless and turned all their weapons and missiles back upon the sinner's army. The enemy was not yet present, and already they could not bear the battles of the winds and were laid low by their own javelins; and, what is worse, the wounds of their bodies were not heavier than those of their minds; for they failed in heart when they recognized that God was fighting against them.
They had gone out provoking, and from the quiver of their heart they brought forth against the Christian people the poisoned darts of treachery, but their impiety was turning back upon their own head. In the end they were themselves undone among themselves by their own treachery, and the Lord scattered the ambushes prepared for the faithful, so that not only could they not harm the godly, but they were stripped of their own resources and their arms passed over to the enemy. How much better had they not brought forth the sword from the scabbard — that is, had they not uttered impious words at all! For if each one is to render an account for an idle word, how much more shall he expiate the words of sacrilege with grievous punishments! 'You have tried us by fire,' says David. Therefore we shall all be tried by fire. And Ezekiel says:
'Behold, the Almighty Lord comes. And who shall endure the day of his entrance? or who shall endure when he shall appear to us? for he shall enter in like the fire of the refiner and like the lye of fullers. And he shall sit refining and purging like gold and silver, and shall purge the sons of Levi and shall pour them out like gold and like silver, and they shall be offering sacrifice to the Lord in righteousness.' By fire therefore shall the sons of Levi be purged, by fire Ezekiel, by fire Daniel. But these, though they shall be tried by fire, shall yet say: 'We have passed through fire and water.' Others shall remain in the fire. For them the fire shall bedew, as for the Hebrew children who were cast into the burning fiery furnace; but the avenging fire shall burn up the ministers of impiety.
'Woe is me, if my work shall burn, I shall suffer the loss of this labor'; and though the Lord shall save his servants, we shall be saved through faith, yet so saved as it were through fire; and though we be not burned up, yet shall we be scorched. But how it is that some remain in the fire and others pass through, let divine Scripture teach us in another place. Surely the people of the Egyptians was sunk in the Red Sea, but the people of the Hebrews passed through; Moses passed through, Pharaoh was hurled down, since grievous sins drowned him. In this manner the sacrilegious shall be hurled down into the lake of burning fire — those who have cast forth proud reproaches against God.