In Psalmum XLI Ad Neophytos [Incertus]

SERMON ON PSALM 41, TO THE NEOPHYTES. This sermon is also falsely attributed to Jerome in the published editions. The psalms of the sons of Core sing joyful things. Stags are enemies of serpents. The triple spring of the Church. The Trinity. The exercises of those to be baptized. The changed nature of the baptized. Surveying the entire Psalter with a keen mind, I find nowhere that the sons of Core have sung anything sad: in their psalms everything is joyful and pleasant; always despising earthly and lowly things, they desire heavenly and eternal things, corresponding to the interpretation of their name. For Core is interpreted as "Baldness." Therefore, because our Lord was crucified and buried in that place of Calvary (Matt. 27:35), whoever believes in His cross and resurrection are called sons of Core, that is, sons of Calvary: upon which Calvary our Lord, the true Elisha, ascending to the kingdoms of heaven after the resurrection, is mocked by the little children of the Jews, but bears devour those who mock (2 Kings 2:23-24). Let it suffice to have said this briefly concerning the title; now let us return to the beginning of the Psalm.

Just as the stag longs for springs of water, so my soul longs for you, O God (Psalm 41:2). It is the nature of stags to despise the venom of serpents; rather, they draw them out of their caves with their nostrils, so as to kill and tear them apart. And when the poison begins to seethe within, although it cannot kill them, it nevertheless stirs up the heat and fire of thirst. Then they long for springs, and quench the burning venom with the purest waters. Just as those stags long for springs of water, so also our stags, who, withdrawing from Egypt and from the world, have slain Pharaoh in their deeds and have drowned his entire army in Baptism, after the slaying of the devil long for the springs of the Church: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Concerning the Father, that he is a spring, it is written in Jeremiah: "They have forsaken the spring of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water" (Jeremiah 2:13). Concerning the Son, we read in a certain hymn: "They have forsaken the spring of wisdom" (Baruch 3:12). Moreover, concerning the Holy Spirit: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, there will arise in him a spring of water gushing forth into eternal life" (John 4:14; cf. John 7:39); it is immediately explained, the evangelist saying that the Savior's discourse was about the Holy Spirit. From these things it is most clearly proven that the three springs of the Church are the mystery of the Trinity.

The soul of the believer desires them, the soul of the baptized desires them, and it says, My soul thirsted for God, the living fountain (Psalm 41:5). For it did not wish to see God lightly, but desired with all its ardor, thirsted with all its fire. Before they received Baptism, they spoke among themselves and said, When shall I come and appear before the face of God (Ibid.)? Behold, dearest brothers, what they sought is fulfilled: they came and stood before the face of God, and appeared before the sight of the altar, and before the mystery of the Savior. This is not merited to see, except by those who from conscience and from the depths of their heart utter, remembering, My tears were my bread day and night (Ibid. 41:4); for throughout all of Lent they devoted themselves to prayer and fasting, slept in sackcloth and ashes, seeking the future life through confession of their sins. But because they shed tears and were sorrowful, it is said to them, Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy (Psalm 126:5); and, Blessed are the mourners, for they themselves shall be comforted (Matthew 5:5).

For all these reasons, when the devil was insulting them and saying, "Where is your God?" now admitted to the body of Christ and reborn in the life-giving font, they speak confidently and say, "I will pass over to the place of the wonderful tabernacle, as far as the house of God" (Psalm 41:5). The house of God is the Church, that is, the wonderful tabernacle; because in it dwells the voice of exultation and confession and the sound of those feasting. For they rejoice over the faith and the attainment of eternal life, which our brothers have now deserved to receive, as do the angels in heaven and all the Powers. For if over a single sinner doing penance, and over one sickly little sheep which has been carried back on the shepherd's shoulders, the angels rejoice and are glad: how much more over so many brothers reborn and cleansed in the life-giving whirlpool do all the kingdoms of heaven exult, seeing men cleansed of the old stain of sins being prepared for their dwelling? Say, then, you who have now put on Christ, and following our guidance, are lifted up like little fish on a hook by the word of God from the whirlpool of this world: in us the nature of things has been changed. For fish that are taken out of the sea die; but we, on the contrary, have been drawn out and fished up by the Apostles from the sea of this world, so that we might become alive from the dead.

As long as we were living in this world, our eyes were in the depths, and our life was wallowing in the mire. After we were snatched from the waves, we began to see the sun, we began to behold the light of truth; and, overwhelmed with excessive joy, we say to our soul, "Hope in the Lord, for I will confess to him, the salvation of my face, and my God." And thereafter, "Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan and from Hermon, from the little mountain." The deep calls to the deep (Psalm 41:6-8). And we, from the land of the Jordan—that is, from the river in which the Lord was baptized—and from Hermon—that is, from the curse of this world (since Hermon is interpreted as "Anathema")—and from the little mountain of this world (for although someone may be holy, while he struggles in this world, he is not on a great and lofty mountain but on a little and lowly mountain), let us cry out to the Lord, and let us interpret the depths of his Scriptures by means of the testimonies of other Scriptures. Whatever in the depth of the Old Testament we cannot find, we resolve from the hidden things of the New Testament by the voice of the cataracts of God—that is, of his Prophets and Apostles. All the heights of the Lord, and his waves, and the rush of the river that gladden the city of God (Psalm 45:5), have passed over us in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.