Sermon 366

SERMO 366

"The Lord rules me, and nothing will be lacking to me."

Psalm 22 is given to those to be baptized so that they may learn it, because it deals with the reformation of man.

We deliver to you a psalm, beloved ones who hasten to the Baptism of Christ, to be committed to memory in the name of the Lord; and it is necessary that we expound its mystery, with divine grace illuminating. For this psalm specifically contains the reformation of the fallen human race, and the discipline of the holy Church along with the sacraments. Therefore, let the ears of your heart be opened in silence to listen, and may the prepared furrows of your whole intention find the seed of the word: so that what the thirsty earth now receives, in due time drenched with the blood of Christ, flourishing in a tall stalk, may bring forth abundant fruits.

Psalm 22, 1: We can now confess this praise of the Lord, because the Lord has raised us from misery.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. A great beginning, beloved, of confession. For He has established the confidence of defense, strengthened the infinite substance of riches. The Lord is my shepherd; He has established the confidence of defense. And I shall not want; He has strengthened the infinite substance of riches. But let us inquire of whose, how great, and of what sort is this confession. It is his, dearest, who descending from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among robbers. Who, stripped of the dignity of his original state, and struck down by the weapon of death, lay helpless and naked on the ground. Who, while the trumpet of the Law and Prophets was sounding, and while he was striving to rise by his own strength, was drawn back by the pain of his wound, and fell more grievously than he lay. For the Law, as the Apostle says, brought nothing to perfection. Whom that Samaritan of ours, namely Christ, who is called a Samaritan by the Jews, which means Guardian, mercifully, as He passed by the same way, that is, when He came in the flesh to die for us sinners, lifted him up from the earth onto His beast; and bearing him like a sheep upon His shoulders, He restored him to paradise, from where he had fallen, to a hundredfold, that is, to a perfect number. For He Himself, as the prophet says, carried our sins and grieved for us. Now speak, man, speak on the beast of mercy, and sitting on the shoulders of the Lord's affection, who, recognized, recognize your Author and Lord: The Lord is my shepherd. Certainly, unless raised up by the Lord, lying down you could not say this. Therefore, He governs you, who carries you. For when you say, The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing of your own to trust in yourself. Therefore, be careful not to boast of your merits. For there were none, when the Lord came to lift you up. He found you naked, not clothed; wounded, not healthy; lying down, not standing; wandering, not returning. Beware of arrogance, beware; for He who mercifully lifted you from the earth half-dead, carries the humble, but hurls down the proud. When you say fearfully, and walk in innocence: The Lord is my shepherd; you will confidently add, and I shall not want. Because nothing is lacking to those who fear Him; and the Lord will not deprive of good those who walk in innocence.

Ps. 22, 2: On the pastures and shepherd of Christians.

For you to know that nothing will be lacking to you, add what follows: In a place of pasture he has set me; beside the waters of refreshment he has led me. Recognize, man, what you were, where you were, under whom you were. You were a wandering sheep, in a pathless and waterless place, you were feeding among thorns and brambles: placed under a hireling, you were not safe when the wolf came. But now, sought out by the true shepherd, lifted up on his shoulders through compassion, you have been brought back to the fold, that is, to the house of God, namely the Church, where your shepherd is Christ, and the gathered sheep remain. This shepherd is not like the hireling under whom you suffered miserably, under whom you feared the wolf. Do you want to know how much care this good shepherd has for you? He laid down his life for you. For he himself says in the Gospel: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He did this. For the wolf lurking for you, he offered himself to be killed for you. Now, therefore, you remain secure in the fold. Nor do you need anyone else who closes and opens the door of your court: for Christ is both your shepherd and your door; he himself is also your pasture and provider. I am, he says, the door of the sheep. Through me, if anyone enters, he will be saved; and he will go in and out, and find pasture. Therefore, the pasture which this good shepherd has prepared for you, in which he has set you to be satisfied, is not the variety of green herbs, in which some are composed of sweet juice, some of the bitterest, which by the succession of times are sometimes there, sometimes not. The pastures for you are the sweet-sown words and commandments of God. Those pastures were tasted by the one who said to God: How sweet are your words to my taste, more than honey to my mouth! From these pastures, the same one cries out to the Lord's sheep, and says: Taste and see how good the Lord is. Therefore, read the Decalogue of the Old Testament: You shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, and the others. Read the praise of the precepts of the New Testament: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth: and the other following or similar, and many things sown by the Prophets and Apostles. From these pastures surely the shepherd calls to the sheep: Work for the food that does not perish. The reason it does not perish is because the word of the Lord remains forever. The word of the Lord is your food, and not only food, but also drink. Hear him through the Prophet speaking to the old people: Those who eat me will still hunger; and those who drink me will still thirst. Again, through himself: My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. But these pastures are not far from the waters of refreshment. The one place for these is the Catholic Church of God; where the commandments of life are your pasture, and the fountain of the water that springs up into eternal life, whose stream you will be refreshed by when you are to be renewed in Christ through baptism. Therefore, unless your pastures are watered by this water, you cannot be brought forth: for the commandments of God cannot germinate without the baptism of Christ, nor be eaten to the soul's satisfaction.

Ps 22, 3: What are the paths through which we are commanded to walk.

So when you have begun to be made suitable through the water of Christ's refreshment, so that you may be satisfied with the taste of sweet pastures, then you will know, and you will shout with joy, saying: "He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake." The devil overturned your soul through sin and turned you away from God; whom God the Father, through Christ, has turned back to Him not by your merits, but for His name's sake. Now therefore, having been illuminated, now converted, now believing, now satisfied with divine pastures through the water of refreshment, you will say: "He restores my soul." The glory of your confession is good if it does not alter your conscience. For then you will truly and unchangeably say this with a firm conscience, when you say it not on account of your merit, but for His name's sake. But what are the paths of righteousness in which He has led you? Listen to your guide. "How wide and spacious is the road that leads to destruction; but narrow and constrained is the way that leads to life." For every path is short and concise. Therefore, God did not ordain you to go to the kingdom of heaven through worldly delights, opulence of gold and silver, or splendor of precious stones and garments, honor of all kinds, nobility, swelling with philosopher's wisdom: because all these things, and similar things which are used wrongly, which are given to be used well, become a wide and spacious way for them, that is, in hope which is only seen; and it leads them, when they are deprived of present life, not to the hope they did not have, but to perdition. For they have slept their dream, and all the men of wealth have found nothing in their hands. He has set you up to go along the paths of righteousness, that is, through mercy and truth. For all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Having disregarded the wide and spacious road, He wants you to walk the narrow and concise paths, that is, through hunger and thirst, through nakedness, through fasting, through ignobility, through poverty, through patience, through the contempt of all present things, with hope truly promised. Do you want to clearly understand the summary of the paths through which you are ordered to walk? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Therefore, to quickly reach, if you hasten to the kingdom of heaven, in these two paths, which are the head of all and make one way, walk; so that when you have arrived, you may rejoice that you have diligently and without weariness completed them all.

Psalm 22:4: With you on the way is the Lord your God.

Therefore, hold to these paths, let your steps remain in them, amidst the snares of the raging devil, so that you may securely sing to God and say: "For even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me." The shadow of death is the path of sin, in which the fog and pirate devil spreads the snares of deception for the righteous walking rightly. It is a shadow because there is nothing in common between light and darkness. The Apostle teaches us to repudiate the works of this shadow, saying: "Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy." Therefore, as long as you remain in this present life, you walk in the midst of vices, secular oppressions, which are the shadow of death. Let Christ shine in your heart, who illuminates the lamp of our mind through the love of God and neighbor: and you will not fear evil, for He is with you. He says through the prophet, "I will not leave you nor forsake you." Likewise, in the Gospel: "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Your guardian is fit. The Lord your God is with you. Beware lest you forsake His company through pride, and remain abandoned in the shadow of death.

Psalm 22, 4-5: Let us confidently approach the table prepared by Christ.

Therefore, when you know that you are being attacked by the enemy with snares in the shadow and are being frightened, seize the rod of discipline, and confidently lean on the staff of mercy, so that when the sun of righteousness, Christ, shines upon you to help, you may truly say: Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. For the rod rules the proud, as it is said in the second Psalm about Christ: You will rule them with a rod of iron and break them as a potter’s vessel. But the staff supports and sustains the weak and weary. Therefore, remember the rebuke and discipline of the rod, so that when you have been filled with the good gifts of God, you may not be lifted up with pride and murmur against Him: for like an angry potter with it He will break you. Also, remember the aid of the staff, and do not trust in your own strength, nor say: I am holy, I cannot stumble. Our infirmity has many lapses, nor is it ruled by the holiness of its works while still placed on the earth that brings forth thorns and thistles, or has the glory of purity. Therefore, as long as it returns to the earth whence it was taken, unless it is ruled by the staff of divine grace, it cannot stand. Therefore, whether you are prospering in God, or troubled by the storm of trials, cast all of yourself on the staff of God's mercy, so that when you are nourished with spiritual gifts upon it, delighted by the taste of His sweetness, you may rightly say: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows with how excellent it is! The whole Church throughout the world, supported by the staff of grace, sings this. Against the heretics, Jews, and Gentiles who mockingly trouble it, it proclaims this, not boasting in itself but in the Lord. For the table of joy is the passion of Christ, who offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for us on the table of the cross, granting His Catholic Church the vital feast, namely, feeding us with His body and inebriating us with His blood. Nourished and enlivened by this table, the Church exults against those who trouble her, having the hope of eternal life through her Lord Christ, who abundantly anointed her with the oil of gladness through the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the Apostle rebuked the Corinthians who were dining in an idol’s temple, saying: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

"Psalm 22, 6: The mercy of God both goes before us and follows us, so that we may walk with Him."

When therefore divine grace, to which you hasten, has brought you, you will recognize the table of the spiritual feast so that, having recognized the truth, each of you rejoicing and giving thanks to God may now competently and confidently say: And your mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Great consolation of glory accompanies you. On account of the misery, namely of your infirmity, the mercy of God follows you. But first, that it may show you the way of eternal life, it goes ahead of you, that is, it precedes you, according to what is said in another psalm: My God, his mercy will precede me. Therefore his mercy goes ahead of you, that is, it leads you on the way, ignorant of the way, it calls you to God who have been made far from God; it draws the servant of sin so that he may be made free, so that walking on the way all the days of your life you do not err. It also follows you, guarding your back, so that the serpent the devil, lying in wait at your heel with whom you have enmity, does not trip you up. Indeed, the thief either kills by confronting or by rising up behind. For this reason, the mercy of God precedes and follows you, so that, in the middle, you walk safely and secure all the days of your life. Therefore, have hope and glory, not in yourself, but in the preceding and following mercy of God: with which you were prevented as a sinner, that you might be saved; you were not found righteous, that you might glory in having pleased.

Psalm 22, 6: To the house of God Christ leads the believers and the persevering.

But see where he leads you if you do not forsake the guide. Not to the field of worldly misery, where you might seek bread amidst thorns and brambles in toil and sweat; not to the dangers of the sea, where for the sake of trade you pursue uncertain gains on fragile wood, where many have sunk due to their greed. He leads you to the house of God, not as a guest for a time, so that you would depart from it, but as an inhabitant to remain in it. For it follows: "And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days." This house of the Lord is paradise. The length of days is eternal life. There you will not hunger, nor thirst, nor will you labor under the heat of the sun and moon, you will not feel the cold and storms of winter. Sorrow and sadness are not there. You will be blessed always with the company of the saints. You will rejoice with them, and exult, living and praising God forever and ever. For it says in another psalm: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they will praise you forever and ever." This is the hope of your faith, dearest. You have approached the Lord to believe; hasten and give diligence to seize through good conduct what you have believed. For you are not made Christians for the sake of this present life, but for the future life, which the Lord Christ himself grants to you who believe and persevere in him: who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.