Even among the Gentiles certain ones have formed ideas concerning the end of humankind and have arrived at various opinions about the end. Some declared that the end was knowledge; others, practical activity; others, a different use of life and body; but the sensual people declared that the end was pleasure. For us, however, the end for which we do all things and toward which we hasten is the blessed life in the world to come. And this will be attained when we are ruled by God. Up to this time nothing better than the latter idea has been found in rational nature, and to it the apostle stirs us when he says, Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father.^[1]. . . . To this end, therefore, I think the advantages from the psalms refer.

In the very beginning of this psalm we hear the voice of the Lord of salvation inviting the Gentiles into his church. He calls on them to renounce error, to follow truth, to fulfill the duties of love and adoration. The hearts of these people were infected by the Serpent’s venom, passed down from generation to generation, and their inclination was toward sin. So long as they despair of pardon, they cannot be called back. But the Lord promises a remedy, and out of the greatness and kindness of his heart he freely assures them of forgiveness. . . . All, without exception, are invited to grace. Without having to pay any ransom money they are redeemed from sin, and they grasp the fruit of eternal life.

The voice of Christ alone, without exception calls all as one, rich and poor, noble and base. He invites all living on the earth, equally, as the opening of the psalm says, showing that he is to be feared by us on the evil day.

He who is assembling and summoning all by the proclamation is the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who brings together through prophets and apostles those who are saved. . . . The sharing of the summons is a uniting in peace, so that those who were, up to this time, opposed to each other because of customs might, through gathering together, become habituated to each other in love.

Both rich and poor together are called to a single vocation and invited to a certain humility and equality. The rich are not to turn up their noses at the poor, and the poor are not to be jealous of the rich. One grace joins both together. The Lord, though he was rich, became poor,^[1] so as to be Savior of poor and rich alike.

All people, listen to my words, city dwellers and country people, more refined and more rustic, all in common and also individuals. . . . Let nature in general hear my words, and each one reap the benefit for themselves. . . . Let those abounding in wealth and those caught up in poverty accept the exhortation alike, the word of instruction respecting no difference between wealth and poverty.

The inspired author is now on the point of telling us some great and ineffable truths. I mean, he would not have summoned those in all parts of the earth to listen, nor would he have set up the gallery of the world, were he not about to utter something great and famous and worthy of a gathering of such magnitude. . . . So since he called together the whole race to a hearing, let us too assuredly attend, and see what the psalmist wishes to say, this champion of the whole human race.

If the meditation is wisdom, what will the message be? When the meditation of the heart is wisdom, wicked thoughts will not come within it, nor is a place given to the devil or those things that defile people.

All wisdom comes to be known by reflection and dissemination. So his meaning is, I deliberate on some wise ideas, and with the intention of disseminating them I want you all to be hearers of what is said by me. Hence his reference to pondering, for each person to realize that far from coming to instruction by accident, they are brought to learn by deep pondering and much practical experience.

The term parable or proverb has many meanings. A parable is a saying, an example, a reproach, as when he says, You have made us a parable among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.^[1] A parable is also a riddle, which many call a question, suggesting something not immediately clear from the words but containing a meaning hidden within. . . . A parable also means a comparison: He proposed another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man sowing good seed.’ ^[2] A parable also means a figure of speech: Son of man, tell them this proverb: The great eagle, the one with big wings,^[3] meaning by eagle the king. A parable also means a type, or likeness, as Paul also shows in the words By faith he sacrificed Isaac . . . whence also in figure he received him back,^[4] that is, in type and in likeness. What then, does the parable mean to him here? It seems to me to refer to the narration. . . . The parable, you see, sorts out the worthy listener from the unworthy: whereas the worthy takes steps to find the meaning, the unworthy bypasses it. . . . Do you see the introduction he fashioned? He summoned the world, he abrogated inequality in lifestyle, called their attention to their nature, repressed their arrogance, promised to say something great and noble, denied he was saying anything of his own but what he had heard from him, hinted there was deep obscurity in the message, thus making them more attentive. He promised to teach us spiritual wisdom, on which he had meditated unceasingly. So let us pay attention and not pass it by. If in fact the message is wise, a parable, a riddle, there is need of a mind on the alert.

The things that I teach, he says, from the Spirit, these I proclaim to you, saying nothing of my own, nothing human; but, since I have been listening to the propositions of the Spirit, who hands down in mystery to us the wisdom of God, I am opening for you and am making manifest the proposition; moreover, I am opening not otherwise than through psaltery. The psaltery is a musical instrument that gives out its sounds harmoniously with the melody of the voice. Accordingly, the rational psaltery is opened especially at that time when actions in harmony with the words are displayed. And he is a spiritual psaltery who has acted and has taught. He it is who opens the proposition in the psalms, setting forth the possibility of the teaching from his own example. . . . There is nothing incongruous or out of tune in his life.

The words put forward by me are full of wisdom, he is saying, but I learned them by submitting my hearing to the words hidden in the depths. And what I learned through hearing I put forward through the organ of the tongue. Now, he means to say, I utter nothing of my own; rather, I am an instrument of divine grace.

The Lord opens up a theme or problem that has been closed when he finds an apt organ and a chosen instrument.^[1] Call it a harp. Such as this was Paul. He rang out the sweet canticle of grace, awaking all the strings of his harp in harmonious sound; plucking the inner chords by grace of the Holy Spirit and playing in ringing tones both interiorly and exteriorly. . . . Excellent harp, where a person’s life is in tune with his faith, and his flesh with his soul. Sweet harp, where discipline of lifestyle sings a canticle.

One who is in a calm spirit sings psalms. Through psalms he opens teaching. Through tranquility of spirit he understands teaching.

It strikes many people, in fact, as extremely strange and intriguing to say there is nothing to fear in the troubles of life. What, therefore, should I fear, he asks, in the evil day? One thing only, the risk of the lawlessness of my way and my life surrounding me. . . . Those who fear it will never fear anything else; instead, they will mock the goods of this life and scorn its troubles, that fear alone making their mind tremble. Nothing, you see, nothing else is fearsome for the person possessed of this fear, not even death, the very acme of fearsome things apart from this alone. . . . The person afraid only of that, and of nothing else, will be like an angel; there is, in fact, nothing else to be afraid of, if one fears that, as one should fear it—just as the one not fearing it is exposed to many fearsome things.

I fear and dread the day of retribution, on which the righteous Judge will repay everyone according to their works. Now, aware of this, keep such fear before your eyes in your own case. . . . But if you were to inquire why I am afraid, listen closely: it is an evil day, about which countless declamations are made in the inspired Scriptures. The cause of my fear is the life of lawlessness, through which I strayed from the straight and narrow.

If a person fears death, what is he or she going to do to avoid dying? How is anyone descended from Adam going to escape paying the debt Adam incurred: Tell me that. But let such a person reflect that though he was born from Adam, he has followed Christ, and that though he is liable for Adam’s debt, he is also due to win what Christ has promised. So anyone who fears death has no way of evading it; but anyone who fears damnation fears to hear the sentence that the godless will hear, Depart from me into eternal fire,^[1] certainly does have a way to evade it.

Let us not trust in our own strength or boast of our abundant wealth but boast only of him who has promised us that the humble will be exalted and has threatened the arrogant with damnation. . . . Some people rely on their friends, others on their own strength, others on riches. These things are the presumptuous reliance of a human race that does not rely on God.

Even if he seems to be one of the very powerful people in this life, even if he is surrounded with a great number of possessions, these words teach him to descend from such a notion and to humble himself under the mighty hand of God.^[1] . . . Not even the soul is complete in itself for salvation. . . . Every human soul has bowed down under the evil yoke of slavery imposed by the common enemy of all and, being deprived of the very freedom that it received from the Creator, has been led captive through sin. Every captive has need of ransoms for his freedom. Now, neither a brother can ransom his brother, nor can anyone ransom himself, because he who is ransoming must be much better than he who has been overcome and is now a slave. But, actually, no one has the power with respect to God to make atonement for a sinner, since he himself is liable for sin. All have sinned and have need of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus^[2] our Lord.

Now, you need to understand that virtue and godliness neither of forebears nor brothers is of benefit to those lacking them, nor is it possible after departure from here to buy salvation with money. It is in the present life, you see, as a sage says, one’s own wealth is his ransom.^[1]

This alone—namely, sin—is not up for sale, nor does it get help from family connections, as elsewhere also the Lord says that even if Noah, Daniel and Job were to rise up, they would not save their children from their crimes.

Just as there is one God, so too there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.^[1] He is unique. He alone redeems humankind. He goes far beyond brotherly love, for he sheds his own blood for strangers. None other could offer him for his brother. To redeem us from sin, he did not spare his own body but gave himself as redemption for all.^[2] . . . Why, you might ask, is Christ the only one who redeems? I reply that no one has love equal to his; no one but he can lay down his life for his little servants; no one can equal him in innocence and integrity. For we are all under sin;^[3] in Adam’s fall we all had fallen. No one could be chosen as our redeemer except the One who was in no way subject to the ancient sin. It follows that by the man we must understand the Lord Jesus. He took on himself the human condition, to crucify in his own flesh our sin and so blot out in his blood the handwriting of the charge that had been made against our whole race.

In fact, what can one find great enough that he may give it for the ransom of his soul? But one thing was found worth as much as all people together. This was given for the price of ransom for our souls, the holy and highly honored blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he poured out for all of us; therefore, we were bought at a great price.^[1] If, then, a brother does not redeem, will a man redeem? But if man cannot redeem us, he who redeems us is not a man. Now, do not assume, because he sojourned with us in the likeness of sinful flesh,^[2] that our Lord is only man, failing to discern the power of the divinity, who had no need to give God a ransom for himself or to redeem his own soul because he did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.^[3] No one is sufficient to redeem himself, unless he comes who turns away the captivity of the people, not with ransoms or with gifts, as it is written in Isaiah,^[4] but in his own blood. . . . He does not need a ransom, but he himself is the propitiation.

Sin is worse than everything; it is this that must be feared, not the possibility of being in need of money, since a person who is rich and in the grip of a multitude of sins is in real difficulty and does not find release from the troubles. . . . Nor can he then himself by paying money to God prevail on him to desist from punishment; nor does he succeed in redeeming his soul, weighed down as it is with sin. And so sin is worse than anything, since no one who is weighed down by it and is consequently the object of punishment by God can be freed from danger.

Just as a parent would not choose a house in preference to his child, just so God would not choose the world in preference to the soul. . . . Do you want to learn how great the price for our souls? The Only-begotten, intending to redeem us, gave not the world, not a human being, not land, not sea, but his precious blood. Thus Paul too said, A price has been paid for you; do not become people’s slaves.^[1] Do you see the greatness of the price? . . . Do you see how elevated the soul’s dignity? Consequently, never despise the soul nor make it captive.

People like this reckon that life consists in daily pleasures. And so lacking in firm faith are many of our poor and needy folk, who do not keep their eye on what God promises them for their present labors, that when they see the rich at their daily banquets, glittering and gleaming amid their gold and silver, they say—what do they say? These are the only people worth talking about, they really live!. . . Do you really think that a rich person is the only one who lives? Let him live; his life will come to an end. Because he does not hand over the price of his soul’s redemption, his life will end but his labor will be endless. . . . We who may have to labor and struggle here do not have our life here; but afterwards we shall not be in this state, for Christ will be our life for all eternity, whereas those who want to have their life here will labor forever and have life here only until the end comes.

A fool has no discernment, and his thoughts are stupid. The unwise person can think, but what he thinks is bad: The unwise person has said that there is no God.^[1] He is culpably wicked because he knows what goodness is. Yet, though he knows it, he commits iniquity in the evil of his own heart. He is also dishonest. Again, not because he does not know what honesty is but because he is so twisted that he would wish to destroy honesty.

What does this mean? It means that he will not understand what death is when he sees the wise dying. He says to himself, That fellow was wise, one who lived in accord with wisdom and devoutly worshiped God. But it didn’t save him from death, did it? So I will make the most of all good things as long as I am alive, since people who take a different view are powerless. They must be, otherwise they would not die. The speaker sees a wise person die but does not see what death is.

All those great, wise and outspoken will die, not only the foolish and those who gather riches. They are unwilling to have mercy on the ones in need, and they leave their riches behind for others. Although they have many houses, their tombs are their house for eternity. Wretched person. He does not understand that while he is in this body he begins to die.

One who is dead through sins does not dwell in a house but a sepulcher, since his soul is dead. . . . The thoroughly depraved person dwells in a sepulcher and does not even lay down a foundation of penance because of his dead works, but he is like a whited sepulcher, which outwardly is very conspicuous but inwardly is full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.^[1] Therefore, when such a one speaks, he does not open his mouth in the word of God, but he has an open sepulcher as his throat.

Bereft not only of wisdom but also of influence and all affluence, they will meet their end, dispatched from their lavish homes to graves and forced to occupy them forever.

What we need to keep in mind is where the spirit of an ill-living person remains, not where his or her mortal body is laid.

The true honor of humankind is to be the image and the likeness of God that is preserved only in relation to him by whom it is impressed. Thus, he clings to God so much the more, the less he loves what is his own. But through the desire of proving his own power, a person by his own will falls down into himself, as into a sort of center. Since he, therefore, wishes to be like God under no one, then as a punishment he is also driven from the center, which he himself is, into the depths, that is, into those things in which the beasts delight; and thus, since the likeness to God is his honor, the likeness to the beasts is his disgrace.

Humankind, then, having been advanced above other created things in honor, did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like the Creator. Becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them: now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor’s wife,^[1] now like a ravenous wolf,^[2] lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox.^[3] Truly, there is excessive folly and beast-like lack of reason, that he, made according to the image of the Creator, neither perceives his own constitution from the beginning, nor even wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake, at least, to learn his own dignity from them, but that he is unmindful of the fact that, throwing aside the image of the heavenly, he has taken up the image of the earthly. In order that he might not remain in sin, for his sake The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,^[4] and he humbled himself to such an extent as to become obedient to death, even to death on a cross.^[5]

David wept for Adam,

at how he fell

from that royal abode

to the abode of wild animals.

Because he went astray through a beast

he became like the beasts.

He ate, together with them

as a result of the curse,

grass and roots,

and he died, becoming their peer.

Blessed is he who set him apart

from the wild animals again. HYMNS

The honour belonging to rational nature is the discernment that tells good from evil, and those who have destroyed it are justly compared to mindless cattle, which have no rational and discerning faculty.

Despite having so much enjoyment in the present life, possessing many natural advantages by comparison with other living creatures and enjoying a great number of gifts, they did not understand the greatness of the honor conferred on them by God; instead, by their insensitivity to the possession of their attributes they are no different from cattle, which possess no intelligence. . . . While giving little heed to thanking the giver, they live a heedless life and grow old in their sins. Thus, they also are the objects of a rigorous verdict from God.

Read and understand these words, that you may rather with a humble spirit guard against the reproach yourself, than arrogantly throw it out against another person.

The Spirit of God is describing people who have no concern except for worldly, earthly, present-day affairs and give no thought to what comes after this life. In their estimation there is no happiness other than riches and rank in this world, and transitory strength; they make no provision for what is to come after their death, except for making sure they get a grandiose funeral, and are buried in wonderfully elaborate tombs and have their names invoked on their home ground by members of their households. But they make no arrangements for themselves as to where the spirit will be after this life ends, and they are foolish enough to ignore Christ’s warning, You fool: your life will be take from you this very night; and then who will own what you have prepared?^[1] They do not notice that after lavish daily banquets, after the purple and the fine linen, the rich man in the gospel was condemned to hell and its torments; nor do they remember how the poor man found repose in Abraham’s embrace after his toil and ulcers and hunger. They care nothing for these things and focus only on what is present, neglecting to make any provision for their fate after death, apart from ensuring that their names, which are rejected by heaven, shall be lauded on earth.

He uses this as a demonstrative, meaning, Such behavior is responsible for their troubles, and their heedless enjoyment of God’s good things inevitably brings down on them God’s punishment. . . . Even when those forebears who were in receipt of riches suffer retribution and just punishment from God, people after them do not come to their senses; on the contrary, they are pleased with the words and actions of the others and hasten to imitate them, acting in similar fashion regarding wealth and the good things of this life, giving too little heed to virtue to be brought around by the punishment of their predecessors.

Those boast of the abundance of their riches who love their riches in such a way that they place their ultimate happiness in them. They trust in their own strength who scorn riches in such a way that they attribute this contempt to their own strength. Both types are proud; the former, because they trust in their wealth, not in God; the latter, because they wish to attribute the fact that they spurn riches to themselves, not to God; the former, because they love badly that which cannot be loved well; the latter because they do not spurn well that which can be spurned well; and for this reason, the former do evil badly, the latter do good badly.

But what is meant by that—having death for their shepherd? . . . We can say with certainty that death is either the separation of the soul from body, which is what people fear especially, or the separation of the soul from God, which people do not fear, although this is true death. In fact it often happens that by shunning the death that severs soul from body, people fall prey to that other death by which the soul is severed from God.

The manner in which they will be cut down, in which they will perish suddenly and betake themselves to hell with ease, with facility, unexpectedly, effortlessly, is the manner in which sheep are cut down. This is death, or, rather, their fate is much worse than death: after such an end undying death will take possession of them, and thus it will not be into Abraham’s bosom they will be seen to repair nor to any place other than hell, the name for retribution, for punishment, for utter destruction. Their end here is vile and despicable, and their sojourn there nothing but punishment. This is the way we, too, customarily speak of those easily lost: Led like sheep to the slaughter. After all, since they lived like brutes, they also die like brutes, with no optimism for the future—and not only that, but that they have come to a bad end . . . completely under the control of ruin.

They will be withdrawn from the comely glory of their nature and their bodies will become a desolate place. Recollect at all times that lamentable sight of corruption, that formless dispersion of your senses, that ruin of the edifice of your body, and how your wholesome constitution will become mud in Sheol. Blessed is the man who greets the recollection of this destruction with joy! Blessed is he who with good hope awaits that deed so replete with mystery wherein is concealed the wonder of the Creator’s power!

The psalmist has in mind the salvation that Christ has already demonstrated in himself. He descended into hell and ascended into heaven. What we have seen in the Head, we find also in the body.

Now we walk through faith, not through sight, but then face to face. With the soul ransomed, the body too will share the good things.

God is able to pluck one from the midst of death even if it seems already to have taken hold (the phrase from the hand of hades meaning, Even if it has one in its grasp, it is possible and very easy for God to snatch one away).

After this he provides explanation and advice for those condemned to a life of poverty and worn out through the arrogance of the rich. . . . Do not consider present prosperity any great thing, he is saying: wealth that catches all eyes is not lasting; those who raise their eyebrows and are puffed up at it will shortly after leave it all behind and be dispatched to death.

When you see the unjust becoming rich and the just poor, do not fear for yourself; do not be dismayed in mind, as if the providence of God is nowhere looking on human affairs, or perhaps, somewhere there is a divine watchfulness, but it does not reach to places near the earth, so as to watch over our affairs; for, if there were a providence, it would be apportioning to each person what is proper to him, so that the just, who understand how to use wealth, would be rich, but the wicked, who have wealth as the instrument of their wickedness, would be poor. . . . Now, since there are many who have such notions and who, because of the apparent inconsistency of the distribution of the fortunes of life, assume that the world is not the work of providence, the Scripture addresses these to calm their uninstructed emotion. . . . Do not be faint about present affairs, but await that blessed and everlasting life. Then you will see that poverty and contempt and the lack of luxuries befall the just person for his good. And do not be troubled now about imagined good things, as though they were unjustly divided. You will hear how it will be said to a certain rich man, You in your lifetime have received good things,^[1] but to the poor person that he receives evils in his life. As a consequence, therefore, the latter is consoled, but the former suffers pain.

Why did you begin to lose your nerve, when some fellow grew rich? You began to be afraid that you had made a wrong decision when you became a believer, that all your struggle for faith was wasted and that the hope in which you turned to God was futile. Perhaps you could by fraud have made the same fortune as the other person and been rich and not needed to work, but you heeded God’s threats, and held back from fraud and turned your back on the fortune. Yet you see how the other fellow did commit fraud and made his pile, and nothing bad has happened to him. So you lose your nerve about being good. But the Spirit of God says to you, Do not be alarmed: a person may have become rich. . . . Do you really want to have eyes only for present things, and no more? He who rose from the dead gave us promises about the future, but he did not promise us peace on this earth or rest in this life. Every one of us seeks rest, and what we seek is good, but not in our own country do we seek it. There is no peace in this life. What we seek on earth has been promised us in heaven; what we seek in this world has been promised us for the next.

Even if rich in this life, he will not for this reason prove to be blessed after death as well. On the contrary, then, he will leave it all behind and thus present himself naked at the judge’s tribunal.

He did not say, note, when their glory is increased, but the glory of their house. All these things that I enumerated, after all—fountains, walkways and baths, gold and silver, horses and mules, carpets and clothes—are the glory of the house, not of the person living in the house. A person’s glory, in fact, is virtue, which takes the journey from here with its possessor. A house’s glory, by contrast, itself remains here, or rather, far even from remaining, it disappears along with the house, doing no good to the one who lived in it. It did not belong to him, after all.

Do not be troubled when you hear that the glory of someone’s house has increased. Think deeply about it, and you will see that a house is empty if it is not filled with faith. . . . Adam, by his ruin, left us void and empty, but Christ’s grace has filled the void. Christ emptied himself^[1] so that the fullness of virtue might live in human flesh.^[2]

You see a rich person living, yes; but now imagine him dying. You observe what he possesses here, but now consider what he can take with him. What does he take with him? He has plenty of gold, plenty of silver, plenty of land and slaves. Then he dies, and all these things are left behind—for whom, he does not know. Even if he bequeaths them to persons of his own choosing, he cannot ensure that they will remain with persons of his own choosing. Many people have acquired goods that were not left to them, and many others have lost what they did inherit. All these things are left behind, then, and he takes with him . . . what? Someone may say, perhaps, Well, he does take with him the clothes they wrap him in, and the money they lavish on an expensive marble tomb and on setting up a memorial to him. Those at any rate he does take. But I tell you, no not even those; . . . a person cannot hold onto any of it; nor does the dead person take with him what the burial takes. Only the erstwhile container of the person lies there, the house in which he used to dwell. We call the body a house, and its inhabitant is the spirit. When the spirit is being tormented in hell, what advantage accrues to it if the body is lying amid cinnamon sticks and aromatic herbs, wrapped in precious linen? You might as well decorate the walls of a house whose owner has been sent into exile. He is languishing in a foreign land, subject to penury and hunger, scarcely finding any poky little place to sleep in, and you say, What a lucky fellow, to have his house decorated like this! Anyone who heard you would conclude that you were either joking or crazy. But it is the same when you embellish the body while the soul is in torment. If you give the spirit some help, you will have given the dead person something worthwhile; but what will you give, when that rich man begged for even a single drop of water and did not get it? The fact is, he had disdained to send any goods on ahead of him. Why did he disdain to do so? Because the path they tread is an occasion of stumbling for them. He thought there was no life except the present life, and he had no concern except that he should be wrapped in exquisite clothes when he was buried. His soul was snatched away from him, as the Lord warned: You fool: your life will be taken from you this very night; and then who will own what you have prepared?^[1] So in him the prediction our psalm makes is verified: do not be alarmed: a person may have become rich, and the splendor of his household may have increased, but when he dies he will take nothing with him, nor will his glory follow him below.

Since, you see, this is a particular object of interest for the rich—flattery in the marketplace, attention from the populace, public commendation, tributes teeming with hypocrisy, cutting a fine figure at spectacles, applauded at banquets and in the courts, being on everybody’s lips, thought to be conscientious—note how this in turn he prunes away in time. In their lifetime, he says, note; that is, this publicity and being spoken well of lasts for this life, but it disappears along with everything else, being impermanent and perishable. Even when it comes from a display put on by the flatterers, after his death it is reversed when the mask of fear is stripped away.

While he was here on earth, he lived in darkness, gloating over false goods and not valuing those that are real, and he will depart from this world in the black infernal regions; those dark torments will summon him from his dark slumbers on earth, and he will not see the light forever.