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SERMON 45 On the Sixth Psalm1 our disposition shows and acknowledges with me that the response that we have sung today with the prophet as he makes supplication is opportune for this time and appropriate for the present evils. Lord, he says, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor reprove me in your rage (Ps 6.2[1]). And is God swollen with anger, and seething with rage? Far from it, brothers! God is not subjected to passion, nor is he enkindled by anger, nor is he agitated by rage. But God’s anger is the punishment of evildoers, and God’s rage is the chastisement of sinners. Brothers, formed out of dust, molded from clay, we are trampled by the vices, we are under the sway of sin, we are worn out by anxiety, we wither in our members, we disintegrate in death, we shudder at the stinking tombs; and we are found so incapable of virtue, and so capable of vice. So the prophet, mindful of human frailty, and aware of his carnal nature, and because he put no trust in his own merits, fled hastily to be helped by mercy, so that God’s judgment in his regard might consist of kindness rather than severity. 2. Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger. That is to say: rebuke me, but not in anger; reprove me, but not in rage. Rebuke me as a Father, but not as a Judge; reprove me not as Lord, but as a Parent. Rebuke me, not to destroy me, but to reprove me. Reprove me, not to do me in, but to correct me. And why should 173 1. It is likely that this sermon was preached during Lent, according to F. Sottocornola , L’anno liturgico, 76, because it contains a call to conversion, because sermons on the psalms were preached during Lent, and because Sermons 44–46, all on different psalms, immediately follow Sermons 41–43, indisputably Lenten, in the Felician collection of Chrysologus’s sermons. 174 ST. PETER CHRYSOLOGUS you do this? Because I am sick (v.3[2]a). Have mercy on me, Lord, he says, because I am sick. What is sicker than a person whose understanding fails him, whose ignorance deceives him, whose judgment escapes him, who is deluded by vanity, for whom time is fleeting, who changes with the years—foolish in childhood, reckless in youth, and decrepit in old age? Therefore, that the Lord seethes in anger against him, that he flares up in rage is not, not at all the characteristic of a benevolent Creator, but of a very severe Prosecutor. Have mercy on me, Lord, since I am sick. 3. And what do you want? Heal me, O Lord (v.3[2]b). This one feels the wounds of his condition, he feels the bite of the ancient serpent, he feels the sin of his first parent. He recognizes that he has fallen into these afflictions by being born, and he recognizes that he has arrived at death from his natural condition . And because human skill was unable to do away with death, he is forced to appeal for divine medicine. And so as the more easily to obtain the cure for his illness, he reveals the causes of that illness, he describes its symptoms, he makes known its magnitude, he expresses how violent is his pain. Heal me, O Lord. Why? Because my bones are trembling (v.3[2]b). The bones sustain the whole structure of the body; and so if the bones are trembling, how firm are the members, how strong are the nerves, in what deplorable condition is the substance of the flesh?2 The bones tremble, brothers, under the weight of sins, out of fear of death, out of the terror of facing judgment. Hear this same prophet say elsewhere: “There is no health in my flesh because of your anger.”3 And my bones are trembling. “There is no peace in my bones,” he says, “because of my sins.”4 And later: “My soul is filled with delusions, and there is no health in my flesh.”5 Rightly so did he add: 4. And my soul is deeply disturbed (v.4[3]a). Between the precepts of God and the passions of the body, between virtues and 2. Somewhat similar language is used by Augustine in his Enarrationes in Psalmos 6.4 (CCL 38.29), where Augustine mentions that the “bones” mentioned in the...

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