Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
It is an exhortation to almsgiving: for he continues to urge it up to verse 12. From there up to verse 23, it is a paraenesis and exhortation to wisdom, based on the twelve services which wisdom itself renders to its children, especially to the charitable. Thence, up to the end of the chapter, he lists various precepts of this wisdom, especially concerning false shame, which is the enemy of wisdom.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 4
1. My son, do not defraud the poor of his alms, and do not turn your eyes away from the poor. 2. Do not despise a hungry soul: and do not exasperate the poor in his destitution. 3. Do not afflict the heart of the needy, and do not delay giving to one in distress. 4. Do not reject the petition of the afflicted: and do not turn your face away from the destitute. 5. Do not turn your eyes from the needy because of anger: and do not leave those who seek from you the occasion to curse you behind your back. 6. For the prayer of him who curses you in the bitterness of his soul will be heard: He who made him will hear him. 7. Make yourself affable to the assembly of the poor, and humble your soul before the elder, and bow your head before the great man. 8. Incline your ear to the poor without sadness, and pay your debt, and answer him with peaceful words in meekness. 9. Deliver him who suffers injury from the hand of the proud: and do not bear it bitterly in your soul. 10. In judging, be merciful to orphans as a father, and as a husband to their mother. 11. And you shall be as an obedient son of the Most High, and He will have mercy on you more than a mother. 12. Wisdom inspires life in her children, and receives those who seek her, and will go before them in the way of justice. 13. And he who loves her, loves life; and those who watch for her will embrace her delight. 14. Those who hold her will inherit life: and wherever she enters, God will bless. 15. Those who serve her will be obedient to the Holy One: and those who love her, God loves. 16. He who listens to her will judge nations: and he who gazes upon her will remain confident. 17. If he trusts in her, he will inherit her, and his posterity will be in a firm state. 18. For she walks with him in temptation, and at first she chooses him. 19. She will bring fear and dread and trial upon him: and she will torment him with the tribulation of her teaching, until she tries him in his thoughts and trusts his soul. 20. And she will strengthen him, and bring a straight path to him, and will make him glad, 21. and will reveal her secrets to him, and will store up over him the knowledge and understanding of justice. 22. But if he wanders astray, she will abandon him, and deliver him into the hands of his enemy. 23. My son, observe the right time, and avoid evil. 24. For the sake of your soul, do not be ashamed to speak the truth. 25. For there is a shame that leads to sin, and there is a shame that leads to glory and grace. 26. Do not show partiality against your own person, nor lie against your own soul. 27. Do not show respect to your neighbor in his fall. 28. Do not withhold a word in the time of salvation. Do not hide your wisdom in its beauty. 29. For by the tongue wisdom is known: and sense, and knowledge, and learning by the word of the wise, and steadfastness in the works of justice. 30. Do not contradict the word of truth in any way, and be ashamed of the lie of your own ignorance. 31. Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not subject yourself to every man for sin. 32. Do not resist the face of the powerful, nor struggle against the current of a river. 33. Strive for justice for your soul, and even to death fight for justice, and God will fight for you against your enemies. 34. Do not be hasty in your tongue, and useless, and slack in your works. 35. Do not be like a lion in your house, overturning your household, and oppressing those subject to you. 36. Let not your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed when it comes to giving.
First Part of the Chapter
1. MY SON, DO NOT DEFRAUD THE POOR OF HIS ALMS
that is, do not defraud the poor man of his alms. It is a hypallage. Similar is that expression frequent among the Hebrews: They cast the city into fire, that is, they cast fire into the city. And that of Exodus chapter 12, verse 11: "You shall have sandals on your feet," that is, you shall have your feet in sandals, or shod.
The word "defraud," or as the Greek has it, "deprive," signifies that alms are owed to the poor, and that the poor man has a right to them, not of justice, but of charity, so that he may ask from the rich man bread, clothing, or a coin owed to him by charity, by which, as by a goad, he incites the rich man to give it, as if to say: Give bread to the poor man; because that bread belongs to the poor man, that is, it is owed to the poor man; hence if you deny it to him, you do him an injury, because you defraud him of what is owed to him. This is what St. Basil says on that Gospel text: "I will pull down my barns." "But you, he says, are you not a robber, you who consider as your own what you received to distribute? The bread you hold belongs to the hungry; the tunic you keep in your wardrobe belongs to the naked; the shoe rotting at your house belongs to the barefoot; the silver you have buried belongs to the needy. Therefore you do injury to as many poor as you could have helped." And, what is even more striking, St. Ambrose denies in Sermon 81 that anyone can call his own the goods he possesses: "But you say (he says): what is unjust, if, since I do not seize what belongs to others, I carefully keep what is my own? O shameless speech! You call them your own? Which things? From what hidden stores did you bring them into this world?" And shortly after: "It is no less a crime to take from one who has, than, when you are able and have abundance, to refuse the needy." Nor does St. Jerome think differently, who writes to Hedibia in this manner in letter 110, Question 1: "If you have more than what is necessary for your food and clothing, give it away, and know that in that you are a debtor."
I add St. Chrysostom, who, speaking to the people of Antioch: "Does He (he says) require something burdensome and heavy from us? He wants us to make necessities of what exceeds our needs, and to distribute well what has been stored up to no purpose and uselessly." And a little later: "Of your possessions you are, O man, a steward, no less than one who administers the goods of the Church." And shortly after: "You did not receive them to squander on luxuries; but to bestow in almsgiving: for do you truly own what you possess? The goods of the poor have been entrusted to you, whether from honest labors or from your father's inheritance—"
you possess them." And St. Bernard, letter 42 to Henry of Sens, says thus: "It is ours, the poor cry out, what you squander; it is cruelly taken from us, what you spend in vain." 'Ours,' that is, owed to us not from justice, but from charity. Finally St. Augustine on Psalm 147: "The superfluous things of the rich, he says, are the necessities of the poor; he retains what belongs to others, who keeps such things." Moreover, lest anyone say these things are spoken in a homiletic way by exaggeration, St. Thomas, didactically and scholastically, in II-II, Question 66, article 7, defines it thus: "Things which some possess in superabundance are owed by natural right to the sustenance of the poor." The same, in Book IV, Distinction 15, Question 2, article 4, asserts this to be the common opinion of all theologians.
Wherefore St. Francis, as St. Bonaventure and others report in his acts, if some poorer person had asked alms of him, would immediately not so much donate what had been given to him as to a poor man, as yield his own right to it. Hence, hearing of a certain old woman's destitution, he said: "My brother, let us restore this thing that belongs to another (pointing to his cloak) which I was keeping, until a possessor with a more just title should appear. Now a certain very poor sister of ours has appeared, to whom I beg you to send this little cloak of mine, with some bread collected from alms, and when the Brothers carry them, let them say that what was hers is being given to her: for I consider that what is bestowed upon us passes to our use only until someone more needy comes along." But see the wonderful providence and recompense of God: at that very same time some from the Papal court brought as many lengths of cloth as sufficed to clothe the holy Father and his companions.
Instead of "alms," the Greek has ζωήν, that is, "life," meaning sustenance, or those things that pertain to the preservation of life. Hence ζωή and βίος signify both sustenance and life, just as the Hebrew חיים chaim, as is evident from Proverbs 27:27, in the Hebrew. Hence that popular saying: βίος βίῳ δεόμενος, that is, life needs sustenance. Hence the Tigurina translates: Do not defraud the poor man of his sustenance. When therefore the Greek says ζωήν τοῦ πτωχοῦ μὴ ἀποστερήσῃς, that is, do not deprive the beggar of life, that is, of sustenance, the meaning is, as if to say: Do not deprive the poor man of his sustenance, which is like his very life. He gives a new spur to almsgiving; for he signifies that the life of the poor man depends on alms, that is, on sustenance; so that if you deprive him of alms and sustenance, you deprive him also of life: for life cannot be preserved without sustenance. Hence the Syriac translates: My son, do not mock the life of the poor man; the Arabic: Do not mock the sustenance of the poor man,
says Palacius. The Greek is μὴ παρέλκυσῃς, that is, do not protract the eyes of the needy, so that they must look at you a long time and beg for alms; but quickly provide it, both to free him from the long annoyance of looking at you and begging; and lest you keep him long in suspense and doubt about your gift, and thus afflict him. Hence the Syriac translates: do not afflict the lowly poor man; the Tigurina: do not prolong the eyes of the destitute with hope for a long time; the Arabic: do not harm the afflicted with your gaze; both so that you may quickly relieve his need as well as his desire; and so that by your promptness and speed in giving, you may make your alms better and more pleasing, and comfort and cheer the poor man more, according to that word of the Apostle: "He who shows mercy, with cheerfulness" (Romans 12:8); and: "He gives twice who gives quickly." For he who gives alms after long prayers signifies that he gives reluctantly and under compulsion, and does not so much give as sell at a high price, that is, exchange it for laborious entreaties and troublesome cries; or rather, that it is almost wrested from him against his will by force.
Imitate therefore Abraham, of whom it is said in Genesis 18:2: "There appeared to him three men standing near him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them, etc., and said: Lord, if I have found grace in your eyes, do not pass by your servant," etc. Wherefore St. Ambrose, Book I On Abraham, chapter 5: "Learn, he says, how active you must be, so that you may anticipate the stranger, lest someone else anticipate you and rob you of the abundance of a good gift." And St. Chrysostom on Genesis chapter 18: "He runs, he says, and the old man flies; for he saw the prey he was hunting: he did not call servants, as if to say: This is a great treasure, a great transaction; I myself must bring in this merchandise, lest so great a profit slip away."
2. DO NOT DESPISE A HUNGRY SOUL.
In Greek, μὴ λυπήσῃς, that is, do not grieve; the Arabic: do not grieve the belly of the needy, and do not deny alms to one harmed by misfortune; the Syriac: do not afflict with grief the spirit of the soul of the needy. For the spirit of the poor man is afflicted with grief when he sees that he and his prayers are not heeded, but neglected and despised by the rich man: for from that he grieves and is saddened, and if he is choleric, he grows angry. Whence follows:
AND DO NOT EXASPERATE THE POOR IN HIS DESTITUTION — as if to say: The poor man has enough harshness in his hunger and destitution: do not therefore add another, and do not exasperate him by your pretense of not seeing, by contempt, by delay, by sullen and harsh words, as some are accustomed to rebuke poor beggars, when they should be consoling them, and thus they add afflictions to the afflicted.
In Greek again it is μὴ παρελκύσῃς, that is, do not protract [the suffering of] the poor man; the Syriac: do not forget the spirit of a crushed man; the Tigurina: do not keep anyone suspended in his destitution. For thus you seem to despise him. Our translator seems to have read μὴ παροργίσῃς, that is, do not exasperate, do not embitter, do not provoke to anger. St. Gregory of Nyssa says beautifully in the oration On
This is what is sanctioned in Canon Law, Distinction 86, canon "Pasce": "Feed the one dying of hunger: if you have not fed him, you have killed him." Gratian attributes this sentence, as does St. Thomas in II-II, Question 32, article 5, to St. Ambrose in his book On Duties; but today it is found neither there nor anywhere else in St. Ambrose. Something similar, however, is found in St. Augustine on Psalm 118: "This, he says, is to kill a man: to deny him the supports of his life; beware lest you lock up the salvation of the needy among your money-bags, and bury the life of the poor as in tombs." Again St. Ambrose, in the book On Naboth: "You clothe your walls with gold, he says, and strip men bare; a naked man cries out before your house, and you pay no attention, and you are concerned about which marbles to dress your floors with: the poor man begs for money, and has none; a man asks for bread, and your horse chews gold between its teeth."
Moreover, ζωή, and sustenance, signifies not only food, but also clothing, medicine, lodging, and whatever is suited to maintaining life, all of which almsgiving provides: "Hence its species are many, says Rabanus. Not only, therefore, he who gives food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, lodging to the pilgrim, a hiding place to the fugitive, a visit to the sick or the imprisoned, ransom to the captive, conveyance to the weak, guidance to the blind, consolation to the sorrowful, medicine to the ill, direction to the wanderer, counsel to the confused, and whatever is necessary to each person in need; but also he who pardons a sinner gives alms: and he who corrects with a rod one over whom he has power, or restrains with some discipline, and yet forgives from his heart the sin by which that person injured or offended him, or prays that it be forgiven him, not only in that he forgives and prays, but also in that he corrects and punishes with some remedial penalty, gives alms, who shows mercy." All of which Rabanus transcribed from St. Augustine's Enchiridion, chapters 71 and 72, who also adds the reason, saying: "For many good things are done for people against their will, when their welfare is consulted, not their wishes; because they are found to be enemies to themselves, while their true friends are rather those whom they think are their enemies." And the same St. Augustine on Psalm 103: "He, he says, loves very badly who speaks well but acts badly; if you can give, give; if you cannot, make yourself affable: God crowns the inner goodness, where He does not find the means; let no one say: I have nothing; charity is not disbursed from a purse."
AND DO NOT TURN YOUR EYES AWAY FROM THE POOR — so that, when the poor man looks at you intently begging for alms, you should not avert your gaze from him and transfer it elsewhere. Hence Tobias, chapter 4, verse 7, commands his son: "Do not turn your face away from any poor man; for so it will come about that the face of the Lord will not be turned away from you." Sirach therefore wills that, if I see a poor man, I should fix my eyes on him, so that with that confidence he may ask from me; for if he sees me turning my eyes away from him, he will begin to lose hope, and thus will not ask, and will continue in his misery,
the Love of the Poor: "O servant of Christ, he says, endowed with love of God and of men, do not despise your brother, do not pass him by, do not shun him as a crime, as an abomination, as something to be fled and forbidden. He is your member, even though he is broken by calamity. Though you pass him by with a resolute mind, the poor man has been left to you and to God: for perhaps by these words I shall move you by shame."
3. DO NOT AFFLICT THE HEART OF THE NEEDY, AND DO NOT DELAY GIVING TO ONE IN DISTRESS.
"Giving" means the alms which you ought to give, which you intend to give and are about to give. He amplifies the same evil with different words and expressions. In Greek: Do not trouble a heart already provoked, as if to say: The heart of the poor man is already sufficiently offended, provoked, and driven to sadness and anger by his own misery, hunger, and destitution: do not therefore stir it up and provoke it further by your hesitation or refusal. The Tigurina: Do not disturb further a heart already embittered, nor delay what you are about to bestow on the destitute; the Syriac: Do not afflict with pain the bowels of a poor man, and do not withhold a gift from the needy.
The a priori reason is, first, that he who quickly gives alms to the needy takes away the entire misery; but he who gives late takes away only part of the misery and leaves the rest to him. For example, he who helps a starving man on the third day allows him to go hungry for the first two days; which is certainly an enormous misery and torment: had he helped at once, he would likewise have removed those first two days of hunger and misery. Therefore, he who gives quickly gives more than he who gives late; because he takes away the man's entire affliction and places him in a state of peace and comfort. St. Basil gives this reason in Homily 6 on the Rich: "Since you have the means, he says, what prevents you from sharing generously? Is the needy man not present? Are the granaries not full? Is not the reward from the Lord prepared? Is not the commandment clear? The hungry man is being consumed by famine, the naked man is stiff with cold, and you put off almsgiving until tomorrow. Hear Solomon: Do not say, 'Come back again, and tomorrow I will give'; for you do not know what the coming day will bring forth." And St. Gregory in Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 21: "Lest, he says, what should be given sooner be given late, let them hear what is written: Do not say to your friend, 'Go, and come back, tomorrow I will give you.'" And Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 16: "Let not even the night, he says, interrupt the duties of mercy for you. Do not say, 'Come back again, and on the morrow I will give you,' lest anything come between your intention and the benefit; for that beneficence alone is real which admits of no delay."
Second, he who gives quickly soon fulfills the desire that torments the needy man; but he who gives late allows him to be tormented by his desire: For hope that is deferred afflicts the soul. Therefore, just as the body is tortured when it is stretched beyond its natural extent and position on the rack; so likewise the soul is tortured when it is stretched by the tension of hope, and the long expectation of the desired thing. What the rack is therefore to the body, the stretching of hope is to the soul, that is,
the delay of the hoped-for thing. If therefore you immediately free a man from the rack of his body, if you can, and do not delay even for a moment; why do you not likewise immediately free him from the rack of his soul, that is, from the torture of hope and desire? This is what Sirach here signifies by saying: "Do not delay giving to one in distress." Seneca gives this reason in Book II On Benefits: "Nothing, he says, is as bitter as being kept hanging a long time; they bear it with a more equal mind to have their hope cut short than to have it drawn out." And Solomon, Proverbs 13:12: "Hope deferred afflicts the soul; a tree of life is desire fulfilled." The Septuagint: Better is he who begins to help the heart, than he who promises and puts off to hope. In the Hebrew there is an elegant antithesis: Hope protracted weakens the heart, or is the infirmity of the heart. But to this infirmity the tree of life is well opposed, which brings health and strength.
Third, he who gives quickly shows a benevolent mind, namely that he gives willingly; but he who gives late shows an avaricious and malevolent mind, or at least a less benevolent one. Now a gift and alms are valued most highly by the mind and benevolence of the giver. Therefore a small gift given quickly and with a generous spirit is far more pleasing than a great one given late and reluctantly, with an avaricious or lazy spirit. Seneca gives this reason in Book II On Benefits: "I think it most true, he says, what that friend said: as much gratitude is lost as delay is added." Therefore Democritus, as Stobaeus reports, was accustomed to say: "If you wish to do well by someone, give as quickly as possible; for by delay whatever you give becomes unappreciated and unattractive." The same Seneca in his Proverbs: "Goodness is doubled, he says, when speed is added; he is less disappointed who is refused more quickly what he could have received." St. Gregory of Nazianzus On the Love of the Poor: "The grace of a benefit, he says, is doubled by promptness and speed," according to that saying of Publilius Syrus: "He who gives quickly gives twice;" and that of Lucian, as Ausonius translates it:
If you would do a kindness, do it quickly; for what is quickly done
Will be welcome: tardy grace makes it unwelcome.
Fourth, Sirach adds that he who neglects the prayers of a poor man asking for alms despises and saddens him, and consequently drives him to anger and impatience, so that he curses the one who denies him alms, and God is the avenger of all these things, for He is the father of the poor. Seneca gives this reason in Book II On Benefits, chapter 1: "As it seemed most serious to our ancestors, he says, nothing costs more dearly than what is bought by entreaties. Indeed, even to the gods, whom we most honorably supplicate, we prefer to pray silently and within ourselves. It is an unpleasant word, burdensome, and to be spoken with downcast face: I beg you." The same, in Book II On Benefits, chapter 7, asserts "that a benefit given grudgingly is like stony bread, which it is necessary for the hungry man to take, but bitter." Such is that of Proverbs 20:17: "The bread of deceit is sweet to a man;"
that is, it seems sweet, "and afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel." Wherefore the Bride, celebrating the Bridegroom's generosity in Song of Songs 5:14, says: "His hands are turned, golden, full of hyacinths;" "turned," because they are easy, agile, and ready to give; "golden," because they bestow gold; "full of hyacinths," because they win the favor of all and bind all to themselves with love. To this purpose is the saying of Diogenes: "Hands are not to be extended to friends with fingers clasped," as if to say: It is not enough to show yourself a friend to friends; but benevolence must be joined to friendship. So Laertius, Book VI.
Finally: "He who gave late was long unwilling," says Seneca, Book I On Benefits, chapter 1. And Philo: "Beneficence, he says, like the moon, never appears more beautiful than when it is full." Pliny, in his Panegyric to Trajan, commends swift beneficence. "Thus generous and abundant fountains hasten to go everywhere to do good; thus things sent from heaven arrive swiftly upon the earth; thus, finally, that divine mind which governs this whole world, whatever it has thought, it has immediately done," says the orator Eumenius in his speech to Constantine, chapter 10. Xenophon, examining whether the king of the Persians or Agesilaus came closer to the divine, says in his Life: "The former, he says, thought it splendid to conduct business more slowly; the latter rejoiced most when he sent people away having obtained what they desired most quickly." Of Cimon, Aemilius Probus writes thus: "His attendants always followed with coins, so that if anyone needed his help, he would have something to give at once, lest by delaying he might seem to refuse." Golden is the saying of King Theodoric in Cassiodorus, Book III, letter 40: "In our conscience it is a kind of injury to delay what will be beneficial; nor can we consider pleasant what has been suspended by an unwelcome delay." For, as the same says in Book XII, letter 8: "To suspend good desires is the same as to perpetrate unlawful things." Wherefore about the Emperor Gratian his teacher Ausonius of Bordeaux writes thus: "You surpass hope, you anticipate what is desired, you outrun prayers; and the swiftness of our mind, which aspires to rival the gods, is outdone by your benefits running ahead: it is faster for you to bestow than for us to wish."
This therefore is kingly, this is divine.
4. DO NOT REJECT THE PETITION OF THE AFFLICTED.
The Greek Complutensian: do not reject the suppliant placed in tribulation, or the afflicted; the Tigurina: do not reject the afflicted suppliant; the Arabic: do not turn away from the voice of the petitioner; the Syriac: do not abandon the prayer of the poor man. Hence Aristotle in the Physiognomy, chapter 6: "The merciful man, he says, is wise and modest (so that he either gives what is asked; or if he cannot, gives kind words, says Rabanus); the unmerciful man is foolish and shameless. Merciful are all who are of fair and white complexion, and have large eyes, and nostrils pointing downward, and always weep." Lactantius in the Epitome of his Institutes, chapter 5: "We ought therefore, he says, to be a social and sharing creature, so that we may strengthen one another by rendering and receiving mutual aid."
AND DO NOT TURN YOUR FACE AWAY FROM THE DESTITUTE. — In Greek, μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς, that is, do not turn away, so that, looking at something else, you forget and despise the poor man. Note: this is a variation and explanation of the preceding, namely: "Do not turn your eyes away from the poor." For face signifies eyes. For many, when they see and hear a poor man begging, immediately turn away either their face or their eyes; lest the poor man, seeing them look at him, might hope and expect alms from them; and so they give up their hope.
For our frailty is subject to many misfortunes and hardships; you should hope that what has happened to another can happen to you: thus at last you will be stirred to bring help, if you assume the mind of him who, being placed in misfortune, implores your assistance: if anyone lacks sustenance, let us share; if anyone meets us naked, let us clothe him."
5. DO NOT TURN YOUR EYES FROM THE NEEDY BECAUSE OF ANGER.
Whose anger? First, take it as the anger of the rich man, from whom the poor man seeks alms, as if to say: Do not be angry at the poor man, and do not repel him as importunate, who assails your ears with his cries. For if you do this, he himself will curse you, and God will hear him. Rabanus indicates this, and the Tigurina, when it translates: do not cast down your eye in anger from the destitute. For this is χάριν ὀργῆς, which is found in a certain ancient Greek codex, although in others generally, as well as in the Syriac, it is missing. Hence St. Augustine also in the Speculum reads "because of anger." Second, it can be taken as the anger of the poor man; for immediately before he said: "Do not exasperate the poor man." And immediately explaining, he adds: "And do not leave those who seek from you the occasion to curse you behind your back." For, as the Comic poet says: Hunger and delay drive bile up to the nose.
This is what Solomon says in Proverbs chapter 21, verse 14: "A secret gift quenches anger, and a present in the bosom, the greatest indignation." Third, it can be taken as the anger of God, which is stirred up by the anger and curse of the poor man, as if to say: Do not turn your eyes from the poor man; and do not by this neglect and contempt provoke his anger, because he, being angry, will lodge his complaints against you before God, and by calling down God's curse upon you, will bring down vengeance upon you. This is what he adds next:
AND DO NOT LEAVE (occasion) FOR THOSE WHO SEEK FROM YOU TO CURSE YOU BEHIND YOUR BACK (that is, secretly, behind your back, since they do not dare do so to your face). — The Greek and Syriac: and do not give him a place to curse you; the Arabic: do not make a way for him against you, so that he may curse you; the Tigurina: do not give anyone an occasion to curse you. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Do not by your aversion and anger give occasion to the poor, who seek and beg alms from you, to curse you behind your back, that is, to call down evils upon you from God. He gives the reason next:
6. FOR THE PRAYER OF HIM WHO CURSES YOU IN THE BITTERNESS OF HIS SOUL (which you unjustly provoked by your avarice, hardness, and anger) WILL BE HEARD (the Septuagint: "his" is redundant through the pleonasm common to the Hebrews: for the Hebrews append a demonstrative pronoun to the preceding noun, which is redundant in Latin and Greek. He gives the reason): AND HE WHO MADE HIM WILL HEAR HIM
as if to say: God the Creator will hear him, as His own creature, afflicted, spurned by you and left to Himself alone; He therefore, as the advocate and father of the poor and orphans, will take up his just complaint and cause against you, and will condemn and punish you. Hence the Syriac forcefully translates: for he himself curses, bitter in palate, from his whole soul,
his, and his Creator hears the voice of his cry; and the Arabic: for out of wrath he curses from the depths of his heart, and his Creator hears the voice of his humiliation; and the Tigurina: for the Creator will hear the prayer of one who in the bitterness of his soul curses you. Allied to this is that saying of Solomon, Proverbs 21:13: "He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will himself also cry out, and will not be heard." For this is the just law of retaliation. A similar law concerning the widow and orphan was established in Exodus 22:22.
Sigebertus in his Chronicle records an apt example of this, in the time of Pope Sabinian, around the year of Christ 605, and from him Cardinal Baronius in his Annals for the same year, concerning certain sailors who, when they had rudely answered a poor man asking for alms, saying "they had nothing in their ship but stones," he answered, cursing: "Then let what you say be true." At these words, everything was turned into stones, though the original color and same shape remained in each item.
Wherefore Gregory of Nazianzus in his Tetrastichs gives these spurs to almsgiving:
1. Cast away everything: let Christ alone be your wealth.
2. The riches you hand out are not yours.
3. Prefer God as your debtor above all,
He who repays heavenly scepters for a morsel.
4. He who feeds the poor, feeds and clothes God.
5. A poor man came to me: but in vain?
O Christ, I fear lest I, seeking Your help,
May go away in turn carrying nothing from You.
For what one denies to another, one seeks in vain.
The same in his Monostichs:
If you are beneficent, you will imitate God;
Be kind, so that you may have a kind God.
Moreover, Palacius notes that God does not hear the curses of just any poor man; but if the poor man is just, he says, and in a serious matter justly asks, and you unjustly refuse, God will hear his bitter curse, and will justly condemn you as unjust. It will be otherwise if you refuse for any good reason; for there are certain wicked poor men, so bold and importunate, that unless you immediately give whatever they ask, they call down every curse. God does not hear these, but rather repels and rejects them.
7. MAKE YOURSELF AFFABLE TO THE ASSEMBLY OF THE POOR.
The Greek and the Syriac do not have the word "poor"; nor does the Arabic, which translates: make yourself beloved to the assembly; but from the preceding and following context it is clear that this is implied, especially because in the gathering and assembly of the people, most are of modest means and poor. Again, instead of "affable" they have προσφιλῆ, that is, lovable; the Complutensian: amicable; but he who is lovable is affable. This is a two-part statement, and teaches two things: namely, how we should conduct ourselves with equals and inferiors, such as the common people and the poor — namely lovably and affably, as equals and companions — and how with superiors, such as elders, seniors, and magnates — namely humbly and submissively. Palacius however
refers everything to the poor, because the entire discourse here is about them, as if to say: Be affable to the assembly of the poor; and also, if there are among them any elders, that is, old men or magnates, who have fallen from their rank and been reduced to poverty, honor them, and humble yourself before them: for a nobleman on account of poverty has not lost his nobility and honor; but rather, if he is honest and patient, he has increased them, and just as in the elderly the eternity of God the Father shines forth, so in the nobleman the nobility of God the Son is reflected.
AND HUMBLE YOUR SOUL BEFORE THE ELDER. — These words are missing in the Greek and Syriac. Understand "elder" both by age, meaning a senior person, as the Tigurina translates; and by rank and order, meaning a priest; for to him especially has been entrusted the care of the soul, which therefore must be humbled before him, so that one may allow oneself to be instructed, guided, governed, absolved, and perfected by him.
AND BOW YOUR HEAD BEFORE THE GREAT MAN (Greek μεγιστᾶνι, that is, the magnate). — The Arabic: subject yourself to the prefects of the city; the Syriac: bow your head before the governors of the city; the Tigurina: submit your head to the noble; for μεγιστᾶνες are so called as if μέγιστοι (the greatest). Thus μάγνητες, that is magnetes, were called among the Macedonians, who among us are called senators, or the princes and heads of the city. Hence they also call the supreme magistrate the Magnetarch, as Livy attests in Book V of the Macedonian War. To magnates therefore, as such, submission and reverence are owed, which accordingly Sirach commands to be shown to them. For there are some commoners, so rustic, or so stupid and arrogant, that they wish to deal with magnates as with equals, as peer with peer, companion with companion: by which the magnates are justly offended, and therefore strive to humble and chastise such people.
8. INCLINE YOUR EAR TO THE POOR WITHOUT SADNESS.
The Arabic: humble your soul before the needy. The phrase "without sadness" is no longer in the Greek nor the Syriac; but St. Chrysostom reads it in Book III On the Priesthood, namely, ἀλύπως; and the Tigurina: lend your ear to the poor without annoyance. For many hear the poor, but with annoyance, weariness, and sadness: by which accordingly they take away or greatly diminish the merit of their patience and mercy. "Because he who does something under compulsion has no reward," says Ambrosiaster on II Corinthians, chapter 8.
St. Chrysostom says beautifully, in Homily 21 on the Epistle to the Romans, explaining that passage of chapter 12: "He who shows mercy, with cheerfulness," giving the cause and incentive: "Who, he says, is sad when receiving a kingdom? Who remains in sorrow when receiving the remission of sins? Do not therefore look at the expenditure of money, but rather at the profit that comes from that expenditure. For if he who sows rejoices, even though he sows in uncertainty, how much more he who cultivates heaven as a field." Finally, "God loves a cheerful giver," II Corinthians 9:7; not one who is afflicted with sorrow, as if the money spent on the poor were lost: to whom one should listen to St. Cyprian, in the treatise On Works and Almsgiving: "Do you fear, he says, that your patrimony may perhaps fail, if you begin to give generously from it?
When has it ever happened that the necessities of life could be lacking to a just man? For Daniel, enclosed in the den at the king's command to be the prey of lions, a meal was divinely prepared; and you fear that food may fail you who are working and earning the Lord's favor? Whence this unbelieving thought? Whence this impious and sacrilegious meditation?" etc.
AND PAY YOUR DEBT. — This is absent in the Greek and Syriac: Understand "debt" both of almsgiving, and of affability and readiness in hearing the poor. Hence the Arabic translates: give him an answer and peace in meekness; the Tigurina: fulfill your duty; for duty signifies a debt, that is, everything that we owe to another, whether that debt is from justice, or from charity, or from mercy, or from affability and modesty, or from any other virtue. Moreover, the rich often owe the poor many things in justice for goods, services, labors, etc., rendered by them, and in paying these debts they are sluggish, slow, and difficult, because they wish to domineer proudly over the poor, and consider that all is owed to them by the poor as if they were their subjects. In which matter they sin not only against charity, but also against justice. Sirach therefore commands them to render to the poor every debt, first of justice, then of charity and of the other virtues.
From this passage it is clear that almsgiving is not something optional, but a debt. Hence St. Ambrose in the book On Naboth, chapter 12: "You are therefore paying a debt, he says, not bestowing something unowed." And therefore Scripture says to you: "Incline your ear to the poor, and pay your debt." And St. Augustine on Psalm 147, before the middle: "Ask, he says, how much God has given you, and from it take what suffices. The rest, which lies superfluous, are the necessities of others; the superfluous things therefore are the necessities of the poor; they are other people's property." And in Sermon 219 On the Times: "Whatever, beyond moderate food and reasonable clothing, is left over, should not be reserved for luxury, but stored up in the heavenly treasury through almsgiving to the poor. For whatever God has given us beyond what we need, He did not give specifically to us, but transmitted through us to be distributed to others; and if we have not given it, we have invaded other people's property." St. Jerome says the same, or whoever is the author, in the Rule of Monks, chapter 6, cited by Gratian in the Decrees.
AND ANSWER HIM WITH PEACEFUL WORDS (correct with the Roman editions to: peacefully; for this is what the Greek εἰρηνικά signifies) IN MEEKNESS — as if to say: Answer the poor meekly and kindly with words that bring peace and serenity to their spirit, and do not stir up anger and indignation, so that they may bless you, not curse you, as he said in verse 5. The Syriac: answer him with peace (with things that are of peace, things that pacify and calm the mind) with meekness; the Tigurina: answer him in a friendly manner with meekness. Truly says St. Ambrose, or whoever is the author (for it does not seem to be Ambrose's), on I Timothy, chapter 4: "The whole sum of our (Christian) discipline, he says, consists in mercy and piety."
9. DELIVER HIM WHO SUFFERS INJURY FROM THE HAND OF THE PROUD.
The Arabic: vindicate the one harmed from him who harms him; the Syriac: free the afflicted from those who afflict him; the Tigurina: snatch the one suffering injury from the hand of the one inflicting injury. In Greek, ἐξελοῦ ἀδικούμενον ἐκ χειρὸς ἀδικοῦντος, that is, snatch the one suffering injury from the hand of the one inflicting injury. For this is an act of mercy equal to, or greater than, that of giving bread and necessities to the poor. Thus Abraham freed Lot when he was captured by enemies, Genesis 14. Moses freed a Jew from an Egyptian, Exodus 2. Solomon decreed the same in Proverbs 24:11: "Rescue, he says, those who are being led to death, and those who are being dragged to destruction, do not cease to free. If you say: I do not have the strength; He who examines the heart understands, and nothing escapes the guardian of your soul." This is what Sirach, imitating him, adds next:
AND DO NOT BEAR IT BITTERLY IN YOUR SOUL — that is, "wearily, or unworthily, says Rabanus, because he shows that he does not have the fervor of charity toward his neighbor, who does not strive to snatch him from the enemy." Note here: The word acide can first be taken for acede, so that it is an adverb derived from acedia (sloth), for which the common (though barbarous) form is accidia. Hence some codices here have accide, which is likely how the Latin translator rendered it, as also in chapter 6, verse 26: "Do not grow slothful in its bonds;" and chapter 22, verse 16: "You shall not grow weary of foolishness," where the Greek is μὴ ἀκηδιάσῃς. Therefore acide, or accide, should be pronounced with the penultimate long: for it corresponds to the long vowel η, which is in its Greek etymology ἀκηδία and ἀκηδής, that is, sloth, torpor, weariness, laziness, gloom, so called from κῆδος, that is, care, labor, and α privative; hence ἀκηδής means the same as without care, free from labor, careless, negligent, torpid, slothful. The meaning therefore is: do not bear in your soul this liberation of the one suffering injury, which I said must be rendered, with bitterness, that is, with weariness and sadness, as if to say: Let it not be wearisome to you to render it; do not be slothful, lazy, slow, and tardy to free him; but willingly, eagerly, and swiftly free him. So says Jansenius. The Greek supports this, which has μὴ ὀλιγοψυχήσῃς, that is, do not be pusillanimous, which the Roman translator renders: do not be slothful; for the slothful man is pusillanimous. For the daughters of sloth are pusillanimity, fear, torpor, sadness, weariness, tardiness, despair. The Tigurina: do not lose heart.
Second, the word acide in Latin, properly speaking, with Lyranus, should be derived not from acedia (for then the correct form would have been acede, not acide), but from acor and acidus (sourness and sour), so that it means the same as reluctantly, angrily, with annoyance, indignantly, or, as Rabanus says, unworthily, and with a sour and sullen face, as if you had drunk vinegar or eaten a sour apple; for sour fruits annoy the teeth and numb them, and therefore contract the jaws and present a sour face. For pusillanimous people, when a difficult task presents itself, to which they think themselves unequal, or to which they succumb from smallness of spirit, in order to shake it off, become angry and in-
dignant, displaying a sour and angry face; these need magnanimity and a cheerful spirit. Therefore in Greek it is μὴ ὀλιγοψυχήσῃς, that is, do not be pusillanimous. But if you take the word acide in the second way, the meaning here will be, as if to say: Do not bear this liberation of the one suffering injury sourly in your soul, that is, do not bear it reluctantly, do not become angry and indignant at it, as if it were a difficult and unwelcome task, but rather take it up and render it eagerly and willingly.
10. IN JUDGING, BE MERCIFUL TO ORPHANS AS A FATHER, AND AS A HUSBAND TO THEIR MOTHER.
The Arabic: render judgment to the orphan as a merciful father, and be to their mother as their husband; the Syriac: be to orphans as a father, and to their widows be as a husband; the Tigurina: in judgment show yourself merciful to orphans as a father, and a husband to their mother. Here he speaks of a judge, as if to say: You, judge, judge in favor of orphans, as if you were their father, and to the mother, that is, the widow (whose husbands have died, and after themselves left a widowed wife and orphaned children), be as a husband, so that you may defend their cause as your own. Note: He speaks of a judge, but any other person ought to do the same, such as a guardian, advocate, procurator, friend, or kinsman.
Briefly, Palacius: He refers this entire verse to the poor, as if to say: Willingly and quickly judge for the wretched, or judge concerning what should be given to each, that is, take up their cause against the powerful; and in judging, or in conducting their cases, act as a father of orphans, and as a husband to their mother, that is, to the widow; as if to say: Defend and protect them as eagerly and vigorously as if you were the father of the orphans and the husband of their widow, who is their mother; the Syriac: be as a father to orphans, and support widows, and you will be as a son of the Most High.
11. AND YOU SHALL BE AS AN OBEDIENT SON OF THE MOST HIGH, AND HE WILL HAVE MERCY ON YOU MORE THAN A MOTHER.
The Syriac and Arabic do not have the word "obedient"; and so this is the reward of almsgiving and mercy, namely that you, O almsgiver, will become a son of God by adoption; a son, I say, obedient, that is, compliant and pleasing to God, and therefore to be endowed with God's grace and fatherly favor. For by this phrase Scripture signifies that he who is dear to God is called His son, especially of adoption. So say Palacius and others.
The Roman Greek: And you will be as a son of the Most High (τοῦ Ὑψίστου, that is, of God), and He loves you more than your mother. Note: The subject is God, not wisdom; for it is God who shows mercy to the poor and orphans, as above in verse 6: "He who made him will hear him." Hence the Arabic: And you will be as a son of God the Most High, and He will love you more than your mother loved you.
Therefore Gregory the Wonder-worker in his Metaphrasis: "And He loved you, he says, as a mother loves the fruit of her womb;" and the Tigurina: The Most High loves you more than your mother. But how great the love of a mother is, God shows in Isaiah 49:15: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have mercy on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you;" and St. Chrysostom, in Homily 35 to the People of Antioch, pursues the matter at length, concluding: "No mother fears so much as God does;" and in Homily 2 on Romans: "Who, he says, would not be kind to his children? And even if they are beasts, are they held by no tender feelings? But God loves us more than any of us: a mother bears our body, but God has tender feelings for us;" and St. Augustine, Sermon 63 On the Times: "God is a loving Father, and the Church a loving Mother."
"We deem," he says, "the causes of widows and orphans to be prosecuted with even greater and more earnest care than our own protection, as the divine declaration makes manifest." Likewise, canon 2: "Even the Divinity has commanded that protection be provided to orphans." For this patronage of the wretched and desolate is a sacrifice most pleasing to God, according to that saying: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit orphans and widows in their tribulation" (James 1, last verse). I assigned the reasons in that place.
Job himself did the very same thing; whence, counting it to his praise before God, he alleges it so that he might obtain similar help from Him; for thus he says in chapter 29:11: "The ear that heard me blessed me, because I had delivered the poor man who cried out, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow. I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame. I was a father of the poor. I broke the jaws of the wicked, and snatched the prey from his teeth." He has similar things in chapter 31, verse 16 and following. Sozomenus, in book VII of his History, chapter 24, recounts many examples of St. Ambrose in this matter. Understand these things concerning orphans and widows who have a just cause and are unjustly oppressed by the powerful in that cause. For if they foster an unjust cause, the law of Exodus 22 must be followed: "You shall not show pity to the poor in judgment," lest through unjust mercy you pervert justice by adjudicating an unjust cause in favor of the poor.
they disdain; therefore the word acide ('sourly') connotes rather the impatience and indignation of a difficult and morose person, than the sloth and torpor of the careless. Hence the Complutensian translates, 'do not be impatient'; the Syriac, 'let not your spirit be shortened,' that is, be patient, strong and long-suffering; the Arabic, 'do not disdain truth,' that is, the patronage of truth and innocence. Wherefore our Interpreter, translating acide, is not barbarous, as some think; but excellently Latin. For thus Plautus calls harsh, troublesome, irascible, biting, and mordant men 'most sour' (acidissimos). The same author in the Pseudolus: "Tell me, does that man have vinegar in his breast?" The same in the Bacchides: "Now I shall test whether you have sharp vinegar in your breast." And Horace, Satires I:
'But the Greek, after being doused with Italian vinegar:'
that is, after being reproved with the bitter mordacity of the Italian; for the vinegar of Italy is sharp, pungent, biting, and therefore 'acid' from 'sharpening' (acuendo), because it sharpens foods and the tongue, and imparts its own sourness to them.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: When one suffering an injury at the hand of the proud comes before you needing to be freed, do not bear it sourly, that is, do not conceive from it distress of mind, impatience, moroseness, or anger, as if a burden greater than fair, and beyond what your shoulders can carry, were being laid upon you; do not show yourself in freeing him to be sour, bitter, difficult, and morose, because you fear to offend the powerful and proud man, and dare not contend with him; do not be angry and indignant; but with a great, calm, merciful, serene, and generous spirit come to his aid, protect him and free him, reflecting that you are defending God's cause, that you are a champion of justice, acting as a patron of mercy, guarding the rights of orphans and the poor, and therefore that you are a subduer of injustice, a scourge of pride, an avenger of injury.
The Greek and the Syriac connect 'in judging' with what precedes, in this manner: 'do not be faint-hearted in judging,' that is, in vindicating and freeing the one suffering injury at the hand of the proud man, and then they begin a new sentence: 'Be merciful to orphans.' For it belongs properly and authoritatively to a judge to free the one suffering injury and to defend his right and innocence; but whether you connect it with what precedes or what follows, the sense comes to nearly the same thing. For the topic is the liberation of the poor, the wretched, and the forsaken, such as orphans and widows especially are. He commands, therefore, that such people not be neglected in judgment, nor their cases be postponed, much less that judgment be rendered perversely and unjustly in favor of the opposing party who is powerful.
AND IN PLACE OF A HUSBAND TO THEIR MOTHER. — The Syriac: 'be as a father to orphans, and in place of a husband to the widow'; the Arabic: 'be to orphans in the place of a father, and in the likeness of a husband to widows.' Hence Pope Gelasius, in his epistle to Gerontius and Peter the Bishops, which is found in distinction 87, canon 1, entrusts to them the patronage of widows and orphans:
they implore protection; therefore God is present to these, and a king or prince, "whose imperial majesty is the safeguard of welfare," as Pliny says in his Panegyric to Trajan: "For God," he says, "gives a prince who may act in His stead toward the human race." Thus concerning Solomon, a king as pious as he was powerful, and still more concerning Christ, David foretold in Psalm 71, verse 12: "He shall deliver the poor from the mighty, and the poor man who had no helper." So too Theodoric, the wise king of the Goths, says in Cassiodorus, book III of the Variae, chapter 20: "Among the glorious cares of the state, which we revolve in ceaseless thought with God's help, it is dear to our heart to relieve the lowly, so that against the power of the proud we may raise the barrier of our piety, nor suffer any audacity in our presence whose purpose is to trample on the proud."
From this learn how great is the usefulness, and how great in God's sight is the importance and merit of almsgiving, so that the Venerable Bede rightly said in his commentary on Proverbs: "The salvation of the rich is to relieve the needs of the poor. The hand of the poor is Christ's treasury." Here the Arabic proverb is relevant, which is found in the printed collections, Century I, no. 80: "The generous man is a neighbor of God, a neighbor of men, a neighbor of paradise, far from the fire of hell," as if to say: The generous man is blessed, not only in this world, but also in the next, because he will be near to God. Indeed Seneca too in his Sayings: "Almsgiving," he says, "profits the givers more than the receivers." Wherefore St. Paul truly said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). See what was said there.
Moreover, St. Chrysostom, in homilies 35 and 68 to the People, says: "God wishes to be fed by you (in the poor), so that He may feed you; to be clothed, so that He may clothe you. Therefore despise money, lest you be despised; in order to be rich, give your goods generously; in order to gather, scatter; imitate the sower. Sow in blessings, so that you may also reap from blessings." The same author, in homily 32 on the Second Epistle to Timothy: "Almsgiving," he says, "is the friend of God, always near to Him; for whomever she wishes, she easily obtains the gift of grace — provided only that she is not injured by us, that she suffers no wrong from us. But she suffers wrong when we wish to perform her from plunder; if, however, she is pure, she bestows great confidence upon those who give her. So great is her virtue, so great her power."
He then adds: "But she also dissolves the chains of sins, puts darkness to flight, extinguishes fire, kills the worm, drives away the gnashing of teeth. To her the gates of heaven are opened, and when she enters as a queen, none of the doorkeepers, none of the guards who stand at the gates, dares to say: 'Who are you?' or 'Whence do you come?' but all receive her from the opposite direction.
For she is truly a queen, making men like unto God. 'Be merciful,' He says, 'even as your Father is merciful.' For she is winged and very light, having golden wings and a flight befitting angels; for it is written: 'Your feathers are like the feathers of a silver-plated dove, and her neck gleams with the splendor of gold.' Like a certain dove
The word 'and' is taken for 'therefore,' for this reason, on account of this merit of almsgiving; for he subjoins to it a fitting and, as it were, equally measured recompense and reward, as if to say: If you have protected the orphan as a father, and the widow as a husband, God in turn, as a reward, will show Himself to you as a father, and will care for you as a son — indeed, He will be more indulgent to you than a mother is accustomed to be toward her children. You shall therefore be a son of God Most High, because, obedient to His precepts, you showed mercy to widows and orphans, and consequently you shall be as a kind of earthly God. For just as the son of man is a man, so the son of God is God — especially if he imitates the proper endowment of divinity, namely beneficence and mercy. This is the a priori reason, which gives a mighty stimulus to almsgiving.
This is what St. Hilary says on Psalm 51: "Let us be so transformed by gold (given in almsgiving) that from earthly we become heavenly, and from mortal, eternal." And Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Stromata: "The image of God," he says, "is a man who does good." Gregory of Nazianzus, in oration 16, On Caring for the Poor: "Nothing so divine does man possess as doing good. Be God to the wretched by imitating God's mercy, etc. For there is absolutely nothing that wins God's favor as much as mercy does." St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his book On the Beatitudes,
'Blessed are the merciful.' If the title of 'merciful,' he says, befits God, to what else does the word of Christ exhort you, except that you become God, as one marked with the proper sign of divinity?" St. Leo, sermon 10 on Lent: "By no devotion of the faithful," he says, "is the Lord more delighted than that which is spent upon His poor, and where He finds the care of mercy, there He recognizes the image of His own piety."
The Gentiles learned the same thing from Solomon, Sirach, and the Hebrews. Pliny, book II, chapter 7: "It is God," he says, "for a mortal to help a mortal, and this is the way to eternal glory. By this path the great men of Rome went." Seneca in his Proverbs: "What is it to confer a benefit? To imitate God." The same author, in his book On the Rule of Life: "You will love God," he says, "but you will imitate Him in this, that He can benefit all and harm none. For, as Plato says in the Timaeus: 'God is the supreme good, above all substance and all nature, whom all things seek, since He Himself is of complete perfection and worthy of fellowship.'" And Aristotle, book I of the Ethics, chapter 17: "The more universal a good is," he says, "the more divine it is."
AND HE SHALL HAVE MERCY (in Greek ἀγαπήσει, that is, 'He shall love') ON YOU MORE THAN A MOTHER. — The Interpreter rightly reads with the smooth breathing, following the Complutensian, ἡ μήτηρ σου. Wherefore some less correctly read with the rough breathing ἡ μήτηρ σου, and translate: 'and your mother shall love you more.' Wondrous is God's condescension, by which He deigns to be to those who are merciful and charitable toward orphans and widows, not only a father, but also a mother — indeed, more than a mother — according to that saying of Isaiah 44:2: "Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you, your helper from the womb;" and verse 24: "Your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb;" and chapter 46:3: "Hear Me, O house of Israel, who are borne from My womb, who are carried from My womb; even to old age I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you: I have made, and I will bear; I will carry, and I will save;" and chapter 49:15: "Can a woman forget her infant, so that she does not have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you upon My hands."
For this reason Philo, Orpheus, and other ancient philosophers and theologians call God πατρομήτορα and μητροπάτορα, that is, 'father-mother' and 'mother-father,' because He joins to the omnipotence of a father the tenderness of a mother. On this matter I said more on Acts 17:27 and 1 John 1:1. "The reason," says Palacius, "and, as it were, the a priori argument, is that the paternal and maternal affection is far greater in God than it is in ordinary fathers or mothers. For since God communicated that affection to created things, He reserved a greater one for Himself, so that He might pursue us with greater love. For no creature is capable of such affection as He Himself has, who has all things infinite that He has. You will also note how by a compendious method princes and judges can have God bound to them as father and mother, namely, by preserving the rights of orphans and widows." For the poor and afflicted, since they are deprived of all human help, by their own right claim divine aid and royal
she is adorned with grace. She is a virgin having golden wings, circumspect in all things, and gracefully girt, having a bright and gentle countenance; she is winged, light, and always stands before the royal throne. When we are judged, she suddenly comes to our aid and frees us from impending punishments, covering us with her wings. God desires her more than countless sacrifices."
Second Part of the Chapter: On Wisdom's Twelve Offices
12. WISDOM INSPIRES LIFE IN HER CHILDREN.
This is the second part of the chapter, in which he returns to wisdom as to his primary theme: for just as in chapter 3, verses 32 and 33, he leaped from wisdom to almsgiving, as from genus to species, so here he springs back from almsgiving to wisdom, as from species to genus, from hypothesis to thesis. For he had said in the preceding verse that God would have mercy on the merciful as on His children, more than a mother: now he shows the same thing in detail, namely, how much God through His wisdom bestows upon and communicates to them.
Wherefore he enumerates sixteen offices and benefits of wisdom, which she confers upon her children — whom he said are the merciful. The first is, 'Wisdom inspires life in her children'; the second, 'She receives those who inquire after her'; the third, 'She will go before them in the way of justice'; the fourth, 'Those who watch for her will embrace her pleasantness'; the fifth, 'Wherever the wise man enters, God will bless'; the sixth, 'Those who serve her will be obedient to the Holy One'; the seventh, 'Those who love her, God loves'; the eighth, 'He who listens to her will judge nations'; the ninth, 'He who gazes upon her will remain confident'; the tenth, 'If he trusts in her, he will inherit her'; the eleventh, 'They will be in the strengthening of his creation'; the twelfth, 'In temptation she walks with him'; the thirteenth, verse 20, 'She will strengthen him'; the fourteenth, 'She will gladden him'; the fifteenth, 'She will reveal her hidden things to him'; the sixteenth, 'She will treasure up knowledge and understanding of justice upon him.'
The first, therefore, is: 'Wisdom inspires life in her children,' that is, the life of grace and glory, which is a supernatural, heavenly, divine, blessed, and eternal life. He compares wisdom to a mother. For just as a mother animates and vivifies her children in the womb and breathes natural life into them, so wisdom breathes supernatural life into her own. It is said that the pelican, by drawing blood from its breast and sprinkling it upon its chicks, already dead or more truly failing and dying, restores them to life. Wisdom is like the pelican. Hence the pelican is a symbol of Christ, who by His blood vivified us who were dead in sin, by breathing into us the spirit of grace and charity.
Hear St. Jerome, epistle 29 to Præsidium, volume IX, or whoever the author may be; for the style argues that it is not St. Jerome, but rather an addition to the epistle containing fables about the phoenix, viper, pelican, etc.: "When pelicans find their young killed by a serpent, dead, they mourn; and they strike themselves and their sides, and with the blood thus shed the bodies of the dead thus revive." St. Augustine says the same in his commentary on Psalm 101, as do Kiranides, Isidore, Gesner, and Aldrovandus in book X On Birds, chapter 12, under the Onocrotalus; for they judge this to be the pelican, as does St. Jerome on Psalm 101, Pliny, and Oppian. But St. Augustine rightly doubts the truth of this matter. Albertus, Gesner, and Aldrovandus deny it; yet the latter adds that Horus and the Egyptians relate that the Egyptian vulture loves its young most ardently, and if ever the means of nourishment should fail, lest they perish of hunger, it inflicts a wound upon its own thigh and gives them the flowing blood to drink: and that the pelican loves its young so much that when it attempts to extinguish the fire kindled around its nest by bird-catchers by fanning it with its wings, it burns and scorches its own wings. Pierius relates the same. Gesner adds that the pelican is perhaps called the Egyptian vulture just mentioned.
Such a vulture, such a pelican is Christ to us, who is the very uncreated and incarnate Wisdom of God; for He Himself feeds and vivifies us with His blood on the cross and with His flesh in the Eucharist. Moreover, since this wisdom is one, she likewise has one life by which she herself lives, and which she communicates to her children by inspiration — except that this life is in her by nature, but is communicated to her children by grace. The symbol and beginning of this was in the raising of Lazarus; for Christ, by crying out, "Lazarus, come forth," called him back from death to life (John 11). He does the same to every sinner, when He vivifies one dead in sin by the breath of grace, as a child of wisdom.
Again, this saying can very aptly be understood of created wisdom; for she breathes life into her own, that is, vital and life-giving doctrine — namely, the norm of living well and happily. Hence
The Arabic translates: 'Wisdom corrects her children, and she shall go forth in every word of hers'; the Syriac: 'Wisdom has instructed her children, and she shall enlighten all who understand her.' Just as therefore the light of the sun is life-giving and breathes life into plants and animals, so also wisdom, which is a spiritual and divine light, according to that saying of Psalm 35:10: "For with You is the fountain of life." What is this fountain? Surely light, which he explains by adding: "And in Your light we shall see light." Let teachers note this, and all who with great labor instruct and enlighten others in virtue, and let them console and encourage themselves by reflecting that in enlightening others they confer upon them life — not animal, natural, and temporal life, but heavenly, supernatural, and eternal life. Hence, just as God, by breathing the breath of life into Adam, animated and vivified him (Genesis 2:7), so likewise Christ, by breathing the Holy Spirit into the Apostles (John 20), made them not only a living soul, but also a life-giving Spirit, so that they might vivify very many others for God by their holiness and spirit.
Third, the Greek no longer has ἐψύχωσεν, that is, 'she animated, vivified, inspired life,' as our Interpreter reads; but ἀνύψωσεν, that is, 'she exalted.' Hence the Zurich Bible translates: 'Wisdom exalts her children'; because from the unlearned she makes the learned, from the foolish the wise, from the earthly the heavenly, from men she makes angels. In addition, because she makes them kings, governors, leaders, rulers, and teachers of others; for it belongs to the wise to rule and teach those who are less wise.
Again, Clement of Alexandria, in book VII of the Stromata, reads ἐνεφυσίωσε, that is, 'she breathed into' or 'she inspired' — Wisdom breathed into her children; that is, by breathing she inspires life in them, as our Interpreter translates. He alludes to the breath of life which God inspired into Adam (Genesis, chapter 2). For 'to breathe into' here does not mean 'to puff up,' but to inspire wisdom and life. "For the Lord did not engender" (says Clement of Alexandria, book VII of the Stromata) "pride and arrogance in those who possess singular learning; but rather confidence in truth, and greatness of mind in the knowledge which is handed down through the Scriptures; and contempt for those things which draw toward sin: which is what the word 'breathed into' signifies, teaching the magnificence of wisdom, which is implanted in those who are children through learning."
Tertullian in the Scorpiace, chapter 9, reads: "Wisdom has slain her children"; but Tertullian seems rather to have taken this saying from Proverbs 9:2 than from this passage, as Pamelius noted in that place.
Symbolically, uncreated Wisdom, that is, God Himself, is the essential and uncreated life, which He breathes into His children by infusing into them created life — namely, grace and charity, which is, as it were, the supernatural soul of the soul and of man. Where our Lessius rightly observes in book VI On the Divine Perfections, chapter 5: "Life," he says, "is said both of the vital substance, as the soul and the angelic nature are; and of the vital operation, which indeed in the one operating, from whom it emanates,
remains; such as understanding, loving, sensing, desiring, moving oneself. In both ways God is life (with imperfections removed), and not only life, but the first life, and eternal life, and the very fullness and totality of life, the origin and consummation of all life, the beginning and end: in whom also all things that do not live are life. For He is the super-vital essence and the super-essential life, containing within Himself most eminently and most simply every vital substance, and causally embracing it, and forming, preserving, and perfecting each thing outside Himself according to its own species. He is His own vital operation — namely, His own understanding, His own love, His own joy, His own blessedness. From that super-vital fountain all things that live in any way draw life, and their vital faculties and movements increase, some more excellent, others less excellent, according to the degree and order of each. Thence comes all life — of plants, of animals, of men, of demons, and of angels; all natural and supernatural life of this age and the future, temporal and eternal. Finally, just as He Himself is the super-essential being of all existing things, so He is the super-vital life of all living things, as St. Dionysius says in chapter 6 of On the Divine Names.
Life is attributed to God especially by reason of intelligence and wisdom; for this is the first and supreme life, or vital operation, from which all other life proceeds. For from wisdom flows love: and through these all other things have been created and formed. Furthermore, in His wisdom all things live; for to be understood and to be formed by the intellect is a certain kind of being, and the life of intelligible things; and the understanding of a thing is the thing itself in an intelligible mode. And so divine wisdom is the life of all things, and through it God lives for Himself and for all things, and all things live for Him, and are present, and shine, and immutably persevere in Him from all eternity to all eternity."
AND SHE RECEIVES THOSE WHO SEEK HER — as if to say: Wisdom, like a mother and teacher, with hand outstretched as it were, draws to herself those who are devoted to her, and of her own accord receives them into her discipline, nourishment, trust, and protection. Hence the Zurich Bible translates: 'and she embraces her followers.' Hence St. Dionysius: "She receives," he says, that is, she hears their prayers. More fully and more thoroughly, Hugh, examining the word 'receives,' says: "She receives, that is, she takes them up, so that all their thought and conversation may be in heaven." Again, 'she receives' means for protection; hence in the Psalms: "Our supporter and protector"; and Psalm 40: "But You received me because of my innocence"; and Psalm 138: "You received me from my mother's womb." Likewise, 'she receives' means for refreshment, Matthew chapter 11: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you." In which sense it is said in Psalm 3: "I slept and I arose, because the Lord received me"; and Matthew 18: "Whoever receives one such, etc., receives Me." Likewise, 'she receives' means for instruction; 'she receives' means for glorification. Psalm 146: "The Lord receives the meek." Isaiah 42: "Behold
My servant, I will receive him." Hugo continues: "She receives the timid as a lord, the hungry as a father, the ignorant as a teacher, the wretched as God."
AND SHE WILL GO BEFORE THEM IN THE WAY OF JUSTICE — as if carrying a torch before them, showing what is just and holy, what is unjust and impious, and admonishing and exhorting her own to embrace what is just, and thus causing them to walk in the way of justice with a clear and steady step. The type of this was the pillar of fire going before the camp of the Hebrews by night, which led them safe and sound into the promised land, about which I spoke on Exodus 13 and Numbers 9; whence, secure in this, Jeremiah says in chapter 17:16: "And I was not troubled, following You as my shepherd."
Moreover, uncreated Wisdom, that is Christ, goes before us in the way of justice, not only by His doctrine and example, but also by His prevenient grace, by which He rouses and strengthens the languishing will for works of justice, suggests occasions for them, removes temptations, levels the entire way of justice, and makes it easy and unobstructed. Christ therefore goes before us, as a shepherd goes before his sheep, leading them to pasture, protecting them from the wolf, showing the way, and directing them in all things; and as a father goes before his son, leading him by the hand through rough and rocky places, according to that saying of Psalm 72:24: "You held my right hand, and by Your will You led me." Furthermore, He goes before, as a commander goes before his soldiers into battle, and equally to victory and triumph, according to that saying of Micah 2:13: "He shall go up opening the way before them, etc. And the Lord at their head." See what was said there.
13. AND HE WHO LOVES HER LOVES LIFE.
The Syriac: 'her lovers are those who love life.' Because created wisdom is the life of the soul, both formally through doctrine and grace, and causally through glory, to which she leads us. But uncreated Wisdom, that is Christ, is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Therefore, "O children of men, why do you love vanity and seek after falsehood?" If you love sin, you truly love pure death. If you love the world, you surely love vanity, and a meager life mixed with much death. Love wisdom, so pure; and you will love life without stain. Therefore wisdom alone is worthy of your love, says Palacius. Plato wisely says in book VI of the Republic: "It cannot happen that someone does not imitate that to which he clings with wondering love: wherefore, since the philosopher wisely clings to the divine and the beautiful, he himself becomes divine and beautiful, insofar as is possible for a man."
AND THOSE WHO WATCH FOR HER SHALL EMBRACE HER PLEASANTNESS. — 'Pleasantness' (placorem), that is, placidity, sweetness, delight, and the joy of wisdom. For this is what the Greek εὐφροσύνη signifies. For just as created and uncreated Wisdom, that is Christ, is life, so also she is the sweetness and ineffable joy of the wise and holy soul. The Syriac translates: 'and those who gaze upon her will receive the will, or desire, from the Lord,' that is, they will receive what they wish, desire, and long for, and therefore they will rejoice. For the desire of a beloved thing when absent begets joy and gladness if the thing loved and desired becomes present and we enjoy it. Hence the Zurich Bible: 'those who approach her in the morning shall be filled with joy.'
Note: The word 'watch' (vigilaverint) signifies that one must rise early in the morning to seek wisdom; for the dawn is a friend to wisdom and the Muses. Furthermore, wisdom offers herself and goes out to meet those who in the morning studiously and eagerly investigate her; for these are, as the Greek has it, ὀρθρίζοντες πρὸς αὐτήν, that is, 'those who rise early,' or 'who wake and rise in the morning to seek her out.' Thus the Psalmist, Psalm 62:1: "O God, my God," he says, "to You I watch from the light of dawn"; and Isaiah 26:9: "My soul," he says, "has desired You in the night; but also with my spirit within me I will watch for You from the morning"; and Moses, Deuteronomy 6:7: "You shall meditate on them (the words of God and wisdom) sitting in your house and walking on the way, sleeping and rising." See what was said there. Therefore love and loving solicitude produce watchfulness: if the love of Christ has kindled you, you will be roused from sleep at the earliest hour of the morning, thinking of and loving nothing but Christ. Then you will feel the pleasantness, that is, that wisdom is most placid and most delightful; then you will taste how sweet the Lord is; then you will have a foretaste of how blessed is the eternity which God has promised to His own, that is, to the devoted students of wisdom. Then you will jubilate to God with the angels, according to that saying of Job 38:7: "When the morning stars praised Me together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Those who devote themselves to prayer and meditation on wisdom in the morning know and savor these things.
The symbol of this sweetness of wisdom was manna, having in itself every delight and every flavor of sweetness, which those who were awake had to gather before sunrise, lest it melt, Wisdom 16:27: "For that which could not be destroyed by fire" — speaking of manna — "immediately melted when warmed by a faint ray of the sun, so that it might be known to all that one must anticipate the sun to bless You, and adore You at the rising of the light." Wherefore St. Bernard, sermon 70 on the Song of Songs: "At the beginning of your watches," he says, "make haste; however much you may anticipate the watches themselves, you will find Him, but you will not get ahead of Him: rashly in such a matter do you attribute anything to yourself first, or more — He loves more, and before." The same Bernard, in his sermon On the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: "We all seek wisdom," he says, "we all desire her; but he seeks in vain who seeks her on his bed; nor is she found in the land of those living in ease: it is a bed, and there you seek a giant? 'If you seek,' He says, 'seek; be converted and come.' You ask, from where? From your bed. You ask, from what must you be converted? 'Turn away,' He says, 'from your pleasures.'"
Instead of 'pleasantness' (placorem), others translate it as 'calm' (malaciam), that is, the most tranquil quiet of the soul, with the anxieties and disturbances of the mind and conscience removed, like a calm sea agitated by no winds or waves.
Mystically, this wisdom is the Mother of Christ, the God-bearer, who frees all who flee to her from every distress and perturbation of soul, calms and tranquilizes them. Hence St. Bonaventure in the Speculum: "To you, O Lady, I cried out in the anguish of my soul, and you made my conscience serene."
Morally, note that the effect and certain sign of true wisdom and holiness is pleasantness — that is, a placid, quiet, cheerful disposition; for holiness and a holy conscience produce this, because they make the soul like God. But God Himself is placidity itself, tranquility, and cheerfulness. Wherefore St. Ephrem places the perfection of virtue and holiness in this quiet of mind; for thus he writes in volume I, in the treatise On True Renunciation: "Our entire struggle is set in this: that we may find rest and be freed from the disturbances that are within us, and renounce true tumults, together with the entire crowd of evil thoughts that are thrust upon us by those hostile powers. For true renunciation is this: to enjoy internal peace and quiet of mind, and to guard it. When therefore you persist before God in prayer, take care that your beautiful vessels in which you minister to God — that is, your thoughts — are not snatched away by your enemies. And how, I ask, or in what will you minister to the God of all, when your thoughts have been captured, that is, snatched away and led as it were into captivity? For God does not need the mouth or tongue to pray. But the worship pleasing to God is this: that the thoughts, and the whole strength and power of the soul, with the entire mind, be borne toward God without any distraction."
The same author, in the treatise On the Beatitudes, begins them thus: "Blessed is he who is entirely free in the Lord from all earthly things of this vain life, and embraces God alone, who is good and merciful. Blessed is he who refreshes his fellow servants with spiritual joy, from the fruit of the virtues which he has cultivated by his own labor, so that he may bear fruit in the Lord. Blessed is he in whose breast the memory of God has always resided; for he will be entirely like a heavenly angel upon earth, offering sacrifice to the Lord with fear and love. Blessed is he who in his cell, in the Lord, like a heavenly angel, retains chaste thoughts, and with his mouth praises Him who has power over all spirits. Blessed is he who has become like the Seraphim and Cherubim, and in the divine and spiritual office is never sluggish, but continually glorifies the Lord. Blessed is he who is always full of spiritual joy, and does not grow lazy in bearing the Lord's sweet yoke: for he shall be crowned in glory."
But St. Cyprian divinely describes, in book II, epistle 2, to Donatus, the loftiness of the holy soul that in this quiet despises — indeed, laughs at — all earthly things, both prosperous and adverse: "There is, then, one placid and faithful tranquility, one solid and firm security: if anyone, drawn out from the whirlwinds of this restless world, established in the harbor of salvation, raises his eyes from earth to heaven, and having been admitted to the Lord's gift, and now near to his God in mind,
may glory that whatever seems sublime and great among others in human affairs lies beneath his own conscience. He who is greater than the world can no longer desire anything, nor wish for anything from the world." And shortly after: "As the sun shines of itself, day illuminates, the fountain waters, and the shower moistens: so the heavenly spirit pours itself in, after the soul, gazing upon heaven, has recognized its Author — higher than the sun, and more sublime than all this earthly power — it begins to be what it believes itself to be. Only you, whom the heavenly army has now marked for its spiritual camps, maintain an incorrupt, maintain a sober discipline with religious virtues. Let prayer be constant with you, or reading; now speak with God, now let God speak with you: let Him instruct you with His precepts, let Him dispose you; the one whom He has made rich, no one shall make poor." Finally, St. Augustine, in book I of The Lord's Sermon on the Mount, chapter 9, explaining that saying of Matthew 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God," defines wisdom thus: "Wisdom is the contemplation of truth, which pacifies the whole man, and takes on the likeness of God"; because it brings it about that the wise man, like God, is placid, serene, tranquil, unperturbed, exalted, both in adversity and in prosperity, like some angel walking about in the flesh.
14. THOSE WHO HOLD FAST TO HER SHALL INHERIT LIFE
the present life, often long, and the future life, always eternal. For 'life,' the Greek has δόξαν, that is, 'glory'; for wisdom is the way to eternal glory. So also the Arabic: 'those who attain to her,' he says, 'shall find honor from God.' The Syriac joins both, and translates: 'her lovers are those who love life.' And shortly after: 'and those who cleave to her find honor from before the Lord (that is, from the Lord)'; in Greek, ὁ κρατῶν αὐτῆς κληρονομήσει δόξαν, that is, 'he who has grasped her and constantly held and possessed her'; the Zurich Bible: 'he who has obtained her will achieve glory.' The Greek therefore reads in the singular, and this fittingly agrees with the singular 'he shall enter,' which follows.
AND WHEREVER HE ENTERS (some read more clearly and connectedly: 'they shall enter,' not wisdom, but he who has held fast to her), GOD SHALL BLESS — as if to say: Wherever the wise man enters, God's blessing shall accompany him, by which God will bless all his journeys and actions, make them prosper, and bring them to a happy outcome and notable fruit. The Syriac again translates in two ways: 'those who seek her will receive the will (that is, their desire, namely what they wish and desire) from the Lord.' And shortly after: 'and the place which the Lord has blessed is the dwelling of their habitation'; the Arabic: 'and their dwelling is a dwelling which God has blessed'; the Zurich Bible: 'wherever he enters, the Lord's favor will attend.' This is what Moses promised to the wise among the Israelites, that is, those who fear God, in Deuteronomy 28:2: "If you hear the voice of the Lord your God, so as to do and keep all His commandments, etc. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed in the field, etc.; blessed your barns, and blessed your stores. Blessed you
shall be coming in and going out"; and verse 8: "The Lord shall send His blessing upon your storehouses, and upon all the works of your hands, and He shall bless you in the land which you shall receive." Thus He blessed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — indeed, on account of Jacob He blessed even the unfaithful Laban, his father-in-law. Hence Laban, begging Jacob who wished to depart to stay, said: "Let me find favor in your sight: I have learned by experience that God has blessed me on your account" (Genesis 30:27).
Sirach alludes to the story of Obed-edom, into whose house the ark of God entered, and therefore God blessed the master of the house and his entire household (2 Samuel 6). If God blessed Obed-edom on account of the entry of the ark, how much more will He bless the soul into which divine Wisdom, that is, Holiness Herself, shall enter?
In Greek, οἱ λατρεύοντες αὐτῇ, λειτουργήσουσιν ἁγίῳ, that is, those who worship her (wisdom) with latria, these perform liturgy, that is, render sacred ministry to the Holy One, namely to God, or rather to the sanctuary and temple: for this in Greek is called ἅγιον without the article, that is, 'holy' par excellence; and therefore its more secret part, in which were the ark and the Cherubim, was called ἅγια ἁγίων, that is, 'the Holy of Holies,' that is, 'the most holy.' He alludes to that passage of Proverbs 9:1: "Wisdom has built her house," that is, the temple — that is, the Church, both of the law of nature, of the Mosaic law, and of the Gospel: "She has slain her victims, mixed her wine, and set her table" — both of wisdom and indeed of doctrine, and of sacrifice, especially of the Eucharist.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Those who devote and, as it were, consecrate themselves to wisdom, so as to learn her and teach others, and by that means worship her with latria, that is, with a certain sacred and religious worship — these are, as it were, mystical priests, who render to God in the temple, that is, in the Church, a liturgy — that is, a sacred ministry — while they teach others to worship God with latria, to live piously, and to act wisely in all things. He signifies therefore, first, that the devoted students and worshippers of wisdom will be honored to such a degree as to be, as it were, λειτουργοί, that is, priests of the temple and of God. He alludes to that passage of Isaiah 61:6, where the Septuagint, using the same word, translates: ὑμεῖς δὲ ἱερεῖς Κυρίου κληθήσεσθε, καὶ λειτουργοὶ Θεοῦ, that is, 'But you shall be called priests of the Lord, and ministers of the sacred rites of God.' St. Paul likewise alluded to this when he calls himself and the other heralds of wisdom, that is, of the Gospel, λειτουργούς, that is, priests of God, who sacrifice the Gospel to God — that is, who offer the preaching of the Gospel to God as a mystical victim, but a most pleasing one (Romans 15:16). See what was said there.
In a similar way, Blessed Henry Suso was called the Minister of the Eternal Wisdom, as I said on chapter 1, verse 15.
Let philosophers and theologians note this — those devoted to philosophy and theology, not only speculative but also practical, whether teachers or students; let them know that they are mystical priests of God, and that they sacrifice to God the study and teaching of wisdom.
Second, he consequently indicates that the student of wisdom must cultivate her and live so purely, chastely, and holily, as if he were a priest performing sacred rites in the temple. Hence the Syriac translates: 'her ministers (wisdom's) are ministers of holiness'; and the Arabic: 'her ministers are ministers pure and holy.' Hence Palacius explains it thus: 'They shall be obedient to the Holy One,' that is, to holiness: "Let no one think," he says, "that he loves wisdom or serves her if he does not submit to holiness; for as, according to Paul (2 Timothy 2:19), everyone who invokes the name of the Lord must depart from iniquity, so let him depart from iniquity who serves wisdom. Why so? Because wisdom is holiness. Therefore, just as he who gives himself entirely to wisdom must believe that he has given himself to holiness, so he who has given his portion to iniquity should believe that he has taken himself entirely away from wisdom. You now, reader, understand why the Angel said to Mary: 'For the Holy One who shall be born of you' — namely, because, just as the Wisdom of God was truly born of the Virgin, so also the Holiness of God was born; for it is altogether necessary that infinite wisdom be infinite holiness." So says Palacius.
Third, that He will love them as His own priests, will have them as His intimates and closest familiars, and God will protect and bless them. Hence He adds: "And those who love her, God will love"; the Syriac and Arabic: 'and God will love the house of her (wisdom's) dwelling.'
Moreover, this latria to be offered to created wisdom, as well as the victim and sacrifice, is metaphorical and mystical; but the latria to be offered to uncreated Wisdom (for this is God) and to incarnate Wisdom (for this is Christ) is properly so called; for Christ as man no less than as God is to be worshipped and adored with latria; for this man, namely Jesus Christ, subsists in the person of God and is God.
AND THOSE WHO LOVE HER, GOD LOVES. — The Zurich Bible: 'the Lord loves her (wisdom's) lovers.' Understand wisdom as both created, and uncreated and incarnate. Hence Palacius explains it thus, as if to say: "Do not believe that, if you have dedicated yourself entirely to the worship and love of Wisdom, God will therefore be offended, as though angry that you do not worship Him, since you are worshipping wisdom. Not at all. On the contrary; because wisdom proceeded from the mouth of God, she is God — namely, the Son of God born from God. But God the Father necessarily loves him who has loved His Son most uniquely. Therefore, if a Christian bears nothing else but Christ in his memory, the Father will not on that account, as if envious of Christ's glory, pursue the Christian with hatred; but on the contrary, as one desirous of His glory, He will love him who loves Christ more ardently."
Tropologically, from this maxim learn that to serve wisdom and God is true freedom — indeed, the highest nobility and dignity; for such is the priesthood and the office of sacrificing which Sirach attributes to him who serves wisdom, when he makes him a mystic initiate and a λειτουργός (liturgist) of God. Hence Francesco Piccolomini, in his work On
the principles of virtues, degree 2, chapter 37, proposes two paradoxes, and demonstrates that they are most true. The first is: "The best use of man's freedom is the use of his true servitude." The second is: "It is better for man to serve than to reign; and the entire perfection of man's kingdom is placed in servitude." The foundation of the truth of both statements is this: that true servitude, congruent with the nature of the thing, is that by which lower things are subjected to their superior; but when, on the contrary, higher things are subjected to lower things, that is a perversion of the nature of things and a disposition contrary to nature, not natural servitude. And since lower things are perfected by higher ones, it follows that when they serve according to nature, they enjoy their own perfection. Thus the body by nature serves the soul, the soul serves reason and the mind, the mind serves God; and as the body is perfected by the soul, and the soul by the mind, so the mind is perfected by God. Man then rightly uses the gift of freedom when he chooses those things that are consonant with God's laws and will; but when he does this, he subjects himself to his true and legitimate lord, and thence arises the truth of the first statement, namely, that the best use of freedom is the use of true and natural servitude.
Similar to this is what is said by theologians: "To serve God is to reign"; as also to serve a just prince and rightly established laws. For this is true: first, because that servitude is the right use of freedom; second, because when we set God as our leader, we make freedom our prince, since God is freedom itself; third, because those joined to a king and prince are said to reign with him, and God is the King of kings — but those joined to servants are said to put on the base condition of servitude; thus with servants we are servants, but joined to a king we are kings. Finally, because people so disposed truly do what they ought to will and choose according to rightly formed nature.
The second statement was that it is better for man to serve than to reign. And rightly indeed. For when man commands and reigns, he enjoys good only insofar as he does what is consonant with God's will and decrees, and therefore the perfection of his rule is placed in obeying God and His laws; therefore no one reigns rightly unless he serves rightly; and because he serves rightly, therefore he reigns well. Hence we indicate a greater dignity and a more excellent condition of a man when we call him a servant of God, than when we call him a king and prince of the world. We must therefore strive to serve our superiors with noble servitude; we must beware of that servitude which subjects us to lower things and enslaves us to baser things, as happens when reason obeys the senses, and the senses obey the body.
The most noble and royal servitude, therefore, is to serve God. For God exalts, glorifies, and blesses those who serve Him, and makes them kings and priests (Revelation 5:10). Moreover, this servitude to God, as our Lessius rightly teaches in book I, On the Divine Perfections, chapter 6, consists in four things. First, in the knowledge of God and of those things which pertain to Him, for this is the foundation of all obedience and service. Second, in the offices of charity and benevolence: when we rejoice in His goods and congratulate Him upon them from the inmost affection of our soul; when we strive with all zeal to promote His glory, devoting soul, body, cares, and thoughts to defending and amplifying His dignity. Thus good courtiers, wholly devoted to their prince, act: for they everywhere extol his virtues and power, so as to draw all men into his love and obedience, and they do not suffer his name to be injured by anyone. Third, in the offices of religion, when we worship Him with sacrifices, ceremonies, hymns, praises, prayers, and vows. This is the office of the angels and saints in heaven, who are entirely occupied in honoring, praising, and blessing God. And so the perfect servitude of God is eternal life and our blessedness. Fourth, in keeping the commandments and in the duty of virtue, when we do some good so as to obey His commandments or to please Him. That this is of the greatest importance is clear from the fact that the least good of God, insofar as it is God's, is to be esteemed more than every good of creatures, insofar as it pertains to the creatures themselves. Hence it comes about that God, for each individual good work, promises us eternal life, and therefore Himself with all His goods — responding to us in effect as much as we wish Him well in affection. We give Him in affection all His good; He returns to us in effect the same good; for His love is efficacious, ours is inefficacious.
16. HE WHO HEARS HER SHALL JUDGE NATIONS.
In Greek ἐπακούων, that is, 'he who hearkens,' or 'obeys her'; the Zurich Bible: 'he who obeys her shall be a judge of nations.' The future 'shall judge,' here and often elsewhere, must be understood as κρινεῖσας, or in the potential mood, as if to say: 'He will be able to judge; he is fit and worthy to judge.' For many who are wise are not actually, and indeed do not wish to be, judges; for the wise man prefers to lead a private life rather than a public one, and to live for himself and for God, unless he is called — indeed, compelled — to governance, as St. Augustine says in book XIX of the City of God, chapter 19: "Holy leisure," he says, "is sought by the love of truth; just business is undertaken by the necessity of charity; if no one imposes this burden, one must devote oneself to perceiving and contemplating truth. But if it is imposed, it must be undertaken on account of the necessity of charity." Thus in Job 9:6 it is said: "Who moves the earth from its place: He moves," that is, He can move. For God has never actually displaced the globe of the earth from its place and center, except perhaps in the Passion of Christ, as Didymus in the Catena asserts actually happened there.
Therefore 'he shall judge' signifies, first, the dignity and aptitude for judging, and accordingly that no one is fit to judge and govern unless he is wise. Hence the Syriac translates: 'he who hears me shall judge truth'; the Arabic: 'he who obeys me, let him judge in truth.' Second, the act, because the true and worthy judges and princes chosen by God, or
believers, if you have believed in her, you will inherit her. But the Complutensian Greek reads as the Latin Vulgate, in the third person; for it has, ἐὰν ἐμπιστεύσῃ, that is, if he has believed in her; if he has been faithful to wisdom; if he has firmly adhered to her, as the Roman edition translates. The Syriac reads, if he has believed in me, he will inherit me; the Arabic seems to have read ἐν πίστει; for it translates, in my truth he will inherit me. In reference to the word ἐμπιστεύσῃ, it means, he has surrendered himself into πίστιν (that is, into the faith of wisdom), if he has entrusted and committed himself entirely to her faith, and to render it word for word, has infidated himself; the Zurich version reads, if he has shown himself faithful to her, he will be her heir, both in this life through grace, and more so in the future life through glory, and that a certain and secure glory, so that there is no danger of losing it; for wisdom, just as God, does not abandon the wise, that is, the just man, unless he is first abandoned by him, as the Council of Trent defines from St. Augustine, session VI, chapters 11 and 13.
AND HIS CREATURES WILL BE IN CONFIRMATION (that is, of the possession and inheritance of wisdom). For in Greek it reads, καὶ ἐν κατασχέσει ἔσονται αἱ γενεαὶ αὐτῶν, that is, and in the occupation, detention, possession, firm retention, embrace, and custody of wisdom, will be the generations, that is, the children, both carnal and especially spiritual, of those who have entrusted and committed themselves entirely to wisdom to be instructed and governed, as if to say: "The creatures," that is, the children of those who devote themselves to wisdom, and therefore inherit it, will follow in the footsteps of their parents, and with all their strength will strive and exert themselves to embrace this ancestral possession of wisdom, left to them as if by hereditary tradition from their parents, and will thoroughly confirm it for themselves. Note the enallage frequent in Hebrew and in Ecclesiasticus, by which he passes from the singular number to the plural: hence he says "of them" for "of him," who, namely, has believed in wisdom, because the word "of him" is taken universally for everyone, or any one whatsoever: for whoever has believed in wisdom will inherit it. For this reason some Greek and Latin codices read αὐτοῦ, that is, of him, instead of αὐτῶν, that is, of them. Hence the Zurich version translates: and his progeny will retain the possession of the same.
Secondly, the Arabic and the Syriac translate τὸ γενεαί as generations, that is, ages. Hence the Syriac translates thus: if he has believed in me, he will inherit me, and will receive me for all generations of the age; the Arabic: in truth he will inherit me, and I will endure for him through all generations of the age. This signifies the faithfulness, constancy, and eternity of wisdom, by which she never abandons her own; but perpetually is present to them, teaches, protects, governs, and leads them to eternal blessedness.
Thirdly, Jansenius considers that the topic here is the possession not so much of wisdom as of the land, as if to say: The wise man and his children will possess the land, and will be confirmed in its possession, according to Psalm 111: "His seed will be mighty on the earth, the generation of the upright will be blessed." And that saying of Christ: "Blessed are the meek (for the wise are humble and meek), for they shall possess the earth," Matthew 5:4. In this way
Ecclesiasticus said in the preceding verse that the wise are priests: here he adds that they are likewise kings and judges of the world. Hence St. Peter, addressing the faithful, says: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood," 1 Peter 2:9.
AND HE WHO GAZES UPON HER WILL REMAIN CONFIDENT. The Greek readings vary here. For the Roman edition reads προσελθών, that is, he who has approached her; the Complutensian reads προσέχων, that is, he who attends or gives heed to her; hence our translator rendered it: "He who gazes upon her." For one who attends to and listens to someone usually looks at and gazes upon that person. Perhaps also our translator read in the Greek προσορῶν, that is, he who gazes upon her. So, namely, that he himself may attend to wisdom, and in turn wisdom may present herself to be observed and gazed upon by him. For "will remain," the Greek has κατασκηνώσει, that is, he will dwell in wisdom, as in an asylum, "confident" and secure, according to Psalm 90:1: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High will abide in the protection of the God of heaven." Hence the Syriac translates: he who listens to me will dwell within me; the Arabic: he who receives my word will dwell in perpetuity.
For "confident," the Greek has πεποιθώς, which the Zurich version translates as securely; others render it as relying, certain, trusting; according to Proverbs 28:1: "The just man, like a confident lion, will be without fear," both because he is confident and certain and resolved that nothing will separate him from the love and charity of wisdom, and says with the Apostle: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am certain (in Greek πέπεισμαι, that is, I am confident, I am thoroughly persuaded) that neither death, nor life," etc., Romans 8:35; and because he trusts that God, who has bestowed upon him so great a gift of wisdom, will also bestow lesser things: "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion: they will not be moved forever," Psalm 124:1. Thus Susanna, falsely accused of adultery: "Weeping, she looked up to heaven: for her heart had confidence in the Lord," Daniel 13:35.
17. IF HE HAS BELIEVED IN HER, HE WILL INHERIT HER. The Roman Greek reads in the second person ἐμπι-
trial, and so reads the manuscript codex which the Roman editors cite) WALKS WITH HIM. First, Palacius explains it thus, as if to say: Wisdom is present to her followers in temptation, and consoles and strengthens them. He alludes to the Angel walking with the three youths in the Babylonian furnace and protecting them from the fire, Daniel 3:49. For in the same manner wisdom walks with her own and protects them. Hence David, accompanied by her, says in Psalm 22:4: "I will fear no evil, for You are with me." And Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:9: "The power of God is made perfect (in my weakness)." Why? Because, as Christ says to him: "My grace, which is present to you, is sufficient." And in the meantime, acknowledge to whom you owe victory in temptation. For you cannot attribute it to your own strength, but to wisdom, which walks with you in temptation; and therefore Peter, abandoning her and joining himself to the Jews who were enemies of Christ, fell into temptation and denied Christ, Matthew 26.
But it is clear from the Greek that there is quite a different sense to this verse, for it reads thus: ὅτι διεστραμμένως πορεύσεται μετ' αὐτοῦ ἐν πρώτοις, that is, because she will walk with him crookedly, in a distorted and harsh manner at first, or in the beginning, as if to say: Wisdom, and God, who is the first wisdom, is accustomed to test her zealous student and disciple at the beginning through temptations and every kind of hardship, and at first makes her choice of him, that is, in the beginning she makes her selection of him, she examines and tests him through adversities, to see whether he is teachable, steadfast, and worthy of her, before she reveals herself to him and consoles him, as is stated in verse 21. For she proves what was said in the preceding verse: "If he has believed in her," that is, if he has shown himself faithful to her (wisdom), "he will inherit her," as if to say: In order that wisdom may test the faithfulness and constancy of her follower, she is accustomed to harass him with temptations, in which if he perseveres faithful and constant, then at last wisdom embraces him as a suitable and worthy disciple, consoles him, instructs him, perfects him, and heaps upon him all her goods and gifts.
The Syriac gives this sense, translating: conversely (from the opposite side) I will walk with him, and in the beginning I will test (prove, try) him; and the Arabic: I who walk with him in opposition: for first I sadden him. Most clearly, the Zurich version translates this verse and the following ones up to verse 24 thus: For at first she is accustomed to struggle perversely with such a one, and to terrify him with instilled fear, and to torment him with her discipline, until the faithfulness of his soul has been proven, and she has rendered him tested through her laws: then at last she turns again on a straight path, and reveals her secrets to the gladdened one: then she enriches him with knowledge and understanding of justice. But if he has fallen away, she abandons him, and permits him to the power of his own ruin.
From this verse was derived that ancient custom of Athens and the Academies of testing those who came there for the sake of studies: for at Athens they were accustomed to receive new scholars with taunts, insults, hisses, and laughter, and by these means to test their patience and modesty, and thus, once tested, they would admit them to the Academy, as St. Gregory Nazianzen reports in oration 20, where he describes St. Basil arriving at Athens
Among prudent men, there were and are wise men, such as Moses, Samuel, David, Solomon, who accordingly prayed to God for wisdom to govern, saying: "Give me the wisdom that sits by Your throne," etc., Wisdom 9:4, and therefore received it infused by God, 3 Kings 3:12. Thus also the Apostles were judges of the world, because they heard Wisdom incarnate speaking in the flesh. Thirdly, everyone who obeys wisdom will judge the nations on the day of judgment; for all the wise, that is, the Saints, will approve the sentence of Christ, according to the saying: "Do you not know that the saints will judge this world? Do you not know that we shall judge angels?" 1 Corinthians 6:3. And: "The just shall judge the nations and shall have dominion over peoples," Wisdom 3:8. Finally, he who hears wisdom is spiritual: "For the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God;" but he who is "spiritual judges all things," 1 Corinthians 2:15.
18. BECAUSE IN TEMPTATION (the translator read ἐν
the word γενεαί, that is, generations, could be taken here for fruits and produce, that is, for riches and estates, which wisdom brings to the wise and just man, and as it were generates. Thus in chapter 1, verse 21, he said of wisdom: "She will fill his whole house with generations," that is, with her fruits. And in chapter 6:20: "You will soon eat of her generations." And in chapter 24:26: "Be filled with my generations," that is, fruits. Therefore Sirach here signifies that the riches and works of the wise are stable and perpetual.
Fourthly, Palacius understands by "creatures" the virtues, heroic actions, and deeds that the just man begets and creates for himself through wisdom and the grace of God. "For just as," he says, "the rational soul in the body, so grace and the infused virtues are not begotten, but created in the soul. For as no power of nature can bring the soul into the body, so neither can it bring grace and the infused virtues into the soul. Therefore grace and the infused virtues are the creatures of the pious. These creatures are not burned in the fire of temptation, because they are not hay, stubble, or chaff: rather they are confirmed, because they are silver and gold. A carnal man, being as it were chaff, when the fire of tribulation comes, fails and is not strengthened: but a spiritual man, because he is tested like gold in a furnace, is confirmed and does not vanish. Do you ask the cause of this difference? The author gives it: Because God walks with the pious man in temptation, and converts its flame into gold: as He did of old when He walked with the youths in the fire of Babylon." But these creatures are mystical rather than literal: yet they are very apt for this passage. Anagogically: "The works of the just will be in confirmation, says Rabanus, because they will be preserved to be rewarded with the prizes of eternal inheritance, for the love of which he did all things; so that the one who receives them will then say with the Prophet: This is my rest forever and ever: here I will dwell, because I have chosen it."
Finally, it would be very fitting to take κατάσχεσις, that is, possession and confirmation, here not as referring to the wise man, but to wisdom possessing and governing the wise man, as if to say: All the γενεαί, that is, generations, namely the children, riches, and works of the wise, are in the κατασχέσει, that is, in the dominion and governance of wisdom: wisdom, like a tutor, occupies, moderates, rules, directs, makes prosperous, and leads to a happy outcome the wise man and all that belongs to him. For the Greek word κατέσχημαι, that is, κάτοχός εἰμι, is a term proper to those who are carried along as if by another's will, as those who have been brought under the power of some god, who governs them at his pleasure, possesses them, and drives them wherever he wishes. Thus Lucian says, αὐτῷ Θεῷ κατέσχημαι, that is, I am possessed by God Himself, I am carried along and governed. Happy is he who is governed by God as his rider! Happy is he whom the wisdom of God governs! See the remarks on Apocalypse 6:2. By this phrase Sirach signifies that wisdom is the inheritance of the wise man in such a way that, conversely, the wise man is rather the inheritance of wisdom: for wisdom is an inheritance not so much passive as active, which, namely, drives, governs, and leads the wise man to every good.
had been so harassed, as he recounts. I saw a similar custom once at Cologne of the Ubii, namely, they used to test new philosophy students not only with words but also with blows, saying that in this way their "beanship" was stripped away. For a beanus, they used to say, according to each letter of the name, is a donkey ignorant of the life of students. But one must beware of excess here. Much more so in all Religious Orders, novices are customarily tested by various and harsh trials, both to examine whether their resolution is serious and solid, and to prepare them for enduring whatever hardships come in Religious life; and especially to make them humble, teachable, and obedient; on which see Cassian, book IV On the Institutes of Renunciants, chapter 3: "Therefore," he says, "anyone seeking to be received into the discipline of a monastery is not admitted at all until, by keeping watch at the doors for ten days or more, he has shown proof of his perseverance and desire, as well as of his humility and patience. And when, having prostrated himself at the knees of all the brethren passing by, and having been deliberately rejected and scorned by all, as though he wished to enter the monastery not from religious motivation but from necessity; and when, having been subjected to many insults and reproaches, he has given proof of his constancy, and has demonstrated by his tolerance of reproaches what he will be like in temptations, and has thus been received after his mental ardor has been examined; the most diligent inquiry is made whether any contamination from his former possessions, even of a single coin, still clings to him." Then in chapters 7 and 8, he narrates that novices are customarily tested by serving the sick in hospices, and then handed over to a master who torments, subdues, and breaks not only their passions but also their wills.
God does the same with all the Saints, especially the eminent and heroic ones, such as the martyrs, of whom it is said in Wisdom 3:5: "Having been afflicted in few things, they will be well disposed in many." The Greek has it more expressively: ὀλίγα παιδευθέντες, μεγάλα εὐεργετηθήσονται, that is, having been chastised with small things, they will be treated with great benefits or felicities. The Wise Man gives the reason: "Because God tested them and found them worthy of Himself. He tested them like gold in a furnace, and received them as a sacrificial holocaust, and in due time there will be regard for them. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among reeds." This is what the Apostle says in Romans 5:4: "Tribulation works patience; and patience, proving; and proving, hope; and hope does not confound: because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us." So says Rabanus.
19. SHE WILL BRING FEAR AND DREAD AND TRIAL UPON HIM. Here
he shows the manner in which wisdom tests, proves, and examines her disciples, namely, by striking them with "fear and dread." The words "and trial" are not in the Greek, but were added by the translator for the sake of explanation, as if to say: She will bring fear and dread upon him for testing, or as his trial and examination. Hence the Arabic clearly
translates: For first I sadden him, and bring upon him fear and terror, and I test him in temptations, by which I try him, so that when I have come to my time, and my teaching has been immersed in his heart, I may incline myself toward him, and gather him to me, and reveal to him all my secrets; and the Syriac: I will cast fear and trembling upon him, and I will search him in my temptations unto righteousness, until his heart is filled (receives consolation) in me; I will turn back, I will be strengthened with him, and I will reveal to him all my hidden things.
The first way, therefore, that God uses toward His own, is the way of affliction, fear, and sadness: it is then followed by the way of consolation, freedom, and joy, which is greater in proportion to the greater sadness that preceded it. Hence the justification of the ungodly begins with fear and terror of death, judgment, hell, etc., as the Council of Trent teaches, session VI, chapter 6. On the other hand, the first way that the devil uses toward his own is the way of joy, wantonness, and pleasures; but this is soon followed by the way of sadness, anguish, and lamentation both of this life and of hell, to which it leads. Hence seriously, but too late, they will say: "We have grown weary in the way of iniquity and perdition, and we have walked difficult paths; but the way of the Lord we did not know. What has pride profited us? Or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow."
AND SHE WILL TORMENT HIM IN THE TRIBULATION OF HER TEACHING. In Greek, ἐν παιδείᾳ αὐτῆς, that is, in her discipline or chastisement. For wisdom, that is, Christian Ethics, chastises and cuts away all the impulses of gluttony, anger, pride, and concupiscence innate in us, and thus torments us, just as petulant and wanton children are tormented by the discipline and rod of their teacher: for παιδεία is the education, chastisement, and instruction of παίδων, that is, of children. For the natural man is like a child who is governed by feeling, not by reason, and therefore must be chastised with a childish rod, not slain with a hostile sword. Is not the lustful man chastised and tormented, being continually stimulated by his flesh to lust, and continually in turn driven by the law of God to chastity? Is not the miser tormented by the law of God, which wrests from him his coins, as if his very eyes, and commands them to be distributed to the poor? Is not the man who, driven by a spirit of revenge, would cut his enemy into a thousand pieces if he could, tormented by the law of charity, which commands that enemies be loved?
UNTIL SHE TESTS (and by testing examines) HIM IN HER THOUGHTS. Some wrongly read "his" instead of "her." For in Greek it is δικαιώμασιν αὐτῆς, that is, in her justifications, which the Hebrews call bechuccotach, that is, in her statutes and laws — whether, namely, he faithfully submits himself to the laws of wisdom in all things, however troublesome they may be to nature and the flesh. And so her soul may believe him, so that she may trust in his constancy, and safely communicate and entrust to him her teachings, as one who has given so great a proof. Hence it is clear that the word "her" refers to wisdom, not to her disciple.
20. AND SHE WILL STRENGTHEN HIM
as if to say: Now that he has been tested
and examined, she will establish him in a stable and firm state of virtue and peace. These words are absent from the Greek.
AND SHE WILL BRING A DIRECT PATH TO HIM — as if to say: She will make the way easier, with difficulties removed, by which she may return to him; or coming to him by the most convenient way, she will bring a direct path to him. For in Greek it reads: καὶ πάλιν ἐπανήξει κατ' εὐθεῖαν πρὸς αὐτόν, that is, and again she will return straight to him. For he had said in verse 18 that wisdom at first walks crookedly and in a twisted way with her disciple, in order to test him; but here he says that she returns straight to the one already tested,
that is, to show him a straight, clear, and serene countenance, to gladden and console him: for just as the crooked way is one of affliction and temptation, so conversely the straight way is one of consolation and exultation. Hence the Arabic translates: that I may incline myself toward him, and gather him to me. And hence there follows:
21. AND SHE WILL GLADDEN HIM (as regards the affections; and as regards the intellect) SHE WILL REVEAL HER HIDDEN (secrets) TO HIM, AND SHE WILL HEAP UPON HIM KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF JUSTICE.
Note: the word "will heap up as treasure," as if to say: She will enrich him not moderately, but abundantly, as with a great treasure. Celebrated is that proverb of the Arabs: "Acquire gold for yourself in measure, and knowledge without measure." It is found among the Arabic proverbs, Century 2, number 29.
Morally, learn here what great goods obedience produces, by which one obeys both the voice and the law, and the inspiration of divine wisdom.
22. BUT IF HE HAS GONE ASTRAY, SHE WILL ABANDON HIM
(the Zurich version clearly: but if he has fallen away, she will abandon him, as if to say: If you abandon wisdom, she in turn will abandon you), AND SHE WILL HAND HIM OVER TO THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMY. In Greek, εἰς χεῖρας πτώσεως αὐτοῦ, that is, into the hands of
of his fall, as if to say: She will allow him to be carried into his own fall and ruin, into which he rushes willingly and headlong by abandoning the way of wisdom and salvation. Hence the Syriac translates: if he has turned away from me, I will cast him away and give him into the hands of robbers; the Arabic: if he has left me, I will overthrow him and hand him over to robbers. The Zurich version: she permits him to the power of his own ruin. For the Hebrews by prosopopoeia attribute a hand to any thing, and by it they signify power, dominion, and action. Thus they say: You will not come into the hands of sin, that is, you will not sin, you will not be subject to sin. So here a hand is given to ruin, that is, a right and power over the one who falls. This is what Paul says in Hebrews 6:4: "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, who have also tasted the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have nonetheless tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and have fallen away, to be renewed again to repentance, crucifying again for themselves the Son of God, and making Him a spectacle."
Note the prosopopoeia: For throughout this entire passage wisdom is introduced as if she were a person and a tutor who teaches her disciples, and first terrifies and chastises them, then consoles and gladdens the obedient ones; but abandons the contumacious and allows them to be driven into ruin. By this is signified, first, that the law of God (for this is practical wisdom) is at first heavy and burdensome to the sinner, because it resists his desires and cuts them away; but to the one already justified and accustomed to the law, it is easy and pleasant. Secondly, that God, who is the eternal and uncreated wisdom, first tests and afflicts those whom He calls to Himself and to His service and kingdom, and then strengthens and gladdens them, as I said shortly before.
Third Part of the Chapter: Precepts Concerning False Shame
23. MY SON, PRESERVE THE TIME. Sirach passes from the praise of wisdom to her precepts and teachings. Therefore here begins the third part of the chapter, which deals with speaking the truth and avoiding false shame. This then is the first teaching of wisdom: "My son, preserve" or observe "the time," and this in two ways: first, so that time is taken as the occasion and opportunity of the moment; hence the Zurich version translates: observe the occasions; for all things have their time
a time to speak, a time to be silent, etc., Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1. For great wisdom consists in knowing and using the occasion for speaking, teaching, and acting, as I showed in Acts 1:7; hence the Arabic translates: know the places of words.
Note: The Greek word συντήρησον can be translated as both observe and preserve; for time must not only be observed but also preserved, as a most precious thing granted to us by God for acquiring immortal riches, namely of virtues, grace, and eternal glory. Demons and evil companions, such as gossips, jesters, etc., try to snatch this gem of time from us, and for this reason are called thieves of time, who urge us to squander it with them and spend it on vain, indeed harmful and ruinous things. Sirach therefore commands that this time, like the most excellent treasure, and if lost, irrecoverable, should be most diligently preserved by spending it on works of virtue and abstaining from vices. Hence he adds: "And shun evil." From συντήρησον comes συντήρησις, that is, synteresis, which signifies the attention
of the mind and the sting of conscience perpetually admonishing it not to commit anything against itself, and to preserve itself intact and untouched by vices on every side. Hence the Syriac translates: preserve the time; and Palacius says, "preserve the time," that is, use the occasion. For this reason Sacred Scripture says: "All things have their time." And the humanists depict Occasion with a head of hair in front, but bald at the back, so that unless you seize the hair from the front, you cannot grasp it from behind.
A deeper sense perhaps is this: that you should know how to use the time of the present life, lest, while striving to avoid its losses, you fall into the losses of eternal life. A third and deeper sense is: For the impious, life flees; time passes like vapor, shadow, smoke, clouds, etc. But the pious are commanded to hold and preserve time; which they accomplish when in time they perform the works of eternity. And although the things they do now are temporal, yet they hold them as things that will last with them forever in heaven. For our merits and crowns will endure with us forever, as Christ says: "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven," etc. How great the value of time is, the damned understand, who for one hour of repentance would give the whole world, and would willingly undergo all labors and torments. Hence the Satirist:
I mourn the loss of things, but more I mourn the loss of days: A king can help with things, but no one can with days.
And Seneca, epistle 118: "Nature has not given us time so generously and liberally," he says, "that we have leisure to waste it;" and shortly after: "From this time so narrow and swift, and carrying us away, what profit is there in sending the greater part to waste?" This time is the moment upon which depends Eternity, either most blessed or most wretched.
Again, time can be taken as meaning the malice of the time and the age, as if to say: This age is full of snares and temptations; therefore watch out for them, "and shun evil," according to the Apostle's words: "See, brethren, that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as the wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil," Ephesians 5:15. See the comments there.
24. FOR YOUR SOUL DO NOT BE ASHAMED TO SPEAK THE TRUTH. The
last two words are not in the Greek; for it reads thus: περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς σου μὴ αἰσχυνθῇς, that is, for your soul do not be ashamed. First, some explain it thus, as if to say: Do not be ashamed of your soul, that is, do not be ashamed of yourself. So the Zurich version. Secondly, Vatablus says, as if to say: Do not commit anything for which you might be ashamed of your soul, or do not be ashamed to take care of your soul and to provide for its good and salvation, or to use it courageously; for you have but one little soul, like a little sheep entrusted to you by God: see therefore that you do not lose it, but save it forever. Thirdly, the Syriac translates: beware of evil, and do not be ashamed of yourself, or receive insult, as if to say: Shun evil, because if you do not shun it, you will put to shame and insult yourself and your soul. The Arabic also approaches this: do not return to
that in which there is no dwelling because of your shame. Fourthly, our translator skillfully rendered it: "For your soul do not be ashamed to speak the truth." For all the following passages up to verse 33 pertain to the shame by which one is ashamed to speak the truth. Hence he lists many species of this evil shame. For Sirach passes from the genus to the most common species, or at least to an example found everywhere. For he had said: "Shun evil;" now he says: "Shun evil shame; for thus you will avoid every evil of which this shame is the cause." Perhaps also our translator once read in his Greek exemplar λέγειν τὸ ἀληθές, that is, to speak the truth.
Now the phrase "for your soul" can be taken in two ways: first, as if to say: Do not be ashamed, do not fear to speak the truth for your soul, that is, for your life, to free it from the danger of death, infamy, or similar evil; do not value your life so highly as to deny the truth in order to protect it, but say with Paul: "I do not make my life more precious than myself," Acts 20:24; and with David in Psalm 118:109: "My soul is always in my hands," so that I may surrender and sacrifice it for the truth. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Let not your life be dearer to you than the truth, so that to protect the former you deny, kill, and slaughter the latter out of shame and fear: for shame is a part and species of fear; therefore do not violate the truth to preserve your life; but if one or the other must be lost, rather lose your life than the truth. So says Palacius.
Secondly, and more aptly in view of what follows, take "soul" as meaning conscience, as if to say: "For your soul," that is, for the salvation of your soul, so that you may preserve your soul, that is, your conscience unharmed from guilt and punishment, do not be ashamed, nor fear to speak the truth, so that the reason is indicated why the truth must not be a cause of shame, namely, the salvation of one's own soul, which is lost through a perverse shame of confessing the truth, says Jansenius. "For whoever," Christ says in Luke 9, "is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His majesty." Moreover, one is ashamed to confess the truth and Christ, not only the one who denies the faith, but also the one who does not defend the reputation and innocence of his neighbor when he can and should; or the one who does not correct the sinner; or the one who is ashamed to confess his own sin when he ought to; or the one who does not defend the truth when it is being oppressed; which cases Sirach sets forth and proposes in the following verses. In matters of faith the case is clear: for a martyr, for the sake of his soul, that is, for the eternal salvation of his soul, must not be confounded, nor fear, but must intrepidly confess the true and orthodox faith, according to Romans 10:10: "With the heart one believes unto justice; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Again, the case is clear regarding lying or harmful silence, namely when someone out of shame keeps silent about the truth by which he could and should have freed another from unjust death or similar harm. Therefore in general, "for the soul," so that, namely,
you may avoid mortal sin, which brings death to the soul, "do not be ashamed to speak the truth." For, as
St. Gregory says, commenting on Job 31 — "If I have hidden my sin as a man" — book 22 of the Moralia, chapter 23: "It is the habitual vice of the human race both to commit sin by falling, and to hide it once committed by denying it, and to multiply it once convicted by defending it." Hence the common saying: "Error begets arrogance."
Note: Modesty, or shame, is properly not a virtue but a natural passion, such as anger, pity, pain, and fear; for shame is a part or companion of fear. For shame is nothing other than the fear of disgrace or infamy. If therefore the disgrace is real, the shame will be good, as when one is ashamed of drunkenness or a similar vice: but if the disgrace is false, the shame will be depraved, as when one is ashamed of a vice not committed, for example, that he does not get drunk with drunkards, or that he is not shameless with the shameless: just as anger is good when we are angry at crime and criminals, but bad when we are angry because desires have been denied, or for some other vain cause. For it is the function of virtue to govern shame, anger, and the other passions of the soul, and to use them for good, and to prevent them from going astray and being carried into evil. Sirach therefore teaches here in particular, in which matters shame is good and in which it is evil. Thus Aristotle, book 4 of the Ethics, chapter 9, teaches that modesty is not a virtue but a natural passion. For: "It is defined," he says, "as a certain fear of disgrace; and it arises in a manner similar to the fear that pertains to frightening things. For those who are affected by shame blush; while those who fear death turn pale. Both therefore appear in a certain way to pertain to the body: which indeed seems to be the property of a perturbation rather than of a habit." The same is taught by Damascenus, and from him St. Thomas, II-II, Question 144, article 1, where he says: "Modesty is not a virtue, but a praiseworthy passion."
You will object: Aristotle in book 3 of the Ethics, chapter 8, calls modesty a virtue, saying: "This fortitude seems very similar to that which was placed first, since its producing virtue is this: for shame and the desire for what is honorable, namely honor, and the flight from disgrace, which is base, produce it." I respond: it is called a virtue, that is, a semi-virtue, a seed of virtue, a way to virtue; because it arises from the desire for what is honorable and the fear of infamy, which are the beginnings of virtue and a spur to it. It can also be called a certain natural virtue, because it is a fitting disposition that belongs to us by nature. Finally, it is properly called a virtue when it is an act not natural but freely elicited, namely, that we are ashamed of sin or vice, and freely flee and abhor it. Hence Plato in the Protagoras says: "Justice and shame are the gifts of Jupiter bestowed on men through Mercury, which would adorn cities and reconcile citizens through mutual benevolence." And shortly after: "All indeed should be participants of these." The same author in the Sophist says that "Homer asserts that, among other gods, especially the God of hospitality dwells among men who are participants of just shame,"
and observes the insults and injuries of men."
Hence shame, since it is the fear of infamy, pertains to the irascible appetite: for anger is the guardian of reputation and honor. Moreover, shame is most becoming to children, maidens, and the young, in whom it is often excessive. Hence it should not be entirely cut away, but moderated and directed toward good. Hence Plutarch, in his treatise On False Shame, says: "The farmer, when pruning a vine, applies his hand cautiously, fearing lest he cut away something that is healthy. So in dealing with false shame, beware lest you imprudently cut away also honorable shame." And he adds: "Nurses too, while frequently wiping away dirt too vigorously from infants, sometimes along with the dirt pull away and injure the flesh; so those who expel evil shame sometimes tend to injure the good as well." St. Ambrose, however, in book 1 of his Offices, chapter 18, says: "Beautiful is the virtue of modesty, etc.; it is the companion of purity, by whose companionship chastity itself is safer: for shame is a good companion for governing chastity; which, if it stands guard against the first dangers, will not allow purity to be violated."
25. FOR THERE IS A SHAME THAT BRINGS SIN, AND THERE IS A SHAME THAT BRINGS GLORY AND GRACE. The Syriac:
there is a shame that creates sins; and there is a shame whose honor is its grace; the Zurich version: there is a shame that drags sin along with it; there is also a shame that reconciles glory and grace; the Greek has: there is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that is glory and grace, that is, that causes glory and grace, as if to say: Shame is twofold: one is vain and worldly, by which one out of shame and fear of men does not dare to speak the truth or to do what justice dictates should be done; this brings sin. The other is honorable and holy, by which one is ashamed of sinning or of having sinned, and therefore repents and amends his life; or by which a just man blushes at his meager justice and therefore spurs himself to greater things; this brings grace and glory, both before God and before men. Such was the shame of St. Anthony, who, having seen St. Paul the Hermit, was stung by the memory of such great sanctity and inflamed to emulate it, and said to his disciples: "Woe to me, a sinner, who falsely bear the name of monk! I have seen Elijah, I have seen John in the desert, and truly I have seen Paul in paradise," as St. Jerome relates in the Life of St. Paul. Sirach will treat at length of both kinds of shame at the end of chapter 41 and the beginning of chapter 42.
Note: "Confusion" here does not signify ignominy, which in Greek is called ἀτιμία, but shame, as often elsewhere: for this is what the Greek word αἰσχύνη means. Moreover, St. Gregory understands by confusion the perturbation of the penitent mind; for shame induces this. For in explaining Job 3 — "Let darkness seize upon it" — book 4 of the Moralia, chapter 17, he says: "Because in darkness the eye is confounded, the very confusion of our mind through penance is called dark-
threatens. For just as dark, cloudy mist obscures the day, so confusion with its troubled thoughts beclouds the mind. Of which it is said by someone: There is a shame that brings glory. For when we bring back to mind evil deeds by repenting, we are immediately confounded with heavy sorrow; a tumult of thoughts roars in the mind, grief crushes, anxiety devastates, the mind is turned to affliction, and is obscured as if by a certain cloud of darkness. For this darkness of confusion had salutarily oppressed the mind of those to whom the Apostle said: What fruit did you then have in those things, in which you now blush? Therefore let darkness seize upon this day of sin, that is, let the affliction of penance disturb with fitting sorrow the blandishment of wickedness." The same author more clearly, in book 1, homily 10 on Ezekiel: "Just as shame," he says, "is praiseworthy in evil, so it is reprehensible in good. For to blush at evil is wisdom; but to blush at good is foolishness. Hence it is written: There is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that brings glory. For he who blushes by repenting of the evil he has done, arrives at the freedom of life; but he who is ashamed to do good, falls from the state of righteousness, and tends toward damnation."
Such was the shame of Lucretia, who, fearing the false infamy of adultery, with which Tarquinius was threatening to defame her, allowed herself to be violated by him: this worldly and vicious shame therefore brought sin, and indeed infamy and death, which she thought to escape by the same means. On the other hand, the shame of St. Susanna, by which she was ashamed to sin in the sight of God, and therefore willingly exposed herself to the danger of infamy with which the shameless elders were threatening her, brought her grace and glory before men as well as before God, Daniel 13.
Hear also St. Bernard, in his sermon to the Knights of the Temple, chapter 12: "There is a shame that brings sin, and a shame that brings glory. Good is the shame by which you are confounded for having sinned, or certainly for sinning: and although every human judge may be absent, you reverently fear the divine gaze as if it were a human one, with all the more shame inasmuch as you consider God to be more truly pure than any man; and you consider Him more gravely offended by the sinner, inasmuch as it is certain that every sin is farther from Him. Without doubt, shame of this kind drives away reproach and prepares glory, since it either does not admit sin at all, or certainly punishes the sin once committed through repentance and expels it through confession, if indeed this is also our glory, the testimony of our conscience. But if anyone is ashamed to confess that very thing for which he is stricken with compunction, such shame brings sin and loses the glory of conscience, when the evil that compunction strives to expel from the depths of the heart, foolish shame does not allow to come forth, blocking the door of the lips, when he ought rather to say after the example of David: I will not restrain my lips, Lord, You know. Who also, reproving himself, I think, concerning the foolish and irra-
tional shame of men, says: Because I was silent, my bones grew old."
Moreover, St. Ephrem refers this shame to the following verse and places it after it, as I shall presently show. St. Jerome gives an illustrious example of good shame in Pammachius, in epistle 36 to the same: For Pammachius, a Roman Consul, after the death of his wife Paulina, daughter of St. Paula, publicly professed the monastic life, and was not ashamed to make himself a spectacle to the city and the world. Hear St. Jerome: "For who would have believed that the great-grandson of Consuls and the glory of the Furiani line would walk among the purple robes of Senators, clad in a dark tunic of mourning, and would not blush before the eyes of his companions, so as to laugh at those who laughed at him? There is a shame that leads to death; and there is a shame that leads to life. The first virtue of a monk is to despise the judgments of men and always to remember the Apostle saying: If I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ," Galatians chapter 1. St. Gregory gives the example of David dancing before the Ark, 1 Kings 16:14; for he says in book 27 of the Moralia, chapter 39: "What others think of his deed, I do not know; I am more amazed at David dancing than fighting. For by fighting he subdued his enemies; but by dancing before the Lord he conquered himself." Thus the Martyrs, Apostles, and Prophets, having experienced mockeries and beatings from the impious, bore these bravely for God, and considered them not as a source of shame but of glory, as the Apostle teaches in Hebrews 11.
Finally, St. Augustine in epistle 48, citing this passage of Ecclesiasticus: "Shame," he says, "brings sin when anyone is ashamed to change a wrong opinion, lest he be thought inconstant, or be held, by his own judgment, to have long been in error. But shame brings grace and glory when anyone blushes at his own iniquity and, by repenting, is changed for the better." And St. Gregory, connecting this passage of Ecclesiasticus with Ezekiel 3:9: "I have made your face like adamant and like flint," understands honor by the adamant and ignominy by the flint: "If," he says, "you are honored by your hearers, or if you are trampled upon and despised, let neither the honor bestowed restrain your tongue out of shame, nor the contempt silence it out of weakness." St. Ambrose, explaining Psalm 43, verse 16: All the day my shame (Symmachus reads: confusion) is before me, and the confusion of my face has covered me, says: "What is the confusion of Christ, if not the cross, that He hung naked upon it? And fittingly 'all the day': because from the time He was nailed to the cross, until the ninth hour darkness was made, and after the ninth hour light shone until evening." He then adds: "But just as there is a shame that brings sin, so there is a shame that abolishes sin: as the shame of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom sins are cleansed. There is also every good shame that you undergo for Christ's name, and it is exceedingly glorious; if, for example, in a persecution the law decrees that a Christian be beaten, that he lose his dignity,
that he be deprived of his privilege, that he be led into chains." For, as Nazianzen says, Iamb. 23:
It is the highest glory to bear the disgrace of piety.
26. DO NOT ACCEPT A FACE AGAINST YOUR OWN FACE, NOR A LIE AGAINST YOUR OWN SOUL. First, the Syriac
translates and explains it thus: do not be a hypocrite, and do not be ashamed to confess your offense, that is, that you have offended or fallen into some sin. The Arabic concurs: do not deceive yourself, and do not be ashamed before the confession of your sins.
Secondly, the Greek word πρόσωπον signifies both person and face. Again, the Hebrews by the phrase נשא פנים (neso panim), that is, to accept a face, signify respect of persons. Hence some translate it thus: do not accept a person against your soul (for in Greek it is ψυχή), and do not be ashamed at your fall; and they explain it: against your soul, that is, against yourself, as if to say: If someone has injured your reputation, do not have such regard for his person, however great and powerful, that you do not dare to defend yourself or protect your innocence. For in such a case, shame is harmful and brings destruction to a man.
Thirdly, Palacius explains it thus, as if to say: Do not esteem anyone more than yourself, so as to sin for his sake; let no one be more precious to you than yourself. Therefore he adds: "Nor a lie against your soul;" that is, if lying is a mortal sin, namely against your soul, do not lie for the sake of any person, that is, not out of love or fear of anyone. If your soul is so precious that God poured out His own blood for it, why do you not esteem it at the same price? The following words have the same sense: "Do not stand in awe of your neighbor in his fall;" that is, do not at all fear a neighbor who threatens you with calamities and ruin, so as to "hold back a word in the time of salvation" because of his threats.
Fourthly, the Zurich version, in its customary free manner, translates: do not yield to any face, so that it would be to the harm of your soul; nor be ashamed to your own destruction — that is, as Vatablus explains, do not yield to anyone's fierceness or flatteries, so as not to say and do what is just.
This sense is very apt, and the Vulgate Latin version can rightly be adapted to it, as if to say: Do not accept a "face" or person of a powerful man "against your face," that is, against yourself, so that, namely, out of shame and fear of the powerful person you would lie, or be silent about a truth that it is necessary to speak, either for yourself or for your neighbors; and thus by your lie or harmful silence you would bring your own or others' reputation, life, or soul and conscience into present and eternal danger. Hence the Greek adds: and do not stand in awe unto your own fall, or to your own destruction; that is, lest from excessive reverence and shame before someone you fall into sin, death, infamy, etc. Hence the Vulgate also adds: "Nor a lie against your soul," that is, do not accept it, or tolerate it, or yield to it, so as to allow your own
soul," that is, your conscience, life, or reputation to be oppressed or defamed by some powerful person out of shame — because, namely, out of pusillanimity you do not dare to resist him; but oppose him confidently and courageously, and defend the truth and yourself and your soul. For this latter hemistich is the same as the former, and explains it in the Hebrew manner. Therefore "against your soul" means against yourself, or against your conscience. So says Jansenius. Wherefore the phrase "Do not accept a lie against your soul" is the same as what he said shortly before: "For your soul do not be ashamed to speak the truth." For Sirach redoubles his statements, and says and inculcates the same thing in different ways.
Plutarch wisely says in his book On False Shame: "Often," he says, "fleeing the smoke of ignominy we rush into the fire. Excellently did Zeno, when he came upon a young man walking stealthily along the walls and heard that he was fleeing a friend who was demanding that he bear false testimony, say: What do you want, coward? That man dared to afflict you with evil and injury, and is not ashamed; and you do not dare to resist him for the sake of justice?" Indeed, for the truth we must stand firm and shameless, and against the shameless we must put on shamelessness, lest fleeing vain shame we incur the true, and wishing to avoid Scylla we fall into Charybdis: for he who out of depraved shame lies, commits perjury, etc., so as not to offend a friend, will incur far greater infamy and vengeance before God and men, on account of the lie and perjury he has committed, etc.
soul," that is, your conscience, life, or reputation to be oppressed or defamed by some powerful person out of shame — because, namely, out of pusillanimity you do not dare to resist him; but oppose him confidently and courageously, and defend the truth and yourself and your soul. For this latter hemistich is the same as the former, and explains it in the Hebrew manner. Therefore "against your soul" means against yourself, or against your conscience. So says Jansenius. Wherefore the phrase "Do not accept a lie against your soul" is the same as what he said shortly before: "For your soul do not be ashamed to speak the truth." For Sirach redoubles his statements, and says and inculcates the same thing in different ways.
Plutarch wisely says in his book On False Shame: "Often," he says, "fleeing the smoke of ignominy we rush into the fire. Excellently did Zeno, when he came upon a young man walking stealthily along the walls and heard that he was fleeing a friend who was demanding that he bear false testimony, say: What do you want, coward? That man dared to afflict you with evil and injury, and is not ashamed; and you do not dare to resist him for the sake of justice?" Indeed, for the truth we must stand firm and shameless, and against the shameless we must put on shamelessness, lest fleeing vain shame we incur the true, and wishing to avoid Scylla we fall into Charybdis: for he who out of depraved shame lies, commits perjury, etc., so as not to offend a friend, will incur far greater infamy and vengeance before God and men, on account of the lie and perjury he has committed, etc.
An illustrious example is found in St. Sotheris, virgin and martyr, who although at other times she veiled her face out of devotion to modesty and chastity, yet in her martyrdom she uncovered that same face, and steadfastly opposed it to the tyrant, and willingly and joyfully exposed it fearlessly to the executioner to be struck. Hear St. Ambrose in his Exhortation to Virgins, near the end: "But Sotheris was not concerned about her face, she who, although exceedingly beautiful of face and a noble virgin of distinguished ancestry, set aside the consulships and prefectures of her parents through sacred faith, and when ordered to sacrifice, did not comply. The savage persecutor commanded that she be struck with palms, so that the tender virgin might yield to pain or shame. But she, when she heard this sentence, uncovered her face, unveiled and exposed solely for martyrdom, and willingly went to meet the injury, offering her face, so that the sacrifice of martyrdom might be made where the testing of modesty usually occurs. For she rejoiced that by the loss of her beauty, the danger to her integrity was being removed." And shortly after: "She bore the triumphal scars of martyrdom, so as to preserve the image of God which she had received." The same author, in book 3 On Virgins: "St. Sotheris," he says, "in the age of persecution, raised to the pinnacle of suffering even by servile insults, gave to the executioner even her face itself, which amid the tortures of the whole body is usually free from injury and accustomed rather to watch torments than to suffer them: so brave and patient that when she offered her tender cheeks to punishment, the executioner gave out from striking before the Martyr yielded to the injury."
Secondly, that is, of consolation, life, or reputation; the Syriac translates, and the Chains of the Just, Nathan and the Alexandrian, book 23.
From this statement, we are taught in these few words: First, do not accept a face against your own face, do not be a hypocrite, and do not yield to any of your offenses, do not accept the person of a powerful man, or anyone's reputation, or out of fear or shame, allow your soul, that is, your conscience, life, or reputation to be oppressed. Secondly, Gerson translates: taking a person, accepting faces, signifies respect of persons. Hence some translate: do not accept a person against your soul, and do not be ashamed at your fall. Thirdly, Vatablus freely renders it: do not yield to anyone's fierceness or flatteries. Fourthly, do not yield to any face so that it would harm your soul, nor be ashamed to your own destruction.
ruins, so that on account of his threats you should hold back the word. She did not bend her countenance, she did not turn away her face: she gave no groan, no tear. Finally, when she had overcome every other kind of punishment, she found the sword she was seeking." Indeed, she was struck by the sword on the Appian Way in Rome in the year of the Lord 304, on the 10th of February, and won the laurel of both virginity and martyrdom. Molanus in his Saints of Belgium writes that her body is preserved at Dordrecht in Holland.
Finally, St. Ephrem, in his treatise On Abstaining from Carnal Desires, places this verse before the preceding one, as if assigning the cause to the effect, and reads it thus: "Do not accept persons against your own face, nor be confounded in your fall. For there is a shame that brings sin, and there is a shame that brings glory and grace;" or, as the same author reads with the Greeks in his treatise On the Fear of God, "there is a shame that is glory and grace."
This is the first species of worldly and evil shame, by which, out of reverence for a powerful person, one fears to speak the truth, and lies, or consents to a lie, to the ruin of himself and his own soul. There follows the second, by which one is ashamed to correct a neighbor who is sinning or erring, about which he says:
In Greek, eis kallosin, that is, for ornament, or beauty. Which, first, some explain thus, as if to say: Do not hide wisdom, so that you may appear to be handsome and beautiful, that is, learned and wise. Second, others explain it better, as if to say: Do not hide wisdom, when it ought to be displayed and adorned, when, that is, it is beautiful and fitting to bring it forth: which happens when the glory of God demands it be brought forth through it, and the salvation of neighbors; which he said a little before: "in the time of salvation." Whence the Zurich Bible translates, do not conceal your wisdom, so that you may render it illustrious. Therefore, this honor we owe not to ourselves, but to wisdom, that we proclaim it, when through this it is adorned; but when it is ridiculed and despised by fools, it should be kept silent and hidden, lest we give what is holy to dogs, or cast pearls before swine, who would trample and defile them, as Christ admonishes in Matthew 7:6.
Third, this is that species of evil shame and silence, by which one out of shame keeps silent about wisdom, when it ought to be honored and adorned by speech. To this pertains that saying of Proverbs 11:26: "He who hides grain," it says, "will be cursed among the peoples; but blessing shall be upon the head of those who sell." Explaining this, St. Gregory in Part III of his Pastoral Rule, admonition 26, says: "To hide grain is to retain within oneself the words of holy preaching; and such a person will be cursed among the peoples, because by the fault of his silence alone he is condemned for the punishment of the many whom he could have corrected."
27. DO NOT SHOW REVERENCE TO (the Zurich Bible has: do not shrink from) YOUR NEIGHBOR IN HIS FALL
as if to say: Let it not shame you to correct your neighbor when he falls into some sin or error. Whence he adds:
28. AND DO NOT HOLD BACK A WORD (of correction, instruction and counsel) IN THE TIME OF SALVATION
by which, that is, you can serve his salvation, by correcting and instructing him. The Greek already reads differently, namely: do not be ashamed at your fall, or ruin; the Syriac and Arabic have: do not be ashamed to confess your offenses, as I mentioned a little earlier. Furthermore, for "do not hold back a word in the time of salvation," the Arabic translates: do not be stingy with your speech, when you will be useful, that is, when you can be useful; the Zurich Bible has: having found a salutary occasion, do not suppress your speech. Truly Seneca says in his Proverbs: "If you tolerate a friend's vices, you make them your own. Associate with those who correct you. Admonish friends in secret, praise them openly: he who pardons present faults transmits vices to posterity. He who spares the wicked harms the good." Thus Jethro was not ashamed to correct Moses, and to advise him to take on helpers in governing the people, Exodus 18; and indeed the Comedian designates a friend by this most certain mark: If you know, he says, that I have done something foolishly or wickedly, If you do not accuse me of it, you yourself deserve to be rebuked.
Second, "Do not show reverence to your neighbor in his fall," as if to say: Do not be afraid to visit and comfort your neighbor, nor be ashamed of him when you see him fallen from his honored state into poverty and disgrace; and do not hold back at that time a salutary word, namely a consoling one, by which you may raise him up, instruct him, and sustain him, as Job's friends did when they visited and consoled him in his affliction.
Third, Palacius refers these words to the encouragement of Martyrs in persecution, as if to say: Do not show reverence, that is, do not fear a neighbor who threatens you with calamities and
deeds performed by the teacher: for deeds, because they are real, are more eloquent than words. So says Lyranus. Jansenius explains it differently: By these words, he says, it is signified what kind of doctrine is being discussed, namely, that which is the foundation of justice, that is, by which people are strengthened in good works. Palacius also explains it differently: Just as, he says, the doctrine of the teacher is recognized through his words, so "the foundation," or firmness and constancy of soul, is recognized in the works of justice: for if in the time of persecution you practice justice, not in the least swerving from it, you demonstrate yourself to be firm. Do you wish to see all these things as in a mirror? Set the life of Christ before your eyes. You will see Him saying: "I have not hidden Your justice, and Your truth from the great assembly." But how dearly it cost Him not to have hidden this wisdom, hear what follows: "But You, O Lord, do not remove Your mercies far from Me. For evils without number have surrounded Me," etc. Therefore in the speech of Christ wisdom, understanding, knowledge and doctrine are recognized, and in His works the firmness of soul.
The Greek for all of these has only: for wisdom is known from speech, and learning from the words of the tongue; the Syriac has: do not hide your wisdom, because wisdom is known through speech, and understanding through conversation; the Arabic has: Since knowledge is recognized from eloquence, and the tongue causes understanding to err. For speech is the mirror and image of the mind. Whence Socrates said to a young man: "Speak, so that I may see you (your mind, prudence, thoughts)." For words are the vehicle of the mind. Speech is the interpreter of the soul. Speech is the light by which the heart, and the things in the heart, are seen. Truly Seneca says in his Proverbs: "Speech is the image of the soul; as the man is, so is his speech." And Menander: "A man's character is known from his speech." Moreover, the foundation of speech is the work of justice, of which the Hebrews say: "Not speech, but action is the root," as if to say: We should always do more than say. In transacting affairs, deeds are more useful than words. As a tree without a root, so is speech without action. What the Orator said of virtue, "that it is a matter of deeds, not words" — say the same of knowledge. Those who compare this age with the age of the fathers say that the fathers had more conscience and less knowledge; but we have more knowledge and less conscience. Have you acquired knowledge? I commend you; but more so if you have acquired conscience: for true knowledge should be so pursued that you become better rather than more learned, that you furnish your heart rather than sharpen your mind, says Palacius.
30. DO NOT CONTRADICT THE WORD OF TRUTH IN ANY WAY.
For truth is so divine a thing that it is God Himself, says Palacius. St. Augustine applies these words in Book III Against Parmenian, chapter 6, against the Donatists, who foolishly resisted truth, just as they resisted the edict of Emperor Constantine: "Is it not written," he says, "Do not contradict truth in any way? But against whom is there contradiction, if not against truth, when one resists even a king who commands something in accordance with truth? But a human king who threatens, or who judges for a time, is troublesome: not so that King, Who is also
AND BE ASHAMED OF THE LIE OF YOUR IGNORANCE (in Greek, apaideusias, that is, of indiscipline, ignorance, inexperience) — YOUR (that is, one spoken in an undisciplined, ignorant, inexperienced, rash, imprudent manner), BE CONFOUNDED. — So read the Roman and some Greek editions, although the Complutensian, the Zurich Bible and others delete the word "lie" and read only: be confounded by your lack of learning. But even then, by "lack of learning" is understood a lie, or falsehood, by which truth is contradicted; for the preceding discussion was about this: for just as truth is a divine thing, so falsehood is a diabolical thing. For the devil is "a liar and the father of it," namely of lying, John 8:44. Therefore it is most shameful to desert from the camp of truth to the camp of lying (for this is to cross over from the camp of God to the camp of the devil), especially for a Christian man, whose entire praise and salvation consists in truth.
This is the fourth species of evil shame, opposite to the second in verse 27. For just as there he commanded that the shame be overcome which holds a person back from correcting a sinning neighbor, so conversely here he admonishes the one being corrected not to contradict truth out of proud shame, and not to mendaciously deny that he committed the sin of which he is accused, or to try to excuse and defend it as if it were rightly done. Whence he adds about the same matter: "Do not be ashamed to confess your sins." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: If you have uttered some lie through imprudence, thoughtlessness, rashness, or ignorance, when you notice this, do not defend it, but be confounded, retract and amend it: for that shame is praiseworthy by which one humbly acknowledges and confesses an error; but that shame is blameworthy by which one proudly strives to defend an error, lest one appear to have erred; for to be unwilling to be ashamed of what is shameful is great impudence; and to be unwilling to repent of what requires repentance is arrogant impenitence. The Zurich Bible favors this interpretation, when it translates: beware of contradicting truth in any way, wherefore be ashamed of your deceitful ignorance.
Second, Jansenius aptly explains it thus, as if to say: Let it shame you to be caught lying, when through your imprudence, ignorance and audacity you contradict truth, so that what is said, "be confounded about the lie," is understood of a lie not yet committed, but about to be committed; for this aptly corresponds to what preceded: "Do not contradict the word of truth," and therefore "be confounded about the lie," as if to say: Therefore let it shame you to lie, because by lying you contradict truth. The Syriac favors this interpretation: Do not prattle against truth, and restrain yourself from your follies; and the Arabic: Do not oppose equity, nor contend with it, and turn back from your offenses, and turn yourself away from them.
Whence St. Augustine, in Book III Against Parmenian, chapter 6, applying these words to heretics who resist the faith, such as Parmenian and the Donatists: "But against whom," he says, "is there contradiction, if not against truth, when one resists even a king who commands something in accordance with truth? But a human king who threatens, or who judges for a time, is troublesome: not so that King, Who is also
called Truth." Finally Blessed Antiochus, in homily 60 On Modesty, citing this passage from Ecclesiasticus: "Confusion of face," he says, "has covered me. This kind of shame, or modesty, is plainly holy, since it is according to God, in that it leads a person to repentance, and consequently brings no small confidence to the soul."
31. DO NOT BE ASHAMED TO CONFESS YOUR SINS. — This is the fifth species of depraved shame, by which one is ashamed to confess sins. Sirach does not speak precisely of Sacramental Confession, since that had not yet been instituted at that time; but generally of the confession by which one, legitimately questioned, admonished, or corrected about a sin, falsely denies it.
Whence the Greek here adds what our text has in the following verse: Nor contend against the current of a river, as if to say: Do not, by denying the sin of which you are accused, contend against the truth running from the mouth of all, especially of Superiors, against you; because by the force and common voice of truth, as of a river, you will be overcome, and your iniquity, falsehood and impudence will be made more manifest. Wherefore much more does this saying apply to Sacramental Confession, after it was instituted by Christ, in which God commanded and ordained that sins be laid bare, and that one be confounded and repent of them.
Against this teaching and law sinned Adam, when he impudently cast his fault upon Eve, Genesis 3, and was therefore cast out of paradise and punished with death together with all his posterity. But you, if you desire God to be propitious to you, say with David: "Against You alone have I sinned, and done evil before You." Humbly therefore confess your sins to God or to a person, especially if that person has the power and wisdom to convince and punish you, or to forgive your sins and apply a remedy, so that through humble confession and acknowledgment of sin you may obtain pardon, escape punishment, and win mercy and grace.
Moreover, the devil is accustomed to take away the shame that he removed from the sinner while he was sinning, and restore it to him when he wishes to confess, in order to impede confession and keep him captive in sin. Wherefore Tertullian, in his book On Repentance, chapter 10, says: "I presume that many either flee from this work of public confession, or put it off from day to day, being more mindful of shame than of salvation." And soon after ironically: "Truly you have a fine modesty — bold-faced for sinning, but bashful for seeking pardon;" and St. Augustine, or whoever is the author of Book II On Visiting the Sick, chapter 5: "Alas! why are you ashamed," he says, "to confess what you were never ashamed to do?" And St. Bernard in his Sentences: "Why are you ashamed," he says, "to speak of your sin, when you are not ashamed to commit it?"
This shame must be shaken off, first, by fear of the greater shame with which the sinner will be afflicted on the day of judgment; for thus one nail is driven out by another. Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration On Holy Baptism, says: "Do not find it burdensome to confess your sin, so that, by means of the shame of this life, you may flee the shame and disgrace of the future age;" and St. Augustine in the passage cited: "It is better," he says, "to endure a little blushing before one person than to waste away on the day of judgment, marked out with severe rejection before so many thousands of people." Second, by reflecting that confession brings not shame but glory to anyone, because through it we triumph over pride, sin, ourselves, and the devil. Whence Nazianzen in the passage already cited: "Make it clear," he says, "that you seriously and sincerely hate sin, by exposing it as deserving of reproach, and setting it forth as something to be mocked, and celebrating a triumph for God." Illustrious examples of this triumph are recounted by Climacus in steps 4 and 5 on Repentance.
Wherefore St. Bernard rightly exclaims, in his letter 185 to Eustachius: "O modesty," he says, "devoid of reason, enemy of salvation, wholly ignorant of all honor and decency. This is plainly that shame of which the Wise Man speaks, the confusion that brings sin. Is it then shameful for a person to be conquered by God, and is it considered a disgrace to be humbled under the mighty hand of the Most High? For thus that glorious king David said: Against You alone have I sinned, and done evil before You, that You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged. The highest kind of victory is to yield to the divine majesty; and not to resist the authority of mother Church is the highest honor and glory. O perversity! It does not shame one to be defiled, yet it shames one to be washed! There is a shame (according to the Wise Man) that brings glory — if, that is, one is ashamed to sin: if not, let one at least be ashamed of having sinned; and thus even late glory will not be lacking, since shame restores what guilt had driven away. They hold the second place of blessedness whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. An honorable covering, of which he speaks: Confession and beauty are in His sight. Who will grant me to see you in gilded raiment, so that we may say to you also: You have put on confession and comeliness, clothed with light as with a garment."
The same, in Sermon 4 among the lesser sermons: "Better," he says, "is humble confession of evil deeds than proud boasting of good deeds." The same, in Meditations, chapter 37: "All things are washed in confession, the conscience is cleansed, bitterness is removed, sin is banished, tranquility returns, hope revives, the spirit grows cheerful. After Baptism there is no other remedy than the refuge of confession. Let there therefore be devout compunction of the heart, true confession of the mouth, discreet mortification of the flesh, swift eradication of vices, joyful performance of good works." And soon after: "Feigned confession is not confession, but a double confusion. For the simulation of misery excludes the mercy of God. Nor does condescension have a place where there has been a presumption of dignity." Sirach borrowed this maxim from Solomon, Proverbs 18:17: "The just man is the first accuser of himself." Where I shall say more about confession.
AND DO NOT SUBJECT YOURSELF TO EVERY PERSON ON ACCOUNT OF SIN, as if to say: Do not be ashamed to confess your sins; but be confounded about the sin itself, so that to no one (for in Hebrew,
"not every" is the same as "no") person who solicits you to sin should you subject yourself to committing it. In the first hemistich, therefore, Sirach exhorts to confession of a sin already committed; in the second, he dissuades from consenting to commit one. So say Rabanus, the Interlinear Gloss, and Palacius. The Greek requires this meaning: do not submit yourself to a foolish person; and the Syriac: do not subject yourself to a madman; and the Arabic: do not contend with a fool, and do not give your name to a stupid person. Lyranus interprets it differently, as if to say: Do not subject yourself to any person whatsoever, so as to confess your sins to just anyone; but only to him who knows them and can apply or point out a salutary remedy for them. Jansenius also interprets it differently, and in order to link all these things together, explains it thus, as if to say: Do not be ashamed to confess your sins when you are accused of them by a wise man, or a superior and judge, and "do not, on account of the sin" you have committed, "subject yourself to any person," that is, do not make yourself liable to greater and new reproach and punishment, namely if you are found to be a liar when you wish to deny or excuse the sins you have committed. Wherefore "do not resist the face of a powerful person" on account of sin, namely one you have committed; that is, when a judge, or any other person who can refute and avenge your lies, accuses you of sin, do not defend yourself against him with lies, "nor try to contend against the force of a river," that is, nor struggle against the power of one who assails you with truth. For that is just as if you were trying to contend against the force, that is, the might of a river. However, this interpretation, although more connected, seems less complete and more forced, and the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic texts are opposed to it.
32. DO NOT RESIST THE FACE OF A POWERFUL PERSON, NOR TRY TO CONTEND AGAINST THE FORCE (the Greek Complutensian has: current; the Roman has: flow) OF A RIVER
as if to say: Do not resist a powerful person, whether a single man, or a people and multitude; because you will not be able to resist him, just as you cannot resist the force, that is, the rush of a river. This is a separate and different precept from the preceding one, as are most in this book; yet it is aptly connected to the preceding, as if to say: Do not subject yourself to a person on account of sin; but neither resist a powerful person, when he does not urge you to sin; for the former is wickedness, the latter is imprudence. For to strive in vain, and by laboring to achieve nothing other than hatred, is the height of folly, as St. Jerome says, quoting Sallust. Thus Samuel wisely yielded to the people rashly demanding a king, and gave them Saul, 1 Samuel 8. Moreover, the Complutensian and St. Augustine in his Mirror read "lightning" instead of "river." For a powerful and audacious person is like lightning, whose stroke penetrates, melts, and blasts even the hardest things. Who can resist this? This is, as it were, a reason from first principles.
Note: These two verses, namely 30 and 31, which read thus in the Latin Vulgate: "Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not subject yourself to every person on account of sin. Do not resist the face of a powerful person, nor try to contend against the force of a river" — read differently in the Greek manuscripts, which also transpose the members of the sentences, putting some before and some after; for they read thus: Do not be ashamed to confess your sins; do not contend against the current of a river. Do not submit, or subject yourself to a foolish person, nor yield to the face of a powerful person. Moreover, the Syriac approaches the Greek; yet it differs somewhat from it; for it reads thus: Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, and do not resist a fool. Do not subject yourself to a madman, and do not contend against the lord.
that is, a prince or master; and the Arabic: Do not be ashamed to confess your sins; do not contend with a fool, and do not give your name to a stupid person: do not contend with a prince. But these versions and readings do not cohere as aptly as the Latin Vulgate: wherefore its author, the Latin Translator, seems to have had a more corrected Greek exemplar, as the Interpreters here confess and have noted — not only the orthodox, but also the heterodox, indeed even the heretical in faith.
The fable of the reed and the olive in Aesop illustrates this maxim of Sirach: "The reed and the olive," he says, "were contending about their strength; when the olive reproached the reed as being weak and easily yielding to every wind, the reed said nothing and remained silent. And having waited a little while, when a fierce wind blew, the reed, shaken and bending before the winds, easily survived; but the olive, having resisted the winds, was violently broken. The moral: The fable signifies that those who do not resist the times and their superiors are better off than those who contend with the more powerful."
Moreover, Nazianzen, in letter 57 to Eudoxius, adapts this proverb to nature, as if to say: "Do not try to contend against the force of a river," that is, do not try to contend against the inclination of nature, according to the saying:
You will do and say nothing if Minerva is unwilling.
33. FIGHT FOR JUSTICE FOR YOUR SOUL, AND EVEN UNTO DEATH CONTEND FOR JUSTICE, AND GOD WILL VANQUISH YOUR ENEMIES FOR YOU.
The Greek is here, as usual, more concise; for it reads: Fight unto death for truth, and the Lord will fight for you. And so reads John Maxentius in the preface to his Dialogue against Nestorius. And the Syriac: contend unto death for truth, and the Lord will contend for you. The Arabic adds: and He will make you victorious. This verse looks back to verse 24: "For your soul do not be ashamed to speak the truth;" and to verse 30: "Do not contradict the word of truth." For to those this verse adds by gradation: "Contend even unto death for truth;" to show how much truth ought to be our care and concern, and how much we ought to undertake its guardianship and defense, namely that we should fight for it even unto death. Understand truth both of faith and religion, and of morals, actions, and virtues, especially justice properly so called. Whence our translator skillfully rendered it "justice." For justice is here taken broadly for religion, equity, and every
virtue; but especially for justice properly so called: for we ought to fight for it as for our very soul, because upon justice and virtue depends the soul's happiness, both present and eternal, and thus virtue is the soul's salvation, indeed the soul's very soul. For lest anyone say: The defense of justice does not pertain to me, he adds: "Fight for your soul," as if to say: When you fight and contend for justice, you contend for your soul; indeed you contend for God, Who is the first and uncreated truth and justice, and Who gave you your soul, that for it and for truth you should contend even unto death. Whence Dionysius in Antonius's Melissa, Part I, chapter 21: "Truth," he says, "is God, as being one, not many according to nature. For the true is one; but falsehood is manifold. For Christ also says: I am the way, the truth, and the life," John 14. Hence Iamblichus in Stobaeus, sermon 11 on Truth: "Truth," he says, "as its Greek etymology indicates, is concerned with God and the incorruptible action of God." For in Greek truth is called aletheia, because it alei, that is, grinds, theia, that is, divine things, because it is occupied with God and divine things, and is itself, as it were, alema, that is, the flour of God and of Divinity.
Note the Graecism, by which the passive verb agonizare ("to be in agony") is taken as a deponent, actively, meaning: contend, fight, struggle, strive, battle, combat; for the Greeks more frequently use the passive agonizesthai than the active agonizo, for: contend, fight, etc. In a similar way our translator uses certari (passive) for certare (active), in chapter 11:9. Moreover, the word agonizare has emphasis, as if to say: For your soul, that is, in order to save your soul, exert all your strength, and with your whole effort contend for justice, namely with that struggle and agony with which the dying in their death agony wrestle with death. For in this, nature, in order to protect itself and its own life, brings forth all its strength and exerts the utmost of its power. Whence many escape from the peril of death and are restored to life. Or rather, "agonize," that is, fight most fiercely for justice, just as in ancient times boxers and Olympic victors in the contest fought for the crown even unto death. He alludes to the Olympic games and similar contests of the Greeks. For in Greece there were four sacred contests, which they called "agons," namely the Nemean, Pythian, Isthmian, and Olympic, about which see Budaeus in the Pandects. On the same, an epigram of Archias survives:
Four sacred contests are celebrated by the Argives,
Two for the children of men, and two for the heavenly ones.
For Phoebus, and for Jove himself, for Archemorus, and little Melicertes,
Apples, wild olives, celery, and pine were the prizes.
To this the Apostle also alluded in 1 Corinthians 9:25: "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things; and they indeed do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one." See my comments there and at Revelation 3, at the end.
Philo says brilliantly in his book That Every Good Man Is Free: "I once watched," he says, "men competing in the pancratium: one was pounding with fists and kicks, and straining with all his strength for victory, only to finally leave the arena exhausted and uncrowned; the other, fleshy, sinewy, muscular, and filled with a truly athletic spirit, like stone and iron yielded nothing to blows, and by patience alone overcame his adversary, and in the end won the victory." And immediately digressing to morals, as he is accustomed: "I consider a good man to be like this one," he says, "who, strongly confirmed by a fixed purpose of mind, causes his adversary to grow weary of inflicting injuries before he himself does anything contrary to his own conviction." And St. Jerome to Heliodorus: "What are you doing in your father's house, pampered soldier? Where is your rampart? Where is your ditch? Where is the winter spent under tents? Behold, the trumpet sounds from heaven. Behold, the Commander goes forth armed, with clouds, to wage war against the world. And you, from a bedroom to the battle line — you go forth from shade into the sun? A body accustomed to tunics does not bear the weight of a breastplate; a head covered with linen refuses the helmet: a hard sword-hilt chafes a hand made soft by idleness."
Such a champion of justice was St. John the Baptist, who, contending for the right of marriage and rebuking the adulterer Herod, was crowned with martyrdom by him. Similar were the other Martyrs. Such also was Judas, Jonathan, and the other Maccabees, who for justice, that is, for the just defense of their fatherland and the Church, fought most bravely against Antiochus, and therefore God, fighting for them, indeed for justice, made them victorious and glorious, so that a few routed vast armies of enemies, as is narrated in the Book of Maccabees. Therefore let soldiers contend for justice unto death; and indeed every faithful person placed in temptation, as a soldier of Christ, should fight for God and justice against the devil, the world, and concupiscence even unto death, reflecting that what is at stake is his soul and its eternal salvation. See St. Cyprian, Exhortation to Martyrs, and Tertullian in his Scorpiace and Exhortation to Martyrs.
Moreover, Sirach aptly subjoins this maxim to the preceding one, as if to say: I said: "Do not resist the face of a powerful person." But understand this to mean if the powerful person does not force or solicit you to sin; for if he does solicit you, I say and proclaim: "Fight for justice for your soul;" which Palacius explains thus, as if to say: If your silence results in danger or harm to justice, then cast yourself into a mortal struggle for it. Fight against the whole world for piety, as St. Athanasius fought against nearly the whole Arian world. You will not fight alone, you will not sustain the struggle alone; God stands for you. Resist therefore those who attack justice. Understand this to apply if resisting is incumbent upon you by virtue of your office, or if religion and faith, or the salvation of your neighbors, depends on your resistance. Otherwise you are not so greatly obligated to resist an unjust prince, especially if you do not hope that a remedy will come from your resistance.
Thus St. Cornelius, the glorious Pontiff and martyr, with a great and unconquered heart resisted the Emperors Decius, Gallus, and Volusian, who were driving all to idolatry, and
was the leader and author of resistance for the Romans and all other Christians. Wherefore in the year of the Lord 255, his head being cut off, he was crowned with the laurel of martyrdom and flew to heaven; and not long after, St. Leo I, his successor in the pontificate, on the Appian Way, where he had undergone his illustrious contest for the faith, erected a church as a theater of eternal glory in his honor. The same is celebrated with great praises of virtue by his contemporary and fellow-soldier St. Cyprian, in letter 1 to Cornelius: "It cannot be sufficiently expressed," he says, "how great was the exultation there, etc., that you stood forth as the leader of confession for the brethren, so that, as you led the way to glory, you made many companions in glory; and you persuaded the people to become confessors, since you were the first prepared to confess for all. The virtue of the bishop who led the way was publicly demonstrated there, the unity of the brotherhood was shown, since among you there was one mind and one voice, and the whole Roman Church confessed." And in Book IV, letter 2 to Antonianus about Cornelius: "The battle line is still being fought, and the contest is celebrated daily." And further on: "How great was his virtue in the very episcopate he undertook! What strength of soul! What firmness of faith! — which we ought with a simple heart both to see through clearly and to praise: that he sat undaunted at Rome in the priestly chair at a time when the tyrant, hostile to the priests of God, was threatening things both speakable and unspeakable; when he would far more patiently and tolerably have heard that a rival prince was being raised up against him, than that a priest of God was being established at Rome. Is not this man, dearest brother, to be proclaimed with the highest testimony of virtue and faith? Is he not to be counted among the glorious Confessors and Martyrs, who sat for so long a time awaiting the executioners of his body and the avengers of the raging tyrant — those who would either attack Cornelius with the sword as he resisted the fatal edicts, or nail him to a cross, or roast him with fire, or tear apart his entrails and limbs with some unheard-of kind of torment, as he trampled on threats, tortures, and torments by the vigor of his faith? Even though the majesty of the Lord, protecting him, and His goodness, also protected the priest whom He had willed to be made; yet Cornelius, insofar as pertains to his devotion and reverence, suffered whatever he could have suffered; and he first conquered by his priesthood the tyrant who was afterwards conquered by arms and war."
A contemporary and equal in fortitude to St. Cornelius was St. Babylas, Patriarch of Antioch, who drove Emperor Decius from the church when he entered it with a great retinue and pomp, with even greater spirit and virtue, and therefore underwent a glorious martyrdom. Whence even after death, when buried at Daphne, he drove out demons from there. Marveling at this, St. John Chrysostom in his book Against the Gentiles exclaims: "O undaunted soul, and lofty mind! O heavenly heart and angelic constancy! For the Holy Scriptures had taught him that all the things of this world are nothing but a shadow and a dream, and if there is anything vainer than these. Therefore he led his thoughts
to that supreme King seated upon the Cherubim, gazing upon the depths, to that glorious throne, to the myriads of Angels, to the thousands of Archangels."
34. DO NOT BE HASTY IN YOUR TONGUE; AND USELESS AND SLACK IN YOUR WORKS.
In the Greek there is here a triple reading. For "hasty," first, our translator read tachys, that is, swift, fast, speedy and hurried; second, the Roman edition reads trachys, that is, rough, harsh, fierce; third, the Complutensian reads thrasys, that is, bold, reckless. Likewise the Zurich Bible says: do not be, in your tongue, presumptuous; nor again in your works sluggish (nothros, that is, lazy, unwarlike, sluggish, slow, idle, drowsy); the Syriac: do not be exalted, it says, in your tongue, and slack and weak in your works; and the Arabic: do not be swollen in your tongue, and idle and negligent in your works. But the reading of our Translator is better: for thus the antithesis stands between hasty in tongue and slack in work; for he here forbids two things: first, speed in speaking; second, slowness in doing good, which two vices are worse when
they are joined together, as we often see them joined. For since in a person there is one and the same soul which speaks through the tongue and works through the hand, and since it is of limited and meager attention and power, if it applies and exerts itself entirely in the tongue, it has little remaining to exert in the hand and in action, especially since the tongue and the hand, speech and action, are very different and almost contrary. Whence it is commonly said: Busy tongues, lazy souls.
Wherefore Seneca wisely admonishes Lucilius, in letter 72: "The sum of the matter," he says, "is this: I order you to be slow to speak." Indeed the Psalmist in Psalm 38:2 says: "I said: I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue." St. Augustine gives the reason there: "For the tongue," he says, "is not in play for nothing, except because it easily slips. Guard therefore your ways, and do not sin with your tongue; weigh what you are about to say, examine it, consult the inner truth, and then bring it forth to the outer hearer." St. Ambrose says in the same place: "There are some ways," he says, "that we must follow; and others that we must guard: to follow the ways of the Lord, to guard our own, lest they be directed into fault. But you can guard them, if you do not speak hastily."
Moreover, this maxim, since it is general, can be applied to various things. First, to promises, as if to say: Do not be swift in promising, slow in fulfilling your promise. Second, to commands and orders, as if to say: Do not be swift in commanding, slow in working, so that you give many orders and commands to others, but are unwilling to put your own hand to the work. For a true leader of a household or commander in war will not say to his men: Do this, soldiers; but: Let us go, let us do it, fellow soldiers. And he will be the first to go before his men and put his hand to the work, as Julius Caesar both said and did. Third, it applies to the lazy and slothful, who are voluble in speaking, slack in laboring, so that they seem to have all their sense, motion, and life in their tongue, and consequently
philosophers, and he assigns the reason a priori: Too many hands are insensible, immobile, and as if dead. Fourth, to the proud, who boast great things of themselves, while accomplishing nothing in deed. Such is that soldier Thraso in the Comic poet, who trumpeted with full mouth the exploits he had performed in wars, though he was unwarlike, cowardly, and most timid. Fifth, to teachers and preachers who teach much in word but accomplish nothing in deed. Whence that saying of the Hebrews is similar: "The Talmud without works is not a great Talmud;" or: "Doctrine without works is not doctrine," as if to say: The doctrine or doctor who lives otherwise than he teaches is not to be esteemed. For doctrine of this kind falls upon hearts as rain falls upon rocks, as a certain wise man says; for true doctrine requires that each person live according to it, lest morals disagree with speech: "For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power" (1 Corinthians 4:20). Sixth, to the idle, talkative, garrulous, and slanderous, who by their garrulity and slander create danger for themselves and others: "For a slippery mouth works ruin," says Rabanus. Whence St. James, chapter 1, verse 19: "Let every man," he says, "be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man does not work the justice of God." Thus Zeno, hearing a garrulous young man, said: "Your ears have flowed into your tongue," signifying that it is the part of a young man to hear much and speak little, as Laertius reports, book VII, chapter 1. The same may be said of the idle and talkative person: "This man's hands have flowed into his tongue." And as Theocritus of Chios used to say: "In his mouth is all his furniture and his only dwelling." Likewise when Anaximenes was about to speak, he prefaced it thus: "A flood of words begins, a drop of mind," signifying that he was very talkative but little wise, as Stobaeus reports, sermon 34. Such are the idle and garrulous. Finally, Rabbi Shammai in Pirke Avoth: "I want you," he says, "to be sparing in speaking, abundant in doing."
The counterpart to this maxim is the fable of the lion and the donkey in Cyril, book I of the Moral Apologues, chapter 16, whose title is: Speak with a soft voice, and act with grand deeds. "The donkey," he says, "going ahead of his companion the lion, when he saw from afar a pack of wolves, began from a distance to send forth his voice, so that the hostile pack might depart, struck by its windy grandeur. But indeed, when the enemies recognized from the braying that this was a donkey, standing fixed they began to laugh, knowing that such a sound from the breast by no means corresponded to courage of heart. Then the lion, perceiving the voice, immediately ran to his companion and said: Friend, what is the matter with you, that you cried out? — To which the other replied: My brother, a pack of wolves appeared, which I terrified with my loud voice, and they do not move; but soon at the scent of you they disappeared, not without my amazement. To this the lion wisely smiling said: If you know this, a wicked wolf is cunning — he laughs at noise and fears only strength; he mocks the barking of a dog, provided he escapes the bite."
He then confirms this same point with the example of a soldier and
an experienced soldier does not fear the war trumpet but the sword; and a learned philosopher does not dread the thunder of a cloud but the lightning. For what is a shout, except the sound of an emptied chest and mouth poured forth? Indeed, empty things sound more, and windy things clatter. Wherefore, dearest friend, he who uses shouts is not at all feared by the wise man. For he is recognized as windy and empty, without the solidity of virtue. By shouting indeed the flame of anger is kindled in the furnace of the heart, from which smoke immediately rises, and with reason obscured, the splendor of virtue is darkened. For virtue arises from the light of reason. Therefore that is more prudently accomplished which, having spurned the voice of empty appearance, is completed by the grandeur of the thing itself. Thus the regular motion of heaven, since it is a virtuous act, is completed with grand power without sound. Having said this, the donkey, confused about his noisy voice, departed from the lion's company."
35. Do not be like a lion in your house (domineering, shouting, raging, and therefore) overturning your household members and oppressing those subject to you.
In Greek panasiakopon, that is, laboring under fantasy, hot-headed, who is struck by vain imaginations, insane toward his household members. The Syriac translates for "lion" as "dog," namely a mastiff, which is like a lion; for a lion has all its internal parts similar to a dog, as Aristotle teaches in book II of the History of Animals, chapter 1. Again, the bite of lions is healed like the bite of dogs, as the same author teaches in book IX, chapter 28; unless for the Syriac kelbo, that is "dog," with different vowel points you read the Hebrew callabi, that is "like a lion," as our translator reads. Thus he translates: do not be a dog (that is, shameless, quarrelsome, biting, tearing, devouring) in your house, and impetuous and terrible in your works; the Arabic: do not be fastidious, tumultuous in your house, and prowling about and excessive in your works; the Zurich Bible: do not conduct yourself in your house in the manner of a lion, nor rage insanely against your household members. He forbids fathers and masters from exercising toward sons, household members, and servants: first, excessive curiosity; second, importunity; third, cruelty; fourth, shouting and quarrels; fifth, the lust for domination, not from reason but from ambition, greed, and cruelty; sixth, insanity; for these things make dominion not paternal and masterly, but tyrannical, indeed beastly and lion-like, as if to say: Do not be in your family like a lion, so that like a lion you want to scrutinize everything with excessive curiosity, shout and roar at the smallest errors, command harshly, beat, take vengeance, and do everything according to fantasy and desire, not from reason and equity; but rather show yourself to them as humane, fair, reasonable, kind, and as a companion, father, and brother; for there are some who abroad among strangers show themselves courteous, affable, and humane; but at home they present themselves to their own as fierce and barbarous, and therefore as lions rather than men.
Famous is that saying of Dionysius in Sophocles' Tragedy:
Whoever betakes himself to the tyrant's dwelling
Becomes his slave, even if he came as a free man.
Which Aristippus corrected, adding: "He is not a slave, if he came there as a free man;" signifying that a wise man, who is free from hope and fear, is free even if he serves. See Laertius, book II, chapter 8.
Therefore, if a master is by nature prone to anger, let him tame and bridle it through wisdom. Hence the ancients depicted a lion bowing its head to an owl, which is the symbol of wisdom, to signify that the wrathful and cruel ought to bow their head, and submit their anger and ferocity to wisdom, so that they may subject themselves to it, and be moderated, bridled, and governed by it, lest they rashly destroy themselves and rush to ruin.
Now just as it is wisely said: "Do not be like a lion;" so likewise you may say: "Do not be like a fox in your house;" so that by your cunning, tricks, and frauds you may deceive, circumvent, and ensnare your own: and it not rarely happens that he who by craft insinuates himself and enters into the leadership of a family or republic like a fox, reigns in it like a lion. Moreover, it is better to be a lion than a fox; for lions, says Pliny, book VIII, chapter 16, "are free from guile and suspicion; they do not look with sidelong glances, nor do they wish to be looked at in that way." Whence there is a proverb of the Hebrews in the Sanhedrin, chapter 4: "Be rather the tail of lions than the head of foxes," as if to say: Make it your aim to be rather last among magnanimous and generous men, than first among the cunning and deceitful. To this purpose is what is related in Aesop's fables about the lioness, who to the fox boasting that she produced many offspring, replied that she bore only one, but a lion.
He mentions the tail, because "the tail is the indicator of lions' spirit, just as the ears are for horses," says Pliny, book VIII, chapter 16.
For this reason the same Hebrews say: "Honor the fox (as well as the lion) in its time," as if to say: Cultivate and regard a cunning and deceitful man, whom Apuleius calls a "fox-man," when he is in honor and dignity, or when you need his help; if not to benefit you, at least so that he may not harm you. Thus Abraham bowed before the sons of Heth, Gentiles and Canaanites, and therefore crafty and powerful, Genesis 23:12. And this is the singular remedy by which household members may preserve and protect themselves in a house where the master is a lion; namely, that by humility, deference, patience, gentleness, and courtesy, they may break the anger and spirit of the lion, and soften and tame him: for a lion spares the one who humbles himself, but strikes down the one who resists. For truly the Poet says:
It is enough for the magnanimous lion to have laid low the body.
Hear Pliny, book VIII, chapter 16, on whose authority let it rest: "The lion alone among wild beasts shows clemency to suppliants; it spares the prostrate: and when it rages, it roars first at men rather than women; at children, only in great hunger. Libya believes that the understanding of prayers reaches them. I have certainly heard of a captive woman returned from Getulia, who had softened the attack of many lions in the forests by her speech, daring to say that she was a woman, a fugitive, weak, a suppliant of the most noble of all animals and the ruler of the rest, a prey unworthy of its glory."
36. Let not your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed when it comes to giving.
For "stretched out," the Greek is ektetamene, that is, extended, which is rightly opposed to synestalmene, that is, contracted. Less aptly therefore some read ektachthen, that is, instructed, from ektatomai, that is, I draw up a battle line. The Syriac: let not your hand be extended to receive, and contracted for giving; the Arabic: let not your hand be extended for taking, and withheld from generosity. He notes two vices of avarice: the first is the greed for receiving and accumulating; the second is tightfistedness in giving. The Zurich Bible translates: do not have your hand stretched out to receive; but contracted for repaying (for apodidonai signifies both to give and to repay). By which version are noted those who are inclined to buying, and to receiving on loan or on deposit; but difficult in paying and restoring.
Let Christians learn from Christ and St. Paul this: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). See what is said there. Indeed, Aristotle also teaches in the Ethics that it is more proper to virtue to do good than to receive good, that is, to bestow a benefit than to receive one. Memorable is the saying of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who was surnamed Longimanus from one hand being longer; for when he was mocked on this account as if monstrous, he wittily replied "that God had given him, as a prince, with wise elegance, the longest hand for giving, namely the right hand; but the other for taking away, namely the left, He had given contracted and very short. For it is more kingly to add than to take away; to give than to receive." For thus God is long-handed for giving, short-handed for receiving. So Plutarch in the Apophthegms of Kings.
Finally, to this and the preceding verse pertains that saying of Nazianzen in the Tetrastichs, by which he teaches that power is to be shown not by harming but by helping, not by receiving but by giving:
Do not display your strength by harming others,
But by doing good, if you desire to follow God.
Ben-Sira agrees with Sirach in Alphabet 1, letter Thau: "Let your hand be so generous," he says, "as if you had always been satisfied, and not as if you had only just now become satisfied, but had been hungry before." For those who are always satisfied are beneficent and liberal: but he who was once hungry and remembers it, is sparing in giving, as one mindful of his poverty.
Moreover, Aristotle, book V of the Ethics, chapter 3, among the qualities of the magnanimous man and of magnanimity, assigns this as one of the chief: "The magnanimous man," he says, "is such that he bestows benefits on others, but is ashamed to receive them himself. For the former is the mark of the one who excels, the latter of the one who is excelled, and he is such that he repays more: for thus it will come about that he who first bestowed the benefit will moreover be seen to owe and to have received a benefit.
Neither is Thetis said to recall her benefits to Jupiter, nor the Lacedaemonians to the Athenians; but only those by which they were affected. It is also the mark of a magnanimous person to ask nothing from anyone, or scarcely ever, but to minister readily to others." And this is the a priori reason for Sirach's maxim.
Moreover, they seem to remember those to whom they have done kindness; but not at all those from whom they have received; since he who has received is less than he who has bestowed the benefit; but they wish to be superior, whence also they are accustomed to hear the former pleasantly, the latter unpleasantly. And therefore