Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, he teaches that the mystical sacrifice of withdrawing from sin and practicing mercy is very salutary. Second, at verse 6, he teaches how great is the value and grace of sacrifice before God, and what conditions are required for it. Third, at verse 14, he teaches that God rejects the sacrifices and unjust prayers of the wicked, but receives and embraces the just prayers of the righteous, especially of those who suffer injuries, the poor and the humble, and avenges them.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 35:1-26
1. He who keeps the law multiplies offerings. 2. A saving sacrifice is to heed the commandments and to depart from all iniquity. 3. And to offer a sacrifice of propitiation for injustices, and a prayer for sins, is to depart from injustice. 4. He who offers fine flour repays grace: and he who practices mercy offers a sacrifice. 5. It is well-pleasing to the Lord to depart from iniquity: and a prayer for sins is to depart from injustice. 6. You shall not appear before the sight of the Lord empty-handed. 7. For all these things are done on account of God's commandment. 8. The offering of the just fattens the altar, and it is a sweet fragrance in the sight of the Most High. 9. The sacrifice of the just is accepted, and the Lord will not forget its memorial. 10. With a good spirit render glory to God, and do not diminish the first-fruits of your hands. 11. In every gift make your face cheerful, and with exultation sanctify your tithes. 12. Give to the Most High according to what He has given you, and with a good eye make the offering of your hands: 13. for the Lord is one who repays, and He will give back to you sevenfold. 14. Do not offer corrupt gifts, for He will not accept them. 15. And do not look upon an unjust sacrifice, for the Lord is the judge, and there is no regard for the glory of persons with Him. 16. The Lord will not show partiality against the poor man, and He will hear the prayer of the injured. 17. He will not despise the prayers of the orphan, nor the widow, if she pours out the speech of her groaning. 18. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek, and is not her cry against the one who causes them? 19. For from the cheek they ascend up to heaven, and the Lord who hears will not be pleased with them. 20. He who worships God with delight will be accepted, and his prayer will draw near to the clouds. 21. The prayer of him who humbles himself will penetrate the clouds: and until it draws near he will not be consoled: and he will not depart until the Most High looks upon him. 22. And the Lord will not delay, but will judge the just, and will execute judgment: and the Almighty will have no patience with them, that He may crush their backs: 23. and He will repay vengeance to the nations, until He takes away the fullness of the proud, and breaks the scepters of the unjust: 24. until He repays men according to their deeds, and according to the works of Adam, and according to his presumption: 25. until He judges the judgment of His people, and delights the just with His mercy. 26. Beautiful is the mercy of God in the time of tribulation, like a rain cloud in the time of drought.
First Part of the Chapter.
1 and 2. He who keeps the law multiplies offerings. A saving sacrifice is to heed the commandments and to depart from all iniquity. — In the preceding chapter he taught that God rejects the sacrifices of sinners: now in fitting order he appends what kind of sacrifices and from what kind of people God approves: and thus in what matter the worship most pleasing to God consists, and he asserts that it consists in the observance of the law and the avoidance of sins. For "offering," the Greek has prosophoras; Rabanus, Palacius, Jansenius, and others read "prayer" (Greek proseuchēn), and so they explain it, as if to say: He prays well who keeps the commandments: to keep the law avails the same as if you had prayed much: for by keeping the law you implicitly and tacitly pray, that is, you praise and invoke the God who is the author of the law; whence he aptly adds: "A saving sacrifice is to heed the commandments." Less aptly therefore do some explain it thus, as if to say: He who wishes to keep the law must pray much to obtain the grace that is necessary for keeping the law.
But the correct reading is "offering" (not "prayer"); for so the Roman and Greek editions read. And the Syriac: "You have done, he says, something that is written in the law; you have multiplied worship or service," namely sacred worship or liturgy, which the Hebrews and Syrians call aboda. Similarly some read "word" instead of "law"; others, "word of the law." All of which come to the same thing. The sense is, as if to say: Many people offer many external victims of oxen and sheep to God, and meanwhile live negligently or impiously, thinking that the power of a sacrifice pleasing to God consists in external sacrifices. But they err: for God above all requires an internal sacrifice, by which the soul is offered to God and immolated for keeping His law, and for mortifying the desires that oppose the divine law. I assert therefore that he who keeps the law offers many mystical oblations most pleasing to God: for each individual act conformable to the law is an act of obedience, justice, charity, temperance, etc., which are most pleasing to God, and in which God delights as in sacrifices offered to Him. For, as St. Augustine says, book X of The City of God, chapter vi: "A true sacrifice is every work that is done so that we may cling to God in holy fellowship, directed namely to that end of the good by which we can be truly happy." And such is every work that God prescribed and established in the law. St. Augustine proves this from St. Paul, Romans XII, 1, when he says: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your rational worship. If therefore the body, which as an inferior thing the soul uses as a servant or as an instrument, is a sacrifice when its good and right use is directed to God; how much more the soul itself, when it directs itself to God, so that, kindled by the fire of His love, it may lose the form of worldly desire, and being subjected to Him as to its unchangeable form, may be reformed; and thus, pleasing to Him by what it has received from His beauty, is a sacrifice?" So says St. Augustine.
Morally, let Religious who live under obedience note this maxim, and who are assigned by obedience to the works of Martha, so that they cannot devote themselves to prayer and sacrifice with Magdalene as often as they desire: and let them learn from this that obedience and the work of obedience is for them prayer and sacrifice;
For obedience slays one's own will and judgment for God. Which is indeed a rational sacrifice, most intimate to man, and therefore the most noble victim; and "it immolates itself by the sword of the commandment," says St. Gregory, book XXXV of the Moralia, chapter x. Wherefore God said to Saul: "Obedience is better, He says, than victims: and to hearken is better than to offer the fat of rams. For it is like the sin of divination to resist: and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey," 1 Kings XV, 22. To this point belongs that saying of St. Basil, homily on Julitta the Martyr: "He who always acts well, he says, always prays." For through every virtue we are joined to God. Which is the office of prayer.
A saving sacrifice is to heed the commandments. — This is a proof or confirmation of what he said: "He who keeps the law multiplies offerings;" because, namely, "a saving sacrifice," that is, one which is offered for health obtained or to be obtained, "is to heed the commandments," as if to say: The observance of the commandments is esteemed by God in the place, rank, and dignity of a sacrifice, and therefore avails as much for obtaining salvation as a sacrifice avails. For even if it is not a sacrifice properly so called, it is nevertheless a metaphorical and mystical sacrifice, more necessary and more pleasing to God than the sacrifice of lambs and goats: because through it a man offers himself and his human, rational, spiritual, and divine acts to God: and these far surpass the brute flesh of lambs and goats that is offered in a carnal sacrifice.
He alludes to the peace offering, Leviticus III. For God at the beginning of Leviticus established a threefold sacrifice, namely: first, the holocaust, which was offered entirely in God's honor, and therefore was entirely burned; second, the sin offering; third, the peace or saving offering, which was offered to God for peace, that is, for one's own or another's welfare, private or public, either for thanksgiving for welfare already obtained, or for the petitioning of welfare still to be obtained. Whence the Zurich version translates: He who keeps the law sacrifices abundantly; he who is devoted to the commandments offers a saving sacrifice; others: He who heeds the commandments offers a saving victim; the Greek Complutensian: The sacrificer of a saving sacrifice, namely a peace offering, heeds the commandments; the Roman: He who offers a saving sacrifice is he who heeds the commandments. For, as St. Gregory says, book IX of the Moralia, XXXI: "We offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God when we dedicate our life to divine worship." The Syriac: He who keeps the commandment, blessed is his spirit.
3. And to offer a sacrifice of propitiation for injustices, and a prayer for sins, is to depart from injustice. — This is a hyperbaton, which should be rearranged and explained thus, as if to say: "To depart from injustice," both properly so called and taken broadly and generally so as to include every sin, just as general justice includes every virtue: that is, to depart from every injury and every sin is "a prayer for sins," and is also like the offering of a sacrifice of propitiation for injustices and sins once committed. For just as sin is the greatest contempt and the greatest offense against God, so conversely the avoidance of sin is the greatest and most pleasing honor to God, that is, religion and worship, whose chief external act is sacrifice. Therefore when someone seriously begins to depart from injustice and sins, he then begins to placate God, and by this very act tacitly prays for pardon, and as it were immolates victims of his own mortification to God, by which he merits and obtains reconciliation and grace from God. He says this not to draw people away from prayer and sacrifice, but to teach that the first prayer and the first sacrifice ought to be to depart from iniquity and to keep God's commandments: without which neither prayers nor sacrifices avail, and with which they avail greatly.
Add that withdrawal from iniquity cannot happen except by eliciting an act of the opposite virtue. For no one withdraws from lust except through an act of chastity; nor from pride, except through an act of humility; nor from anger, except through an act of patience; nor from gluttony, except through an act of temperance; nor from the denial of the faith, if a tyrant compels it, except through an act of martyrdom; and so of the rest. But all acts of the virtues are great worship of God; because through them God, their author and lawgiver, is greatly honored and worshipped. Thus do the Roman editions read and understand this passage. Jansenius reads the first part differently, namely: And propitiation is to offer a sacrifice; and he explains it thus, as if to say: The clemency by which someone easily forgives another who offends against him, and becomes propitious to him, is before God like offering a sacrifice for sins committed: because through such clemency pardon for one's own offenses is obtained, according to that saying of the Savior: "If you forgive men their sins, the heavenly Father will also forgive you your sins," Matthew VI. Or as if to say: Propitiation, by which one strives to make God propitious to himself, is like offering a sacrifice for injustice.
But the correct reading is with the Roman editions in the manner I cited a little above; therefore the meaning given at the beginning is the true and genuine one. This verse is now missing in the Greek; because it says almost the same thing as verse 1. The Greek text, however, customarily cuts out such things that are repeated and summarizes them briefly. It is also missing in Rabanus, but he substitutes for it: His prayer will find grace before the eyes of God, and he explains it thus, as if to say: The prayer of him who departs from iniquity will find grace before God: because by doing good he preserved justice, according to that saying of Isaiah LVIII, 6: "Loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens; let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house: when you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh. Then your light shall break forth like the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily, and your justice shall go before your face,
and the glory of the Lord shall gather you up. Then you shall call, and the Lord shall hear: you shall cry out, and He shall say: Behold, here I am."
4. He who offers fine flour repays grace: and he who practices mercy offers a sacrifice. — In Greek: antapodidous charin prospherōn semidalin, kai ho poiōn eleēmosynēn thysiazōn aineseōs. Which you may translate in two ways: First, as our translator renders it, as if to say: Just as "he repays grace," that is, gives thanks to God for benefits received, "who offers fine flour," that is, the finest wheat flour, or the finest powder of meal: "and," that is, so too, "he who practices mercy offers a sacrifice," namely the mincha, which was made from fine flour, either pure or baked, and formed into loaves or cakes and wafers, as is clear from Leviticus chapter II, 1 and following. Now the mincha sacrifice was established for the giving of thanks, as is clear from Leviticus II, 12. Whence in Hebrew it is called the sacrifice of toda, that is, of confession, praise, and thanksgiving. The Septuagint translates aineseōs, that is, "of praise," which word Sirach here uses following them. This sense is more connected, corresponding to the phrasing of Sirach and Solomon, who in Proverbs everywhere speaks through comparison and similitude, in which the latter hemistich is likened to the former. In a similar way there is here one comparison: for he compares the one who gives thanks to God by offering Him fine flour, to the one who practices mercy and as it were sacrifices it to God, as if to say: Just as he who offers and sacrifices fine flour to God does something pleasing to Him and gives thanks: so likewise he who gives fine flour, or something similar, to a poor person, offers something pleasing to God, and as it were offers a sacrifice. For what he offers to the poor, he offers to God, who is represented in the poor person, and for whose love and reverence he offers to the poor. Just as therefore if you were to offer fine flour to God, you would certainly offer Him a pleasing sacrifice and pay the thanks due to God: so likewise if you give the same, or some other alms, to a poor person, you offer the same to God; and consequently you as it were offer a sacrifice to Him, and pay the thanks that you owe to God for the benefits conferred upon you. In summary, therefore, the sense is, as if to say: Just as he who offers fine flour to God is pleasing to Him, so too the merciful person who gives alms is pleasing to the same God.
Second, you may translate thus with the Zurich version and others: He who repays a favor (the Complutensian adds hōs, that is, "just as one who") offers fine flour in supplication: and he who exercises beneficence makes a sacrifice of thanksgiving or praise; so that two duties of virtue are here commended and mutually compared, namely gratitude and beneficence, as if to say: He who repays a favor for a benefit received, he as it were offers fine flour to God: by which is signified that gratitude is pleasing to God like a sacrifice. In a similar manner, he who exercises mercy or beneficence offers a sacrifice, and (as the Greek has it) is a sacrificer of praise, that is, he offers a sacrifice of praise to God. Two sacrifices of praise therefore, by which God is praised, delighted, and glorified, are gratitude and mercy. But why is mention here made of gratitude rather than any other virtue, since there are others more excellent and more comparable to mercy and sacrifice? Therefore the first sense, as being more strict and connected, is also more apt and genuine. And according to it you may easily explain this second version and accommodate it to the first, so that the sense comes to the same thing, as if to say: Just as he who repays a favor offers fine flour, so he who practices mercy offers a sacrifice of praise to God, as if to say: Mercy is like an offering of fine flour, which is offered "in ainesin," that is, in thanksgiving: because through the alms which you give to the poor for the love of God, you render the thanks due to God for so many gifts. Finally, the Syriac translates thus: He lends to God greatly who offers an oblation: and he who gives alms keeps the law.
Note that in the Greek, alms-giving is here called a sacrifice of aineseōs, which corresponds to the Hebrew toda, that is, of praise and thanksgiving; and the alms-giver is called a sacrificer of praise: first, because alms-giving itself is done for the praise of God and is a great praise of God; second, because it causes the poor to praise God, who inspired this intention in the alms-giver to help their need; third, because others seeing this beneficence praise God and are incited to imitate it; fourth, because the alms-giver himself gives alms out of love and honor for God, and often actually praises God for having inspired in him the means and the will to give alms. Whence St. Paul, commending the alms of the Corinthians given to him so that he might bring them to the faithful living in Judea: "Because, he says, the ministry of this service not only supplies what is lacking to the saints, but also abounds through many thanksgivings to the Lord, through the proof of this ministry glorifying God in the obedience of your confession to the Gospel of Christ, and in the simplicity of your sharing with them and with all, and in their prayer for you, longing for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift," II Corinthians chapter IX, verse 12.
Wherefore wisely does St. Gregory Nazianzen say, in his oration On the Care of the Poor: "Show God some token of gratitude, that He has made you one of those who can bestow benefits, and not one of those who need to receive: and that it is not for you to look to the hands of others, but for others to look to yours. Be rich not only in wealth but also in piety. Surpass others not only in the possession of gold but also of virtue, by showing yourself more upright and more kind. Be a god to the afflicted, imitating the mercy of God: for nothing more divine than beneficence falls to man's lot. Let not even the night interrupt your mercy. Do not say: Come back another time, and I will give tomorrow; lest something happen between your purpose and the benefit that might prevent it. If you see one who is naked, clothe him, honoring your immortal garment, which is Christ." For, as St. Nilus says: "Just as it is the property of light to illuminate, so it is the property of God to have mercy on His works." And Phocion, in Maximus, sermon 7: "Neither the altar from the temple, nor mercy from human nature is to be removed,"
mercy," because this is the altar and victim most pleasing to God. And Philo, in the same place: "Those who humbly ask that favors be granted them by you should be dearer to you, Emperor, than those who strive to offer you gifts: for to these you owe recompense; but those will make God your debtor, who counts as His own what you confer upon them, and who will repay with the best gifts the practice of your humanity and kindness." So he writes to the Emperor Caius. Finally, the divine Raphael said to Tobias, chapter XII, verse 6: "Bless, he says, the God of heaven, etc., for alms delivers from death, and it is that which purges sins and causes one to find mercy and eternal life. When you prayed with tears, and buried the dead, and left your dinner, and hid the dead by day in your house, and buried them by night, I offered your prayer to the Lord. And now the Lord has sent me to heal you."
5. It is well-pleasing to the Lord to depart from iniquity: and a prayer for sins is to depart from injustice. — This verse is the same in meaning and almost in words as verse 3, where I explained it. Whence the Greek texts, both Roman and Complutensian, have it only once, namely in this place. Therefore every penitent and just person departs (in Greek euaresteitai, that is, is placated, is pleased with himself, delights, and as it were grows beautiful, as the Syriac translates) from injustice, but especially the alms-giver: for he not only does not unjustly seize what belongs to others, but also justly, indeed liberally, distributes his own goods. Alms-giving therefore is the greatest withdrawal from injustice: wherefore this maxim applies to it more than to other virtues, especially because the discussion just preceding concerned it. For "prayer" the Greek has hilasmos, that is, propitiation, expiation, lustration, namely a piacular sacrifice, or propitiatory and expiatory sacrifice for sins. In the preceding verse he said that alms-giving is a sacrifice of toda, that is, of praise and thanksgiving: such as was the holocaust, which was offered and burned entirely for the praise of God. Again in verse 2 he said the same is a saving or peace sacrifice: here he asserts that it is also a sacrifice "for sin." Therefore alms-giving is a threefold, and thus every kind of sacrifice. For every sacrifice was either a holocaust, or a peace offering, or a sin offering. Whence the Zurich version translates clearly: To depart from wickedness is to appease God, and to have left injustice is a piacular sacrifice; the Syriac: The will of God is that you turn aside from everything that is evil, and restrain your patience from doing what is hateful. To this the Apostle alludes in Hebrews XIII, 16, saying: "Do not forget beneficence and sharing: for by such victims God is propitiated."
Second Part of the Chapter.
On the Dignity of Sacrifice, and the Conditions Required for It.
6 and 7. You shall not appear before the sight of the Lord empty-handed. For all these things are done on account of God's commandment. — Others translate, "are to be done"; the Zurich version: Do not come before the sight of the Lord empty; for all these things have been established because of the commandment; the Syriac: Do not appear before Him emptily; for everyone who does what is virtuous keeps the commandment. This is a rhetorical anticipation, as if to say: I have said that the sacrifice pleasing to God is the avoidance of sin and the practice of mercy; but, lest you should think and conclude from this that sacrifices properly so called are to be omitted, I add and say that no one ought to appear before God empty, but should bring the offerings and victims prescribed by the law. For all these things, although of themselves, or by the work performed (as in the new law the Eucharist and the Sacraments do), they do not expiate sins; nevertheless they are to be done on account of the Lord's commandment, who established them: first, so that the faithful might render to God the worship due to Him by sacrificing; second, so that through victims and prayers they might obtain the grace and gifts of God; third, so that they might represent the sacrifice of the cross of Christ, by which all sins are abolished and all grace from God is obtained. He cites the law of Exodus XXIII, 16. And Deuteronomy XVI, 16: "Three times a year, He says, every male of yours shall appear before the Lord your God, in the place that He shall choose: at the feast of unleavened bread (that is, Passover), at the feast of weeks (that is, Pentecost), and at the feast of tabernacles. He shall not appear before the Lord empty. But each one shall offer according to what he has (the Septuagint: according to the ability of his hands), according to the blessing of the Lord his God, which He has given him," according to that saying of Tobias
an admonition given to his son, chapter IV, verse 8: "According to your ability, be merciful. If you have much, give abundantly: if you have little, strive to give even a little willingly." For, as St. Ambrose says, in his book On Widows: "Liberality is measured not by the size of one's patrimony, but by the disposition of generosity." And St. Chrysostom, homily 10 on II Corinthians: "God does not define much and little by the measure of what is given, but by the capacity of the giver's resources." St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 43, reads: "You shall not appear before the sight of the Lord empty." And explaining and illustrating he adds: "But if you have anything beautiful, you will bring it with you," for to God, the most beautiful and excellent, the most beautiful and excellent things are to be given, as He Himself established in Numbers XVIII, 29: "Everything, He says, that you offer from the tithes, and that you set apart as gifts to the Lord, shall be the best and choicest."
The reason for this commandment is given by St. Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XXXIV: "You shall not appear, he says, empty before the sight of the Lord your God; so that in those things in which man has shown himself grateful, being reckoned grateful to Him, he may receive honor from Him who is from Him," as if to say: Therefore you shall appear before God not empty but bringing offerings, first, so that you may profess that you have received these and more things from God, and may give Him thanks; second, so that through these you may win God's grace for yourselves; third, so that through these you may obtain great honor. For God did not establish these for His own sake, as if He needed this honor and desired it, since He has infinite honor from the Holy Trinity, so that nothing of honor can be added to Him by angels, men, and other creatures that honor Him; but He did it for your sake, that He might bestow this honor upon you. For it is a great honor to be a priest of God, to sacrifice to God, to offer to God, and that the immense God deigns to accept these things from a mere man, and to hold them valid and pleasing. Fourth, God established these offerings so that from them the Levites and priests might be fed for ministering to God in the temple; for they had no other inheritance in Israel.
Whence morally St. Chrysostom, homily 67 to the People, at the end, and homily 1 on II Timothy, teaches from this passage that we ought not to enter the temple empty, but bringing alms to distribute to the poor, who for that reason stand and beg before the doors: "You shall not appear, he says, empty before the Lord: these things were said to the Jews—how much more to us? Therefore the poor are placed before the doors, so that no one may enter empty, but may go in with alms: if you enter to obtain mercy, first show mercy. He who comes later owes more; for when we have begun, the second gives more. Make God your debtor, and then ask Him; lend, and then call on God to repay, so that you may receive with interest. God wills this and does not refuse it. If you ask with alms, He gives thanks; if you demand repayment with alms, you lend and receive interest: thus I exhort you. It is not enough to be heard by stretching out your hands. Stretch out your hands not to heaven, but to the hands of the poor. If you stretch out your hand to the hands of the poor, you have touched the very summit of heaven: for He who sits there receives the alms; but if you hold out empty hands, you will accomplish nothing."
Mystically, Theodoret, on Exodus XXIII, Question LIII: He commands, he says, that the rich man give alms while he prays to God; but he who has chosen poverty should bring and offer a soul not empty of goods, but enriched with an abundance of virtues. Whence Gregory Nazianzen, oration 43, On the Dedication, teaches that we ought to celebrate the dedication in this way: that we appear before God not xeroi, that is, empty, but kainoi, that is, new: "But now, he says, appear in a different way as new, namely so that you are completely changed: the old things have passed away, behold all things are made new." Which Nicetas explains: "Appear new, he says, not according to the meaning of tou kenou, that is, of one who is empty and has nothing, but according to the other meaning of tou kainou, that is, of one who is new, and through the progress and growth of virtue renewed and utterly changed, either from vice to virtue, or from lesser virtue to greater." If therefore you empty your heart of the vain love of the world, and renew and fill it with the love of the one God, you will certainly fulfill this commandment.
Memorable is what we read in the Chronicles about St. Francis, that while he was speaking with God in prayer on Mount La Verna, lest he should appear before Him empty, he was commanded by God, appearing in a flame of fire, to make a threefold offering to Him. And when St. Francis replied: "Lord, I am entirely Yours, and I have nothing except a tunic, a cord, and undergarments, and these likewise are Yours;" God commanded him to put his hand into his bosom, and whatever he found there, to offer it to Him. When he had done so, he found in his bosom successively three great gold coins of the brightest luster, which he immediately offered to God, and soon understood that by this threefold offering were symbolized golden obedience, loftiest poverty, and most splendid chastity, which God had placed in his mind so that he might offer them to Him. Let us therefore learn from this, and put it into practice, that when we approach God in prayer, celebrating or hearing Mass, receiving communion, we do not approach empty; but let us offer Him some good resolution of conquering ourselves in whatever most hinders our progress, or of doing some heroic work, or at least let us offer God a heart empty of every earthly love, so that He Himself may fill it with His love. Some people after Holy Communion practice these two things with great fruit: first, they offer to God what they believe is most pleasing to Him, namely what they judge God most desires and seeks from them; second, in return they ask from Christ the Lord some grace or gift of which they are most in need. And so they lead Christ as a physician around through all the powers of their soul, and where they see the greater infirmity, they ask and beseech Him to deign to heal it. Wherefore at each Holy Communion they will obtain their own special grace, as we read happened to St. Catherine of Siena and others. This was the teaching and practice of Cardinal Bellarmine.
Anagogically, before the tribunal of Christ no one should appear empty of good works who wishes to be saved. Hear St. Gregory (and from him Rabanus), book VII on Job, chapter XIII, on that passage chapter VI, verse 18: They shall walk into emptiness, and shall perish. "They walk into emptiness indeed, he says, who carry nothing with them from the fruit of their labor. For one toils to acquire honors, another burns to multiply his wealth, another strains to earn praises; but because everyone abandons all these things when dying, he has lost his labors in vain, because he has carried nothing with him before the judge. Against which the law well says: You shall not appear before the sight of the Lord empty. For he who does not provide for himself the reward of life by doing good appears empty before the sight of the Lord. Whence of the just the Psalmist says:
But coming they shall come with exultation, bearing their sheaves. To the examination of judgment they come bearing sheaves, who show in themselves the upright works by which they purchase life. Whence of each elect person the Psalmist says again: He who has not received his soul in vain. For he receives his soul in vain who, thinking only of present things, does not attend to what follows in eternity. He receives his soul in vain who, neglecting the life of his soul, puts the care of the flesh before it: but the just do not receive their souls in vain, because with continual intention they direct whatever they do bodily to its benefit, so that even when the work passes away, the purpose of the work does not pass away, which prepares the rewards of life after this life. But the wicked neglect to care for these things, because indeed walking into emptiness, they flee from the life they pursue, and lose what they find."
8. The offering of the just fattens the altar, and it is a sweet fragrance in the sight of the Most High. — The Zurich version: The sacrifice of the just makes the altar fat, and its odor is sweet to God; the Syriac says otherwise: The offerings of the just, he says, the prayer of their mouth, and their works pierce through heaven. "The altar," that is, the victim of the altar, or that which is offered to God on the altar. It is a metonymy; for the container is put for the content, as if to say: Fleshly fat makes the victim fat, and consequently the altar on which the victim is offered and slaughtered, so that as something fat and excellent it may please both God and men, just as the fatter and better victims that Abel offered were pleasing, Genesis IV. But much more does justice and holiness, and thence the devotion of the one offering, "fatten" the victim, that is, make it rich and excellent, and therefore pleasing to God. For this is the internal and mystical fatness which spiritually fattens the victim and the sacrifice; so that as something rich and surpassing it may wonderfully please God and be most acceptable. To signify this, God commanded that in every sacrifice, including the peace offering and the sin offering, all the fat and richness of the victim be offered to Him and burned, as is clear from Leviticus III, 3, and chapter IV, 8. Whence the Psalmist, alluding to this, prays in Psalm XIX, 4: "May your holocaust be made fat," that is, may it be accepted by God as rich and excellent. It is a metalepsis, for "fat" is put for "pleasing and accepted": because fat victims, as being better ones, are accepted and pleasing to God and men, just as lean ones are displeasing, according to Psalm LXII, 6: "Let my soul be filled as with fat and richness, and my mouth shall praise with lips of exultation." The same do the three youths in the furnace of Babylon pray, immolating themselves to God through martyrdom: "As in the holocaust, they say, of rams and bulls, and as in thousands of fat lambs: so may our sacrifice be made today in Your sight, that it may please You," Daniel III, 40. For the fatness of devotion is better than the fatness of immolation.
Devotion, therefore, is like the fat of a victim, fattening it and making it most pleasing and delightful to God; for devout minds are God's delight. Moreover, St. Thomas examines, defines, and explains devotion—not the effeminate kind of tears, but true and manly devotion—from its deepest root, II II, Question LXXXII, article 1: "Devotion, he says, comes from 'devoting': whence those are called devout who in a certain way devote themselves to God, so as to subject themselves entirely to Him. For this reason even among the pagans of old those were called 'devoted' who devoted themselves to their idols in death for the safety of their army, as Titus Livius relates of the two Decii. Whence devotion seems to be nothing other than a certain readiness of will to give oneself to those things that pertain to the service of God. Whence in Exodus XXXV it is said that the multitude of the children of Israel offered the first-fruits to the Lord with a most ready and devout mind. It is clear, moreover, that the readiness of will to do what pertains to God's service is a certain special act: whence devotion is a special act of the will." The same, article 3, assigning the causes of devotion, teaches that its extrinsic cause is God, who breathes and inspires it into the mind, while its intrinsic cause is meditation. For, as St. Augustine says, book XIV of On the Trinity, chapter VIII, the will arises from understanding: "And therefore, says St. Thomas, it is necessary that meditation be the cause of devotion, inasmuch as through meditation a man conceives that he should give himself over to divine service, to which indeed a twofold consideration leads. One is from the side of the divine goodness and its benefits, according to Psalm LXII: It is good for me to cling to God: to place my hope in the Lord God. And this consideration excites love, which is the proximate cause of devotion. The other is from the side of man, considering his own defects, on account of which he needs to rely on God, according to Psalm CXX: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me. My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. And this consideration excludes presumption, by which a person is hindered from subjecting himself to God, while he relies on his own strength."
Moreover, St. Bernard, in his Sentences: "There are said to be four things, he says, which increase the grace of our devotion. The memory of sins, which renders a man humble in his own estimation. The recollection of punishments, which stirs him to do good. The consideration of our pilgrimage, which exhorts him that visible things ought to be despised. The desire for eternal life, which, inciting man to perfection, compels him by a change of will to be lifted above earthly affections." See the same author on the causes and signs of devotion and fervor, sermon 6 On the Ascension of the Lord. The same, sermon 18 on the Song of Songs, assigns prayer as the cause of devotion: "In praying, he says, one drinks the wine that gladdens the heart of man, the wine of the spirit, which intoxicates and pours in forgetfulness of carnal pleasures. It moistens the interior of a parched conscience, digests the food of good deeds and distributes it through certain members of the soul, strengthening faith, comforting hope, enlivening and ordering charity, and fattening the moral life."
And it is a sweet fragrance in the sight of the Most High. — Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Pedagogue, chapter XII, reads: "A sweet fragrance to God is the heart that glorifies Him." And he adds: "These are the crowns, and sacrifices, and spices, and flowers of God." He alludes to Genesis I, 9: "As a holocaust and sweet fragrance to the Lord," that is, as the Chaldean clearly translates: The offering of a holocaust is what is received with pleasure before the Lord. Whence for "sweet odor" or "odor of sweetness," the Hebrew is reach nichoach, that is, "an odor of rest," in which God sweetly rests and delights as in a sacrifice acceptable to Him. As the cause and symbol of this, frankincense was placed on every victim, and was burned and consumed with the victim, so that it might produce a sweet incense, which would smell sweetly in the nostrils of both men and of God (by anthropopathism), and would delight them, as is clear from Leviticus II, 2. For frankincense was a symbol of the mind elevated to God and ascending to God with this vapor of incense. Whence that saying of the Psalmist, Psalm CXL, 2: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in Your sight." Except the sin offering; for frankincense was not placed on it, to signify that sin does not smell well like frankincense, but most foully, and is abominable before God, as I showed at Leviticus V, 11. Whence of Noah sacrificing to God at the end of the flood, it is said in Genesis VIII, 21: "And the Lord smelled the sweet odor, and said: I will no longer curse the earth." Where St. Chrysostom says: "The virtue of the just Noah, he says, made the smoke and fumes of the victim a fragrant odor to God."
This is what Sirach teaches here, as if to say: The offering of the just man mystically fattens the victim, and therefore makes it fragrant, that is, sweet and pleasing to God, because in the nostrils of God justice, holiness, and devotion smell sweeter than all frankincense and incense.
Antistrophic to this maxim of Jesus Sirach is that of one of the Seventy Interpreters of Sacred Scripture, the twenty-seventh in number. Whence some think he was the same as our Jesus Sirach. For when Ptolemy Philadelphus proposed to him the question: "What is worthier than beauty?" he answered: "Piety; for it too is a certain surpassing beauty: and its power is charity, which indeed is a gift of God, which you also possess, embracing all good things in itself." So Aristeas, in his book On the Seventy Interpreters.
9. The sacrifice of the just is accepted, and the Lord will not forget its memorial (not of the just man, but of the sacrifice; for in Greek it is autēs, namely thysias, that is, of the sacrifice), — as if to say: The sacrifice of the just so pleases God that no forgetfulness of it will ever seize Him, but He will preserve its perpetual memory for worthily rewarding it; for the offerings of that time were not accepted by God except from the faith and devotion of the offerers, says Lyranus; the Zurich version: The sacrifice of the just is commendable, and its memory will be abolished by no forgetfulness. He alludes to Leviticus II, 2 and 9. For here as there the same Greek word is used: mnēmosynon, that is, memorial, which our translator renders "memory": "He shall place, he says, its memorial upon the altar." See what I said there. The Syriac: The gift of a good man will be accepted, and the memory of the just will not be consigned to oblivion forever.
10. With a good spirit render glory to God, and do not diminish the first-fruits of your hands. — "With a good," that is, cheerful, devout, and joyful spirit render glory "to God." The Greek is doxason, that is, glorify the Lord, namely through the offerings prescribed by law for glorifying God, and therefore be generous and liberal toward God, "and do not diminish the first-fruits," by withholding them, or offering inferior ones, but rather increase them and offer better ones to God. Whence the Zurich version: Honor the Lord with a kind and generous eye, and do not diminish the first-fruits of your hands (that is, acquired by the labor of your hands, or which you give by your hand, says Vatablus). It was established by law that the Jews should dedicate the first-fruits of all things to God, so that through them all their goods might be considered offered and dedicated to God, Exodus XXIII, 16 and 19. He commands therefore that they not be given reluctantly, nor diminished avariciously and meanly, but offered whole with a cheerful, generous, and liberal spirit. Moreover, the Syriac translates: With a good eye give to the poor, and do not be troubled about your gifts.
Morally, learn here how pleasing religion and the worship of God are to Him, and therefore how dear and important they ought to be to us, especially because even the pagans knew this by the light and impulse of nature, and practiced it with great zeal. For no nation so barbarous existed, says Cicero, in his book On the Nature of the Gods, that by the guidance of natural reason did not recognize and worship some divine power. The same is demonstrated at length by St. Augustine, book I of The City of God, chapter XXXIV; Rhodiginus, book XXIII, chapter 1; Justin, book XXVIII; Halicarnassus, book II. The Romans excelled in this matter, who put the worship of the gods before all public and private affairs, and before all else inquired by what means they could increase their worship. "They considered it more important, says Plutarch in his Life of Marcellus, for the public welfare that the magistrates should receive the gods than that they should conquer enemies." Hence Romulus before all things established those things which pertain to divine worship. Thence, as if from a happy and holy beginning given to affairs, he proceeded to order the republic. So Halicarnassus, book II. Romulus was surpassed in the arrangement of sacred rites by his successor Numa Pompilius. Aristotle teaches the same should be done, book V of the Politics, chapter XI.
The a priori reason is that God is the supreme and immense majesty, full of all holiness, wisdom, power, clemency, justice, and every virtue and perfection; to Him therefore all honor and glory are due. Again, God is the principle, cause, and end of all harvests and all things; to Him therefore the first-fruits of all things are owed. Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration On the Nativity, thus describes God: "He embraces and contains in Himself all being, never begun, never to end, as a certain infinite and boundless ocean of being." The same in his Poems:
In You all things abide, to You all things hasten together,
You are the end of all, You alone, both all things and nothing of things.
Because God is not any created thing, but transcends all things immeasurably:
Since You are neither mind nor all things, what shall I call You,
Who alone are unnameable and all-nameable?
And St. Dionysius, in his book On the Divine Names, chapter V: "God, he says, is not a being in any ordinary way, but is prior to being," because before creatures existed in themselves, they already existed in God. And below: "In which (divine unity) all things are uniquely conjoined, super-united and pre-existing super-essentially." And chapter IV: "In Him is every exemplary principle, final, efficient, formal, elemental, and simply every principle, every connection, every terminus." Whence the Apostle exclaims, Romans XI, 33: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways! etc. For from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things: to Him be glory forever. Amen."
Rightly therefore did Simeon surnamed the Just, who flourished in the last period of the Synagogue, declare: "This world is sustained by the help and firmness of three things: divine worship, the law, and mercy." For God is the foundation and center of the world, and we win His favor by worshipping Him devoutly. So it is recorded in Pirke Avoth, that is, in the Chapters or Proverbs of the Hebrew Fathers, chapter 1.
11. In every gift make your face cheerful (in Greek hilarōson, that is, make cheerful; as the Complutensian translates), and with exultation sanctify your tithes. — "With," that is, "with exultation," joy and jubilation of spirit, "sanctify," that is, offer, dedicate, and consecrate to God, and as it were make holy and sacred for Him, "your tithes," for what is offered to God, that is, to the most sacred and most holy divine majesty, by that very act becomes sacred and holy. So frequently in Leviticus "sanctify" is taken to mean "consecrate." Whence Christ too says: "I sanctify (that is, consecrate as a victim and immolate on the cross) Myself for them," John XVII, 19. The Syriac translates: In all gifts let your face be cheerful, and with joy lend to him who does not repay you.
Second, Jansenius explains it thus, as if to say: Through exultation and joy make the tithes that you pay holy and pleasing to God. For cheerfulness of spirit adds much to virtue and holiness, as well as to the offering. For this makes the work more beautiful, more intense, better, and more perfect, and seasoned as it were with the sugar of cheerfulness. Whence "God loves a cheerful giver," Proverbs XXII, 8, according to the Septuagint, which words Paul cites, II Corinthians IX, 7, while exhorting the Corinthians to alms-giving: "Not from sadness, he says, or from necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver." For, as St. Augustine says on Psalm XLII: "Alms-giving is often done by those who are sad and grumbling, so that they may be rid of the annoyance of the one asking, not to refresh the bowels of the needy. But God loves a cheerful giver; and if you have given bread sadly, you have lost both the bread and the merit. Therefore do it from the heart,
so that He who sees within, while you are still speaking, may say: Behold, I am here." I said more about this cheerfulness in giving at II Corinthians IX, 7. For cheerfulness is a sign of a good and devout will, says Lyranus, and thus it is itself the beauty and flower of virtue; for a work of mercy, obedience, patience, humility, etc., done cheerfully is far more beautiful than one done with a sad and gloomy spirit, and therefore sluggishly and torpidly. Whence the widow cheerfully offering two small coins was judged by Christ to have offered more than all the others who offered more, Luke XXI, 4.
Mystically, Rabanus says: the first-fruits, that is, the beginning of works, and the tithes, that is, the completion of the same, are to be offered to God; for the number ten signifies perfection and completion, because the count increases up to ten, and there, as it were ending, returns to the beginning; for ten and one make eleven, ten and two make twelve, and so on for the rest. And thus, says Rabanus, just as in the first-fruits we are commanded to refer the beginnings of our wills to the Lord, so in the tithes we are to refer the completions of our works, from whom both the beginning of good work and the achievement of perfection are given.
The pagans imitated this same practice, who just as they cheerfully celebrated their Floralia, Vinalia, Bacchanalia, and Saturnalia with victims and offerings, so too they celebrated the Hilaria. Hear Macrobius, book I of the Saturnalia, chapter XXVI: "The beginning of joy is celebrated on the eighth before the Calends of April (that is, on March 25), at which time the sun first extends the day longer than the night." In ancient times, therefore, the vernal equinox fell on March 25; whence many believe that the world was first created by God on the same day, just as it was recreated and renewed on the same day, when, at the angel's announcement, the Blessed Virgin conceived the Son of God and the Word was made flesh, and on the same day, 34 years later, the world was redeemed by Christ. For the opinion of the more learned is that Christ was crucified and died on March 25. Rightly therefore on that day, for so many reasons, do not only pagans but also Christians celebrate the Hilaria.
Moreover, because our prayers and works are poor and cheap, and not even in the slightest part equal and worthy of the divine majesty, God has given us Christ, equal to Himself, so that we may offer Him in the sacrifice of the Eucharist as a victim worthy of and equal to God. Again, He willed that through Christ we should offer all things to Him. Hence the practice for making our works, which in themselves are small and lowly, most excellent and most acceptable to God, is to unite and insert them into the actions, merits, and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and to offer them united with His to God; therefore, because of this union and conjunction, He esteems them more highly and more willingly accepts them on account of the infinite love He bears toward His Son. Moreover, our actions become not only more pleasing to God, but also more meritorious, on account of the infinite merits of our Lord which, by the power of this union and offering made to Him, are abundantly communicated to them. For this reason St. Paul urges us to this practice, saying: "Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ," Colossians III, 17. Louis of Blois, Abbot of Liessies, a great master of spiritual things, in his Spiritual Instruction, chapter IX, exhorts all who desire to make spiritual profit to this practice, saying: "He who devotes himself to piety and devotion should accustom himself to direct all his works to the honor of God by a holy intention; he should accustom himself to join and unite both what he does and what he suffers with the works and sufferings of Christ through prayer or desire."
And in his Spiritual Mirror he speaks thus: "If you join and unite your good works and exercises with the acts and exercises of Christ, and thus offer them to God for eternal praise: this offering will certainly be most pleasing to the Lord Himself, and your works will receive an ineffable splendor and dignity from the acts of Christ with which they are united; your lead, so to speak, will be changed into the finest gold, and your water into the most excellent wine." The reason is that your works, which of themselves are cheap, obscure, and imperfect, become most illustrious and acceptable to God through this union, because they receive from the merits of Christ a singular and extraordinary goodness, just as a drop of water poured into a barrel full of wine takes on the excellent taste and color of the wine. To the former passages he adds this in the Spiritual Instruction: "The good works of one who piously observes this incomparably excel the good works of one who does not observe it." And again at the end of this chapter: "All these things, he says, the Lord has deigned to reveal to His most intimate friends, so that by this means we may make our works most noble, relieve our poverty from the inexhaustible treasure of Christ's merits, and adorn our souls with those same merits of Christ; so that by this means we may most easily make satisfaction for our sins." By which words he clearly demonstrates to us the great benefits that flow to us from this exercise.
Cyril enlivens this maxim with a notable fable of the eagle and the phoenix, and adorns it with skillful moral lessons, in book III of the Moral Apology, chapter XXV: "The eagle, looking down from on high upon things below, surveying the ground with watchful gaze in search of prey, when it saw the phoenix burning itself in a fire of its own making, suddenly descended to it and said: Do you not suffer pain in the burning? But the phoenix replied: But do you not rejoice in the hunt? Then the eagle: Indeed I do. To which the phoenix added: Certainly, just as you, full of desire, delight in capturing prey, so the phoenix delights in the generous giving of its substance. For the joy in the display of generosity is no less than in the plundering of cupidity. For every act of virtue is followed by an outpouring of delight. For this reason, dearest, I do not suffer in this fire, but take delight; because in the generation of another I pour out my whole self as delightfully as generously." Finally, he demonstrates the same point with the example of the viper, the marrow, the heart, and the stomach: "Have you never considered with what an impulse of delight the viper pours itself out generously in generation, so that it does not even feel the bitterness of death's bite? Surely nature communicates all its benefits generously, not without great delight. Thus it generously bestows the life-giving generative marrow with sweetness, and the heart pours itself out with joy, and when the stomach has consumed the digested chyme, it takes delight. For every generous giving is accompanied by gladness of heart. Because its pouring out is to increase its strength."
12. Give to the Most High according to what He has given you (that is, according to what He has given you, according to the wealth received from God, so that if you have received much, you may offer much to God; if little, then little), and with a good eye make the offering of your hands. — So the Roman edition, as if to say: With a "good," that is, cheerful, "eye" and face make your offering according to what your hand finds, that is, as you are able, and according to your means. Thus "to make" is often taken for "to offer" and "to sacrifice" in Leviticus and elsewhere. Indeed even in the Poet: When I shall make (that is, sacrifice) with a heifer for the harvest, come yourself.
Whence Jansenius reads by diastole kat' ōrēma, that is, "according to finding," as if to say: Make according to, that is, according to what your hands find, or according to what you have acquired by your hands. The Zurich version translates vigorously: Give gifts to the Most High according to His munificence (as if to say: Be munificent toward God who is so munificent toward you, and be as generous toward Him as He is toward you), and with a kind eye give what is at hand. The Syriac clearly says: Give to God as He has given to you, with a good eye (that is, cheerfully), and with a large hand (that is, generously and liberally): for he who gives to the poor lends to God; for who is the repayer but He Himself?
13. For the Lord is one who repays, and He will give back to you sevenfold (in Greek heptaplasia, that is, seven times). — The Zurich version: For the Lord is a recompenser who will repay you seven times as much; the Syriac: For God is a rewarder, and thousands of thousands He Himself will repay you. He gives a double reason and incentive for a cheerful and generous offering, as if to say: Offer your goods cheerfully and generously to God, first, because He Himself is your Lord and Lord of all, who gave you all your goods, and again demands the same back from you by His right. Second, because He Himself, being most generous, will not let Himself be conquered by you in generosity; but if you are generous toward Him, He in turn will be far more generous toward you, and for one thing you offer Him, He will repay you "sevenfold," that is, in manifold measure. For the number seven is a symbol of multitude, fullness, and totality, as Rabanus shows at length here. Offerings therefore of first-fruits, tithes, victims, etc., enrich the one who offers them; while neglect of them impoverishes the negligent. Whence, following Sirach, Rabbi Akiba says in Pirke Avoth, that is, in the Apophthegms of the Fathers: "Tradition, he says, is the bulwark of the law, just as tithes are the bulwark of riches, vows of abstinence are the bulwark of abstinence, and silence is the bulwark of wisdom." Tithes therefore defend riches, just as silence defends wisdom, and the vow of abstaining defends abstinence.
Symbolically and mystically, Rabanus says: "He gives to the Most High according to what He has given, he says, who, mindful of his benefits, first offers himself to God by right believing and good works; because from Him he has what he substantially is; for from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things. Then let him spend whatever he possesses of his gifts outside himself entirely for His praise with a good intention. For this is what he says: And with a good eye make the offering of your hands; for the Lord (he says) will repay sevenfold; that is, He will give back a perfect recompense. For the number seven, on account of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are demonstrated in it, is perfect." And below, anagogically: "In the sevenfold number the perfection of eternity is signified, when the seventh day is called sanctified for the Lord's rest, since evening is no longer said to be present in it, because the rest of eternal beatitude is confined by no limit. Hence also it is that, when the law was given, the seventh day is commanded to be a holiday, so that eternal rest might be designated by it;
because through the sevenfold number the totality of the present life is designated. This is shown even more when the number eight is added after it. When another number follows the seven, it is expressed by its very argument that the times destined to end are concluded by eternity. It is written: Give portions to seven, and also to eight. By the sevenfold number he expressed the present time, which unfolds over seven days; by the eightfold number he designated perpetual life, which the Lord revealed to us by His resurrection, when He rose on the Lord's Day, which, since it follows the seventh day, that is, the Sabbath, is found to be the eighth from the creation."
Note here eight conditions that God requires for an offering, sacrifice, vow, and any gift, so that it may please Him. The first is at verse 8: that it be offered in justice, that is, by a just and holy person. For such a one is a friend of God, indeed a son, whereas a sinner is God's enemy; and the gifts of enemies are not gifts. The second is at verse 10: that it be offered with a good spirit, that is, sincere, joyful, pious, and devout, for glorifying Him. The third, in the same place: that the gift be whole, not cut, not diminished. The fourth, at verse 11: that it be offered with a cheerful, indeed exultant spirit. The fifth, at verse 12: that it be excellent and outstanding, because it is offered to the Most High. The sixth, in the same place: that it be generous and liberal, as much namely as one's strength and resources permit, according to that saying: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength," Deuteronomy VI, 5. Christ adds: "With all your powers, and with all your mind," Luke X, 27. The seventh, in the following verse: that the gift not be corrupt, that is, defective, maimed, distorted, spoiled; but incorrupt and perfect. The eighth: that the gift not be unjust, but justly acquired, verse 15.
Third Part of the Chapter.
In Which He Teaches That God Looks Upon the Prayers Not of Those Who Inflict, but of Those Who Suffer Injuries, Namely the Poor and the Humble, and Avenges Them.
14. Do not offer corrupt gifts, for He will not accept them. — In Greek it is mē dōrokopei, which the Complutensian translates: Do not diminish from the gift; the Roman: Do not reduce the offering; the Zurich version: Do not offer gifts acquired by sordid means; Jansenius: Do not curtail the gifts, that is, so that through avarice you scrape away something from what is to be given to God and keep it for yourself; others: Do not offer gifts from which something has been taken away; literally: Do not cut short the gift. All of these come to the same thing, namely he forbids offering gifts that according to the law are not whole, but which are lacking in something, which have some defect, which our translator calls "corrupt," that is, defective and spoiled, such as animals, namely oxen and sheep that are blind, lame, broken, maimed, ruptured, or scabby, such as are forbidden to be offered, Leviticus chapter XXII, verse 22 and following; Deuteronomy XV, 21, and Malachi I, 8.
But the Syriac translates: Do not delay; for it is not accepted. He therefore takes this as referring to the precision of time, as if forbidding that a gift or sacrifice commanded to be offered on the Sabbath be offered on Tuesday or Wednesday. From what has been said, it is clear that our translator translated dōrokopei most aptly, especially because in II Maccabees I, it is used in this sense, when it says, dedōrokopēmenoi eis mēchanēn tēs ekphygēs, that is, corrupted by gifts for the purpose of contriving an escape. Whence the Greek lexicons say that dōrokopein means to offer corrupt gifts. Similarly koptokerma are said to be grain and seeds when they are spoiled, especially when harmful and injurious creatures are born in them, as is clear from Theophrastus, book VIII of the History of Plants, chapter V, and On the Causes of Plants, book IV, the last chapter.
15. And do not look upon an unjust sacrifice, for the Lord is the judge, and there is no regard for the glory of persons with Him. — In Greek it is mē epiblepe thysia adikō, that is, do not direct or attend to an unjust sacrifice, so as to place your hope in it and think that because of it you will be pleasing to God. Whence the Syriac translates: Do not trust in offerings; for the Lord renders judgment, and there is no partiality before Him; the Zurich version: Nor should you establish an unjust sacrifice; for the Lord is the judge, and the magnificence of a person has no power with Him. For the Greek doxa signifies glory, dignity, magnificence, as well as opinion, esteem, name, fame, and celebrity. Some great and powerful men think that, even if they oppress and plunder others, they will win God's favor for themselves if they offer magnificent gifts to Him from their plunder, as if God were swayed by gifts, as men are swayed, according to that saying of Ovid: Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and gods: Jupiter himself is appeased by gifts given. Sirach here refutes their error: because God, he says, is a just judge, and does not care for the dignity or glory of a person, or of his gifts. For He Himself is most magnificent; whence under Him all magnificent things, and all magnates and the magnificent, are small, and smaller than fleas and gnats; therefore by their gifts, however magnificent, He will not be appeased so as to favor them and help and prosper them in the oppression of the poor. Whence, explaining this more clearly, he adds: "The Lord will not show partiality against the poor man."
An illustrious example of this is recorded by St. Gregory, book III of the Dialogues, chapter XXVI: "In Samnium, he says, the venerable man Menas led a solitary life. His zeal was to have nothing in this world, to seek nothing, and to kindle all who came to him for the sake of charity with desires for eternal life. If he ever recognized anyone's faults, he never spared reproof, but, kindled by the fire of love, he strove to castigate them severely with his tongue. Fearing this, Carrerius, who had carried off a consecrated virgin and joined her to himself in an illicit marriage, made his offerings and sent them among the offerings of others. When the man of God recognized them through the spirit, he spurned and rejected them, saying: Go and tell him: You have stolen his offering from the Almighty Lord, and you send me your offerings? I do not accept your offering, because you have stolen His from God."
16. The Lord will not show partiality against the poor man, and He will hear the prayer of the injured. — As if to say: God will not accept the person of the rich and powerful "against" the "poor man," that is, the person who injures and oppresses the poor, but rather He will "hear" the "prayer" of the injured "poor man" (in Greek adikoumenou, that is, of one who has been wronged), so as to be his avenger and defender, and to punish severely the rich and powerful man who has unjustly afflicted and injured the poor. Whence the Zurich version: He has no regard for persons against the poor, but hears the prayer of the one who has suffered injury; the Syriac: There is no partiality before Him. The prayer of the poor man enters before Him, and He hears the supplication of those who deserve (to be heard).
Rabanus says beautifully: "Before the supreme judge, he says, it is not the size of the gift nor the person of the powerful that is weighed, but the depth of devotion and the humility of heart. Therefore he exhorts us not to offer gifts to God from unjust profit, but from just labor. Because the Lord is a just judge, He neither accepts the person of the rich nor despises the person of the poor."
God therefore hears the curses and imprecations of the poor, because He is the protector of the oppressed poor and the avenger of the rich who oppress them. And although the poor sometimes utter those curses from anger and impatience, nevertheless because they ask for a just thing, God hears them and sends curses upon their oppressors. A rare but well-known example throughout all Holland is that of Margaret, Countess of Holland, which is recorded by Gaufredus, monk of Villers, in his letter to St. Ida, by Meyer in the Annals of Flanders, and by Adrian Junius in his Batavia, chapter XX, near the end. For a poor woman who had given birth to and was nursing twins, asking for alms from the Countess, was rejected by her with insult. For the Countess said that the woman had conceived her uncertain offspring from adultery: for it was not possible that two children should be born from one husband. The woman, calling God as witness to her chastity, said: "If I am chaste and not an adulteress (as I am), I pray that you may bear as many children as there are days in the year." God heard her prayer and fulfilled it in reality. There survives at Loosduinen, near The Hague, a tablet with this inscription of the event: "Margaret, daughter of Florentius, Count of Holland, in the year of salvation 1276, in the 42nd year of her age, on Good Friday itself, at the ninth hour before noon, gave birth to living infants of mixed sex numbering 364, who, after they had received the sacrament of baptism in a certain basin from the venerable Bishop Guido, Suffragan, in the presence of certain nobles and magnates, and the males had received the name John and the females the name Elizabeth,
17. He will not despise the prayers of the orphan, nor the widow, if she pours out the speech of her groaning. — To this belongs the fable and example of Aesop, the prince of fabulists.
For Aesop, because of his biting fables by which he attacked the vices of men, was seized for an unjust death, and told the fable of the beetle: who, having suffered an injury from the eagle, inserted itself into the eagle's wings and flew with it to its nest, and there broke its eggs. Then, when the eagle had placed its eggs in the bosom of Jupiter as if in a sanctuary, begging the god to guard them, the beetle made a little ball from dung, ascended, and dropped it into Jupiter's lap. Jupiter, rising to shake off the dung, also threw out the eggs, having forgotten them, which were crushed when they fell: "Therefore, you men of Delphi, said Aesop, do not despise this god to whom I have fled as a refugee; for he will not neglect the impious." But the Delphians, caring little for these words, proceeded to put him to death directly. Wherefore Aesop, telling other similar fables, said: "I curse your country, and call the gods to witness that I perish contrary to all justice, and they will hear my prayer and avenge me." They therefore threw him headlong from a cliff, and he died. Not long afterward, however, suffering from a plague, they received an oracle that the death of Aesop must be expiated. To which end, since they were conscious that they had unjustly killed him, they also erected a monument. But the leading men of Greece, and all the most learned, when they too had learned what had been done to Aesop, went to Delphi, and having conducted an inquiry with the Delphians, themselves became avengers of Aesop's death. So Planudes in his Life of Aesop, near the end.
18. Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek, and is not her cry against the one who causes them? — namely against him who unjustly injures her and draws forth her tears, as if to say: Orphans and widows, being as it were forsaken, abandoned, and exposed to the injuries of all, are customarily unjustly harassed, robbed, and oppressed by the powerful. Wherefore, since they have no other refuge, they flee to God and cry out, that He may avert and avenge their injuries. But God, who takes up the defense of the abandoned, according to that saying: "To You the poor man is left; You will be a helper to the orphan," Psalm (Hebrew) X, 14, does not spurn their prayers, but looks upon them and hears their speech poured out with groaning, sighs, and tears. And although their tears fall to the ground, their cry nevertheless ascends to heaven and wrests vengeance from God. The corrected Roman Greek does not have tou ("his/her"), but simply "cry," as if to say: The tears of the widow, even if she herself is silent, by their own force cry out to heaven and demand vengeance from God against him who provokes them.
The Zurich version: He will by no means neglect the supplication of the orphan, nor the widow pouring forth prayers: when the tears of the widow flow down her cheek, does she not invoke help against the one who causes them? The Syriac: He does not abandon the groaning of orphans, and He hears the prayer of widows; the bitterness of the soul of the poor He Himself hears. Hence God is called "father of orphans and judge of widows," Psalm LXVII, 6.
Finally, this is the just law of retaliation, which God established, Exodus XXII, 22: "You shall not harm, He says, the widow and the orphan. If you injure them, they will cry out to Me, and I will hear their cry: and My fury will be enraged, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your sons orphans."
19. For from the cheek they ascend up to heaven, and the Lord who hears will not be pleased with them. — This verse is now missing in the Greek and Syriac, because it is an explanation of the preceding verse, and merely its clearer statement. The Zurich version indeed reads: From the cheek they overflow even to heaven, and the Lord gladly hears them. Now the Roman edition and Rabanus read "will not be pleased with them," as if to say: God, seeing the tears of the widow, is so far from being pleased with them that He is most gravely offended, indignant, and inflamed against those who by their injustice draw them forth. It is a litotes: for little is said, and more is meant. Others read "will be pleased" affirmatively, as if to say: God will be pleased with the tears and prayers of the widow, and will hear them, so as to protect, defend, and avenge her against her oppressors.
Again, our Pineda, on chapter IV of Ecclesiastes, verse 1, explains it thus: "For from the cheek they ascend to heaven;" where, like vapors that are raised from the earth, they seem to condense into clouds and rain: "And the Lord who hears will not be pleased with them," that is, when the oppression and calumny of the widow has greatly displeased Him, from her tears and cries He creates a rain packed with punishments, thunder, lightning, and hail, which He hurls in indignation upon the impious and their oppressors.
On this subject there is a notable emblem in Alciato of the fight between the beetle and the eagle, teaching that the poor and the small are not injured with impunity by the great, nor should they be despised, and they can avenge their injury. Hear it:
The beetle wages war and provokes the enemy without being provoked,
And though inferior in strength, prevails by strategy.
For it hides itself secretly in the feathers of the eagle, unrecognized,
So that the eagle seeks its nest through the highest stars.
And digging into the eggs, it prevents the hope of offspring from growing:
And in this way it departs having avenged the disgrace inflicted upon it.
20. He who worships God with delight will be accepted, and his prayer will draw near to the clouds. — For "who worships God," the Greek is ho therapeuōn, that is, a worshiper of God. Whence the first Christians are called therapeutai, that is, worshipers, by Philo in Eusebius, book II of the History, chapter XVII. And the first monks are called by Philo and St. Basil therapeutai, that is, worshipers and ministers or servants of God, because they devoted themselves entirely to His service; the same are called askētai, that is, exercisers, namely in every virtue and the arduous life; and therapeutrides kai askētriai, that is, female servants and exercisers, are the name given to virgins serving God in virginity: for therapeuō means the same as "I serve, I worship, I deserve well of": and therapeia is worship, observance, obedience. Aristotle, moreover, or whoever is the author of the book On the World, says: therapeia is the worship of heroes, as thysia is of the gods.
Now "with delight"—the Roman editions join it with what follows and separate it from "will be accepted," connecting it with "who worships God," as if to say: "He who worships God with delight" (in Greek en eudokia, that is, with good will, a willing, cheerful, and joyful spirit), he will be "accepted" by Him. Others, however, connect it with "will be accepted." Whence the Zurich version translates: The religious person will be received with good will, and his prayer will reach the clouds; others: The worshiper of God will be kindly received, and his prayer will reach even to the clouds.
Morally, learn how efficacious are the prayers of Religious, and how easily and willingly they are heard by God, so that from earth they ascend above the clouds, open heaven, reach the throne of God, and move God Himself. St. James teaches this by the example of Elijah, who by his prayer now closed, now opened heaven, Epistle chapter V, verse 17, and St. Chrysostom, homily 41 on Genesis and homily 1 on 1 Thessalonians.
Thus Moses by his prayer resisted the wrath of God and as it were compelled Him to spare the whole people, Exodus XXXII, 32 and following.
Thus Samuel by praying protected all Israel from the Philistines, 1 Kings VII, 10, and Lot protected the city of Segor, Genesis XIX, 22. Thus Job obtained pardon for his friends, chapter XLII, verse 8.
Thus Daniel by praying, chapter IX, obtained the liberation of the Jews from Babylon. Thus David protected Jerusalem against the Assyrians, IV Kings XIX, 34.
Finally, "who would doubt that the world stands by the prayers of the Saints?" says Rufinus, Preface to the Lives of the Fathers. So today Religious men and women by their prayers preserve cities that would otherwise be overthrown by God on account of their sins, like Sodom. They therefore are the foundations and pillars of the commonwealth, whom accordingly secular people should venerate, seek out, and support. See Father Platus, book I, On the Good of the Religious State, chapter XXXV.
21. The prayer of him who humbles himself will penetrate the clouds: and until it draws near he will not be consoled: and he will not depart until the Most High looks upon him. — As if to say: Wondrous is the power of the humble and of humility: for while the one praying humbles himself before God and descends into the abyss of his own worthlessness, then his prayer ascends even to the clouds, indeed penetrates and transcends them: nor is it content until it "draws near" to the throne of God; he "will not be consoled," that is, as others translate, he will not admit consolation; the corrected Roman Greek reads, will not be called back, that is, he will not rest, nor will he cease to pray and cry out until he reaches God: and finally he "will not depart" from God "until the Most High looks upon him" and grants what he asks. There is metalepsis in the word "looks upon" and "will not be consoled." For the afflicted, while praying and not receiving consolation, do not cease to pray and cry out until they obtain it: hence not to be consoled means the same as not to cease. Because therefore the humble person casts himself down even to the ground and the soil (whence "humble" is said to be as it were "inclined to the ground" [humus], says Isidore, book X of the Etymologies), hence his prayer deserves to be raised from the ground to heaven, indeed to the throne of God, and to obtain from Him what it asks.
For "humble" the Greek is tapeinos, which corresponds to the Hebrew ani, and signifies both poor and afflicted as well as humble and meek. Whence the Zurich version translates: The prayer of the afflicted penetrates the clouds; it does not rest nor desist until it has reached the Most High, who will take care of him, judge justly, and execute judgment; the Syriac: The prayer of the poor ascends above the clouds, or bends the clouds; and it enters before the Lord of majesty. It does not pass until He inquires about it and judges a true judgment.
St. Bernard, sermon 4 On Lent, reads "just" instead of "humble": "The prayer of the just man, says Scripture, penetrates the heavens. But what is justice except that which renders to each what is his own? Do not therefore attend only to God, for you are also a debtor to your superiors and to your brothers; nor does God wish you to make light of those whom He Himself by no means makes light of." The same, sermon 3 On the Epiphany: "The prayer of the just man penetrates the heavens. For he who turns away his ear so as not to hear the law, his prayer will be execrable. Moreover, if you wish to be just and not to turn your ear from the commandments of the Lord, lest He too turn His from your prayers, it is necessary not only to despise the present world, but also to chastise the flesh itself and subject it to servitude. For He who said: Unless a man renounces all that he possesses, he cannot be My disciple, Luke XIV, 33, the same says in another place, chapter IX, verse 23: He who wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me." Moreover, Sirach suggests various reasons for his saying. The first is that humility is so pleasing to God that it deserves to be heard. Again, the affliction of one who is humble, abandoned by all, and therefore placing all his hopes in God, so strikes the eyes of God as to wrest from Him what he asks, according to that saying: "I have loved, because He inclined His ear to me," Psalm CXIV. On which verse St. Ambrose, in his oration
On the Death of Theodosius, says thus: "He inclines Himself to us, so that our prayer may ascend to God." And St. Jerome: "Because, he says, we are small and humble, and cannot extend and exalt ourselves: therefore the Lord has inclined His ear and deigns to hear us." And St. Augustine: "Because hope is accustomed to kindle love, he says that he has loved, because he hoped that God would hear the voice of his prayer. An incomparable indeed is the prerogative of prayer, that God Almighty, on the throne of His glory, surrounded on all sides by thousands of Angels, should suddenly let Himself down from His throne and incline His ear to receive a prayer ascending from earth." And St. Chrysostom on that verse, Psalm IX, 13: He has not forgotten the cry of the poor: "The vehicle of prayer, he says, is humility."
The second reason is that the humble and afflicted are accustomed to persevere in prayer and not to cease from it until they obtain a remedy for their affliction: for perseverance is the sinew of prayer, and obtains whatever it so assiduously requests.
The third reason is that the prayer of the humble is slender and subtle, whence by the subtlety of its heart it penetrates all things. So St. Paulinus, epistle 19 to Severus, where subtly and
devoutly explains this maxim of Sirach, and applies it to the Publican of the Gospel, alluding to that saying of Christ, Matthew XIX, 24: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven: "The Publican, he says, accusing himself before God with a contrite heart, and beating his afflicted breast with repeated blows, and not daring to raise his eyes, cast down by the shame of his conscience, to heaven, by that iniquity of vices rivaling the hump of a camel, so compressed himself into due humility and straightened himself by the leveling of a repenting soul, that he inserted himself as the penetrator of the divine ears into the eye of the needle, that is, the way of the Word or of the Cross, which leads by a narrow path to life. For, he says, the prayer of him who humbles himself penetrates the clouds, whereas that Pharisee, rich in the spirit of his own boasting, who by the imputation of works that were owed—since he was a debtor under the law to perform them—yet as if he had done voluntary works beyond the debt, a herald of himself, an accuser of another, who would rather challenge God than beseech Him, could not enter, because the narrow way does not receive those who are overloaded. Nor could the wide boasting be received where the narrow humility had gathered itself, and the narrowness narrower than a contrite heart's
slenderness had penetrated." He then takes the needle as the cross of Christ: "By which our death is pierced, and we ourselves are sewn to God, through which humiliated iniquity enters the heart more easily than proud justice." Humility therefore gives wings to prayer, and prayer without the wings of humility cannot be lifted on high.
The fourth reason is that the prayer of the humble is like an arrow, which, shot from a bow powerfully drawn downward, strikes the target more keenly. For the more the one praying humbles himself and as it were pulls the string of his bow downward, the higher he most powerfully sends the arrow of his prayer, not only to the clouds but even to God Himself: which arrow therefore, like the arrow of a strong man, as Jeremiah says, chapter L, 6, will not return empty: a type of this was the arrow of Jonathan, of which it is said, II Kings I, 22: "The arrow of Jonathan never turned back." Thus Christ, because on the bow of the cross He was stretched downward to the utmost and humiliated; hence with His eyes directed toward heaven, pleading for us, He sent forth the most powerful weapon of supplication, with which He most certainly struck God, according to that saying in Hebrews V, 7: "Who in the days of His flesh, offering prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save Him from death, with a loud cry and tears, was heard because of His reverence." So too Tobias, praying with tears, was heard, Tobit XII, 12. Truly therefore did St. Chrysostom say, homily 41 to the People: "Prayer is a great armor:" because it disarms not only heaven, but God Himself, however angry and armed, and storms the citadel of divine justice.
It is a personification. For the prayer of the humble and afflicted is introduced here as if it were a person who, having suffered violence on earth and wounded by grief, flees and climbs the clouds and passes through them, and does not cease until it penetrates to the tribunal of God the judge, and there sets forth its just complaints and obtains vengeance for its injuries, just as that widow penetrated through all the guards to the Emperor Trajan, asking for just vengeance and saying to him: "Either do justice, or lay down the purple."
Conversely, the prayer of a man who exalts himself, who is prosperous and abundant, is said to approach the clouds but not to pass through them, as if waiting for some Angel to carry it upward and present it to God, as something that can tolerate delay and which does not much matter to be expedited immediately: not that it is not heard by God, but that it does not immediately achieve its effect. But the prayer of the humble person, who in tribulation pours out his soul before God, instantly flies past the clouds, is instantly admitted before God; because God is the lover and caretaker of the afflicted; and since it greatly matters to bring them help immediately, He hears them without delay, delivers, protects, and avenges them. So Palacius says. This is what Judith protests before God, IX, 16: "The prayer of the humble and the meek has always pleased You." And the Psalmist, Psalm CI, 18: "He looked upon the prayer of the humble, and did not despise their petition." Whence St. Bernard, in his homily on Missus est: "Without humility, I dare to say, he says,
not even the virginity of Mary would have pleased God." Hence she herself sang: "He has looked upon the lowliness of His handmaid," Luke I, 48. Similar are Genesis XXIX, 32; Deuteronomy XXVI, 7; Psalm IX, 14, and XXX, 8, and CXXXV, 23, and CXXXVII, 6; Isaiah LVII, 15.
Hence St. John, Revelation V, 8, saw an Angel offering to God "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the Saints." Rightly "incense," first, because they ascend upward to God: for they are the perfumes of God, with which God's sense of smell is delighted; second, because, like spices, the more they burn with the fire of tribulation or love, the sweeter the fragrance they spread; third, because they do not smell of only one virtue, but of all those for which the just man prays and groans. Hence they are incense mixed and composed from various spices, as I showed at Exodus, chapter XXX, 34. Therefore symbolically apply to prayer that saying of the Song of Songs III, 6: "Who is she who ascends through the desert, like a column of smoke from the spices of myrrh and frankincense, and every powder of the perfumer?"
22. And the Lord will not delay but will judge the just, and will execute judgment: and the Almighty will have no patience with them. — As if to say: God will not only look upon the prayer of the humble and unjustly afflicted, but also "will not delay," that is, will not prolong the matter, as unjust and lazy judges do; in Greek mē bradynē, that is, He will not be slow; which the Hebrews say lo ieacher; but He will quickly "execute judgment" for the just, and will judge them, vindicate them, and avenge the injuries inflicted upon them by the powerful: "and the Almighty" (in Greek ho krataios, that is, the strong one, the mighty one, the powerful one, the victorious one, the commander—in whom is the supreme command of the entire universe), namely by antonomasia the essentially omnipotent one, "will not have" with them (that is,
with the just and their injuries and cries) "patience," so as to allow Himself to be prayed to for a long time; in Greek mē makrothymēsē, that is, He will not be long-suffering, will not patiently wait or delay; but will immediately put on wrath and pour it out upon their oppressors. The Zurich version: Moreover, the Lord will not remain in delay, nor will the Almighty show patience over them; the Syriac: He does not pass until He inquires about it (the prayer of the poor), and judges a true judgment: and also the Lord does not reject (to a long and late time), and will not abandon, nor make void. Christ alluded to this in the parable of the unjust judge, who at the persistent cries of the widow judged and vindicated her. For comparing and preferring God to this judge, He adds: "And will not God avenge His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He be patient with them? I tell you that He will quickly avenge them," Luke XVIII, 7.
Until He (Jansenius and the Greek: until) crushes their backs: 23. and repays vengeance to the nations, until He takes away the fullness of the proud, and breaks the scepters of the unjust. — For "crushes," in both places the Greek is syntrypsē, that is, "may crush." Thus the Greek reads: Until He has crushed the loins of the merciless, and has repaid vengeance to the nations, until He has removed the multitude of the insolent, and has crushed the scepters of the unjust; the Zurich version: Until He has shattered the loins of the cruel and punished the nations with chastisement; until He has removed the crowd of the insolent, and broken the scepters of the unjust; the Syriac: Until He avenges the works of the wicked, and repays retribution to the peoples; until He destroys the strength of sinners, and utterly cuts off unjust rulers.
These and what follows depend on "and the Almighty will not have patience with them," which preceded, as if to say: God, the most mighty judge and avenger, will not long suffer and tolerate the injuries inflicted on the just by the impious and violent, but will immediately crush their loins and backs (for these are the seat and symbol of strength): "and to the unjust nations He will repay vengeance, until He takes away the fullness," that is, the multitude, "of the proud" who proudly and unjustly dominate others: "and the scepters," that is, the kingdoms, "of the unjust" He will crush and overthrow. By "back" is signified the strength, violence, and tyranny of the unjust, by which, as with a hard and bony back, they bore down upon the backs of the just and crushed them; which therefore will be subjugated and crushed by the harder back of God. God is therefore said to crush the back of the unjust, that is, to drive the threshing-sledge of afflictions over them lying prostrate on the ground, just as David "caused threshing-sledges, and harrows, and iron chariots to pass over them (the Ammonites), so that they were cut to pieces and crushed," I Chronicles XX, 3.
Moreover, the "fullness of the proud" signifies both their multitude and, more importantly, the abundance of their wealth, honors, and pleasures, with which they are most full.
Sirach here tacitly notes the afflictions of the Jews of his age, which they suffered from Ptolemy Lagus, king of Egypt, and predicts that it will shortly come to pass that God will bring the threshing-sledge of affliction upon the backs of the Egyptians and diminish their wealth and strength. On which more will be said in the following chapters. And so it happened: for, to pass over other things, the Ptolemies themselves ruined Egypt and the Egyptians. For Ptolemy Euergetes, under whom the younger Sirach wrote these things, was succeeded by Ptolemy ironically surnamed Philopator ("father-lover"), because he had killed his father, mother, sister, and wife. Philopator was succeeded by Epiphanes, Epiphanes by Philometor, ironically as if "mother-lover," since he had killed her. Philometor was succeeded by Euergetes II, who, having killed his sons and the citizens of Alexandria, filled everything with mourning, says Genebrandus, in his Chronicle, at the year of the world 3964. Euergetes was succeeded by Physcon, who, marrying his sister Cleopatra, on the very day of the wedding killed her son "in the embrace of his mother; and thus he ascended the bridal bed of his sister stained with the blood of her son. After which he was no gentler to the citizens who had called him to the kingdom. Indeed, with license to kill given to foreign soldiers, everything flowed with blood daily," says Justin, book XXXIII.
24. Until He repays men according to their deeds, and according to the works of Adam, and according to his presumption. — "Adam," that is, "man": for Adam is both the proper name of the first-formed man and the common name of all his descendants, both because all are descended from Adam, and because they are formed from the same adama, that is, earth. For Adam was made and named from adama. Whence that saying: "And He called their name Adam, on the day they were created," Genesis V, 2. See what I said there, and at Genesis II, 7. The same is clear from the Greek in this passage: for in the first place it has anthrōpō, that is, to man; in the second, anthrōpōn, that is, of men. Moreover, Palacius by "Adam" understands Ptolemy Lagus, who oppressed the Jews, as if to say: God will repay "according to the works of Adam," that is, of that man who so persecutes us, "and according to the presumption" and scheme by which he craftily seized Jerusalem and led the Jews into slavery.
For "presumption," the Greek is boulēmata, that is, deliberations, which each person presumes and chooses for himself. "Presumption" here therefore does not denote arrogance and pride, but a deliberation that is presumed and chosen, as if to say: God will repay each person not only according to their deeds, but also according to their deliberations and choices; because He will reward or punish each one not only according to what he has done, but according to what he has freely thought, willed, and chosen. For "to presume" in Latin means the same as "to take beforehand"; but a deed to be accomplished is first presumed in the mind, that is, thought about, chosen, and determined, before it is carried out in action.
He alludes to the presumption and choice of Adam, who, presuming and choosing the forbidden tree rather than obeying God, brought upon himself and all his descendants the deserved punishments of this presumption. Whence the Greek reads: Until He has repaid man according to their deliberations. By which is signified that acts are informed and made good or bad, better or worse, by the deliberation, that is, the intention which the will sets before its works. For an external act is often indifferent in itself, such as eating, reading, writing, speaking, etc.; but it becomes good if it proceeds from a good intention, bad if from a bad one, worse if from a worse one, better if from a better one. Whence that common saying:
Whatever men do, intention judges them all.
For this gives its species to the moral act, as ethicists and theologians teach. Whence the Zurich version: Until He has repaid each person what is worthy of his deeds, and according to the works of men, such as their deliberations merit; the Syriac: Until He repays the wicked their recompense, and to those who work wickedness their counsels.
25. Until He judges the judgment of His people, and He will delight (in Greek euphranei, that is, will gladden) the just with His mercy. — He has described what the judgment of God will do to the impious oppressors of the pious: now he describes what the same will do for the pious who are oppressed by the impious, namely that He "will delight" them "with His mercy;" by which He will repay them a temporal reward and eternal glory. He sets forth the punishment of the impious, because this very sight will delight the pious, according to that saying: "The just shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the sinner," Psalm LVII, verse 11. Again, he calls the reward of the just "mercy," both because it was mercifully promised to them by God, not out of obligation and justice, as if God were obligated to promise; and because the beginning of a good and meritorious work is grace, which gives the work its entire dignity and power of meriting, according to that saying: "The grace of God is eternal life," Romans chapter VI, verse 23; and finally because God rewards beyond merit and above what is deserved, and does this freely, out of His immense generosity and mercy. Whence that saying: "Who crowns you with mercy and compassion," Psalm CII, 4. Wherefore the Zurich version translates thus: Until He has completed the vengeance of His people and made them glad with His compassion; the Syriac: Until He judges the judgment of His people and gladdens them with His reward; others: Until He has judged the cause of His people and gladdened them according to His mercy.
26. Beautiful is the mercy of God in the time of tribulation, like a rain cloud in the time of drought. — "Beautiful," that is, becoming, welcome, longed-for. It is a metalepsis: for things that are beautiful are welcome and longed for by the eyes. For "beautiful" the Greek is hōraion, which signifies both timely and seasonable, as well as beautiful, becoming, and fair. Whence some translate, timely mercy, etc., and this is very fitting to this passage, as if to say: Just as rain arrives very opportunely "in the time of drought," when the dry, parched, and thirsty earth craves rain: so likewise the "mercy of God" comes very opportunely to a person when he is placed in tribulation; for then he ardently desires and longs for it, that he may be freed from tribulation. As if to say: Just as a noble, rich, and beautiful woman on certain days, for example feast days, wedding days, triumphal days, and the like, adorns herself with finer garments, gems, and necklaces, and thus adorned goes out in public with pomp and glory, as is said of Judith after the slaying of Holofernes and the liberation of the people, chapter XVI, 27: "And on feast days she went forth with great glory": so likewise the "mercy of God," although it is always welcome and beautiful to men, yet "in" the day of "tribulation," when the afflicted most need and desire it, it appears far more welcome and beautiful to them, according to that common saying: "God from the machine." Therefore, the greater the tribulation and the despair of human help, the more joyful is the arrival of God's assistance, and especially at the hour of death, when the die of the eternity of heaven or hell is cast; then God is present to His own and helps them, and drives away demons and temptations, especially if the Virgin Mother of God is invoked; whom accordingly the Church teaches us to greet and pray to every day: "Holy Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen."
The Complutensian, Roman, and other editions, however, translate "beautiful," because the beauty, comeliness, and splendor of mercy, that is, of alms-giving and beneficence, appears most when it is bestowed upon a man who is afflicted and in need, and therefore yearning for it: just as food is beautiful in the mouth of the hungry, drink in the mouth of the thirsty, clothing on a naked body. Just as a form, informing matter that was deprived of it, makes it beautiful; whence it is also called its form by natural philosophers. Whence the Zurich version translates: Excellent in a time of calamity is mercy, like a rain cloud in a time of drought; the Complutensian reads hōs hōraion, that is, how beautiful is mercy in the time of tribulation, etc.; the Syriac: The enemy will be confounded in the time of tribulation, like a rain cloud in the time of necessity. And for this reason God permits the just to be afflicted, so that God's mercy may then taste all the better to them, the greater their misery, and the greater their hunger and longing for mercy, according to that saying: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Your consolations have gladdened my soul," Psalm XCIII, 19. And that saying: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: for those dwelling in the region of the shadow of death, a light has risen for them," Isaiah IX, 2.
A clear example is in the one who from a long and dark prison, already expecting the gallows, is suddenly snatched away and elevated to a kingdom, and from a slave and a condemned man becomes a king, as Joseph was raised from prison to the rule of Egypt, Genesis chapter XLI, 41. How great is his joy? Again, in just souls, when they are freed from the prison, fire, and darkness of purgatory, and ascend to heaven for eternal happiness and glory. How beautiful does this mercy of God come to them, how savory, and so great that it makes the most wretched into the most blessed! Therefore beautiful is God's justice, beautiful His power, beautiful His wisdom, etc., but for us in our misery nothing is more beautiful than divine mercy. Beautiful on the cross is Christ,
because Christ on the cross is merciful, says Palacius.
Note: Mercy is formally and properly in God, but not in the same way as it is in us. In us it is a misery of the heart (for from this the name "mercy" [misericordia] was formed) and an affliction by which we sympathize and grieve with others. In God, however, it is nothing other than the will to relieve our misery; for grief of heart does not fall upon God. In a similar way, anger is to be understood in God not as a turbulent motion of the soul which clouds reason by the agitation of the humors, but as it denotes a simple affection of the will kindled to vengeance. Yet because anger properly signifies a motion of the soul that stirs up bile, while mercy signifies a simple affection of relief, although it has drawn its name from the misery of the heart; therefore anger is attributed to God metaphorically, but mercy properly, says St. Isidore, book X of the Etymologies, letter M. "Hence the name mercy, he says (some incorrectly read 'misery'), because it makes the heart wretched of one who grieves over another's misery; but in God there is mercy without any wretchedness of heart."
Moreover, the general mercy of God, and that immense, is seen in His threefold work: first, in the work of creation; second, of justification; third, of the incarnation of the Word. Great and admirable is the first mercy, by which all things were brought forth from the depths of nothingness and raised to the height of essence and nature; for infinitely better is the essence that each thing has received than the nothingness from which it emerged. But infinitely more excellent is the second mercy, by which all things were elevated to the supernatural order; for infinitely more excellent is grace than nature, and that divine state than the natural condition, and the communication of divine goods than all natural gifts. But even infinitely more excellent than this mercy is the third, by which the divine nature was united to the human in one person, through which redemption was provided for us, the remission of sins, justification, and every good. The particular mercy, however, which God bestows daily on each person, is innumerable. Let each one reflect on the benefits bestowed by Him, and confess them to God with thanksgiving, as St. Augustine does in his books of the Confessions.