Nicetas of Remesiana — Commentary on Scripture

1 Peter 1:12

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

If the angels desire to look upon him, should not human beings be all the more afraid to despise him?

1 Peter 4:1

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

Christ did not suffer in his divinity but in his flesh. God can never suffer. Christ suffered in the flesh, as the apostle teaches, so that from his wounds might flow salvation to humanity. This was foretold by the prophet Isaiah: Christ suffered for our sins so that grace might be given to us.

1 Samuel 2:25

If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the LORD would slay them.

The sin of one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable. Compare with this judgment what is said in the book of Kings [Samuel]: “If one man shall sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?” Thus, it is one and the same sin whether we blaspheme against the Holy Spirit or against God, and it is inexpiable. Hence, the nature of the Holy Spirit begins to dawn in our minds.

1 Samuel 16:23

And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

After this, you will find plenty of men and women, filled with a divine spirit, who sang of the mysteries of God. Among these was David. As a boy, he was given a special call to this office, and by God’s grace he became the prince of singers and left us a treasury of song. He was still a boy when his sweet, strong song with his harp subdued the evil spirit working in Saul. Not that there was any kind of power in the harp, but, with its wooden frame and the strings stretched across, it was a symbol of the cross of Christ. It was the passion that was being sung, and it was this which subdued the spirit of the devil.

1 Timothy 4:1

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

How could anyone be silent in regard to the divine authority of the Holy Spirit? The ancient prophets cried out, “These things say the Lord.” When Christ came, he also used this word “say” in his own person, “But I say unto you.” Listen now to what the prophets of the New Testament proclaim. Take the prophet Agabus in the Acts of the Apostles, “Thus says the Holy Spirit.” So, too, Paul to Timothy, “Now the Spirit expressly says …”

1 Timothy 6:20

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Make strong in your hearts, my brothers, this faith in the Trinity, believing in one God the Father Almighty and in his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit, the true light and sanctifier of souls, who is the pledge of our inheritance, who will lead us, if we will but follow, into all truth and will make us one with the citizens of heaven. This rule of faith the apostles received from the Lord.… May this faith remain in you. O beloved, “keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called.”

2 Timothy 2:11

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

We must believe both his passion according to the flesh and his impassibility inasmuch as he was God.… Let us confess our oneness with Christ, lest we be separated from him. In the words of the apostle, “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him.”

Deuteronomy 31:30

And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.

Moses again, when about to depart from this life, sang a fear-inspiring canticle in Deuteronomy. He left the song as a sort of testament to the people of Israel, to teach them the kind of funeral they should expect, if ever they abandoned God.

Isaiah 26:9

With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

And now, beloved, I ought to say a word about the antiquity of the tradition and the utility of vigils. It is easier to begin a work if we keep before our eyes how useful it is. The devotion to vigils is very old. It has been a household tradition among the saints. It was the prophet Isaiah who cried out to the Lord: “My soul has yearned for you in the night. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks you early in the morning.”

Isaiah 26:19

Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

To remove all doubt about the resurrection of the body, take a single illustration from the course of nature. The apostle reminds us, “What you yourself sow is not brought to life, unless it dies.” Here you have a grain of wheat, dead and dry and sown in the earth. It is softened by the rain from heaven. Only when it decays does it spring to life and begin to grow. I take it that he who raises to life the grain of wheat for the sake of humankind will be able to raise to life the person himself who has been sown in the earth. He both can and wills to do this. What the rains do for the seed, the dew of the Spirit does for the body that is to be raised to life. Thus Isaiah cries to Christ, “Your dew is health for them,” true health, since, once the bodies of the saints have been raised to life, they feel no pain, they fear no death. They will live with Christ in heaven, who lived on earth according to the words and ways of Christ. This is the eternal and blessed life in which you believe. This is the fruit of all our faith and holy works. This is the hope on account of which we are born…

To remove all doubt about the resurrection of the body, take a single illustration from the course of nature. The apostle reminds us, “What you yourself sow is not brought to life, unless it dies.” Here you have a grain of wheat, dead and dry and sown in the earth. It is softened by the rain from heaven. Only when it decays does it spring to life and begin to grow. I take it that he who raises to life the grain of wheat for the sake of humankind will be able to raise to life the person himself who has been sown in the earth. He both can and wills to do this. What the rains do for the seed, the dew of the Spirit does for the body that is to be raised to life. Thus Isaiah cries to Christ, “Your dew is health for them,” true health, since, once the bodies of the saints have been raised to life, they feel no pain, they fear no death. They will live with Christ in heaven, who lived on earth according to the words and ways of Christ. This is the eternal and blessed life in which you believe. This is the fruit of all our faith and holy works. This is the hope on account of which we are born, believe and are reborn. It was on account of this that the prophets, apostles and martyrs sustained such endless toil and accepted death with joy.

Luke 1:67

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

That which was spiritual in the Old Testament, for example, faith, piety, prayer, fasting, patience, chastity and psalm singing—all this has been increased in the New Testament rather than diminished. Therefore you will find in the Gospel Zechariah, the father of John, who uttered a prophecy in the form of a hymn after his long silence.

Psalms 1:2

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

Meditation during the day is, of course, good, but that at night is better. During the day, there is the clamor of our many cares, the mental distraction of our occupations. A double preoccupation divides our attention. The quiet and solitude of the night make it a favorable time for prayer and most suitable for those who watch. With worldly occupations put aside and the attention undivided, the whole person, at night, stands in the divine presence.

Psalms 18:3

I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Praise issuing from a pure conscience delights the Lord, and so the same psalmist exhorts us, “Praise ye the Lord because a psalm is good; to our God be joyful and comely praise.” With this in mind, aware of how pleasing to God is this ministry, the psalmist again declares, “Seven times a day I have given praise to you.” To this he adds a further promise: “And my tongue shall meditate your justice, your praise all the day long.” Without doubt, he had experience of the good to be derived from this work, for he reminds us [in the psalm before us]: “Praising I will call on the Lord, and I shall be saved from my enemies.” It was with such a shield of praise to protect him that as a boy [David] destroyed the great power of the giant Goliath, and, in many other instances, came out victorious over the invaders.

Psalms 33:6

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

By the “word” we must here understand the Son, through whom, as St. John declares, “all things were made.” And what is “the spirit of his mouth” if not the Spirit whom we believe to be holy? Thus, in one text, you have the Lord, the Word of the Lord and the Holy Spirit making the full mystery of the Trinity.

Psalms 47:7

For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

We must sing with our intelligences; not only with the spirit (in the sense of sound of our voice) but also with our mind. We must think about what we are singing, lest we lose by distracting talk and extraneous thoughts the fruit of our effort. The sound and melody of our singing must be suitably religious. It must not be melodramatic but a revelation of the true Christianity within. It must have nothing theatrical about it but should move us to sorrow for our sins. Of course, you must all sing in harmony, without discordant notes. One of you should not linger unreasonably on the notes while his neighbor is going too fast; nor should one of you sing too low while another is raising his voice. Each one should be asked to contribute his part in humility to the volume of the choir as a whole. No one should sing unbecomingly louder or slower than the rest, as though for vain ostentation or out of human respect. The whole service must be carried out in the presence of God, not with a view to pleasing people.

Psalms 68:2-6

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

Obviously, the time to pray is when we are all praying. Of course, you may pray privately whenever and as often as you choose. But do not, under the pretext of prayer, miss the lesson. You can always pray whenever you will, but you cannot always have a lesson at hand. Do not imagine that there is little to be gained by listening to the sacred lesson. The fact is that prayer is improved if our mind has been recently fed on reading and is able to roam among the thoughts of divine things that it has recently heard. The word of the Lord assures us that Mary, the sister of Martha, chose the better part when she sat at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to the word of God without a thought of her sister. We need not wonder, then, if the deacon in a clear voice like a herald warns all that, whether they are praying or bowing the knees, singing hymns or listening to the lessons, they should all act together. God loves “people of one manner” and, as was said before, “makes them to dwell in his house.” And those who dwell in this house are proclaimed by the psalm to be blessed, because they…

Obviously, the time to pray is when we are all praying. Of course, you may pray privately whenever and as often as you choose. But do not, under the pretext of prayer, miss the lesson. You can always pray whenever you will, but you cannot always have a lesson at hand. Do not imagine that there is little to be gained by listening to the sacred lesson. The fact is that prayer is improved if our mind has been recently fed on reading and is able to roam among the thoughts of divine things that it has recently heard. The word of the Lord assures us that Mary, the sister of Martha, chose the better part when she sat at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to the word of God without a thought of her sister. We need not wonder, then, if the deacon in a clear voice like a herald warns all that, whether they are praying or bowing the knees, singing hymns or listening to the lessons, they should all act together. God loves “people of one manner” and, as was said before, “makes them to dwell in his house.” And those who dwell in this house are proclaimed by the psalm to be blessed, because they will praise God forever and ever. Amen.

Psalms 104:27-30

These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

One may concede that, in regard to the Word, it is clear that he created, but have doubts in regard to the Spirit. My reply to this is the testimony of Job, the righteous man of old, who wrote, “The spirit of God made me.” So, too, David in one of his psalms says to God, “You shall send forth your spirit, and they shall be created; and you shall renew the face of the earth.” But if creation and renewal are to be attributed to the Spirit, certainly the beginning of creation did not occur apart from the Spirit. However, those who are opposed to the truth resort to the evasion of saying that, wherever there is mention of the Spirit as creator, the name and person of the Spirit belong to the Son. The Son is a Spirit, they say, just as the Father is a Spirit. This is a fallacy that should deceive no one. It is enough merely to remember that David clearly distinguishes the Son, whom he calls the Word of the Lord, from the holy One, whom he calls the Spirit. It is the Word who “makes the heavens”; it is the Spirit who “adorns” them, who gives them their power. Anyone who reads these words m…

One may concede that, in regard to the Word, it is clear that he created, but have doubts in regard to the Spirit. My reply to this is the testimony of Job, the righteous man of old, who wrote, “The spirit of God made me.” So, too, David in one of his psalms says to God, “You shall send forth your spirit, and they shall be created; and you shall renew the face of the earth.” But if creation and renewal are to be attributed to the Spirit, certainly the beginning of creation did not occur apart from the Spirit. However, those who are opposed to the truth resort to the evasion of saying that, wherever there is mention of the Spirit as creator, the name and person of the Spirit belong to the Son. The Son is a Spirit, they say, just as the Father is a Spirit. This is a fallacy that should deceive no one. It is enough merely to remember that David clearly distinguishes the Son, whom he calls the Word of the Lord, from the holy One, whom he calls the Spirit. It is the Word who “makes the heavens”; it is the Spirit who “adorns” them, who gives them their power. Anyone who reads these words must believe—else, if he insists on being obstinate, why does he bother to read? Let no one imagine that, somehow, our faith dims the glory of the Father. Rather, it adds to the glory of the Father to refer the creation of all things to a Word of which he is the Father or to a Spirit of which he is the source. The fact remains that when his word and Spirit create, it is he who creates all things.

Psalms 110:1

A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

“He ascended into heaven,” from where he had descended. “No man has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” “He sits at the right hand of the Father,” according to what was said to David, typifying God the Father speaking to his Son: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” “Thence he shall come to judge both the living and the dead.” Believe that Christ himself, our God, will come with the angels and powers of heaven to judge both the living and the dead, to give to each according to his works, that is, to award eternal life to the just and to subject the wicked to eternal punishment.

Psalms 132:3-5

Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed;

The more I meditate on the mind of the saints, the more I am reminded of something that is high and hard and beyond the powers of human nature. Call to mind what the same psalmist [David] has said: “If I shall go up into the bed wherein I lie; if I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids or rest to my temples; until I find out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.” Who would not be amazed at such a love of God, such dedication of soul, that a king and prophet should deny himself all sleep—the very essential of bodily vigor—until he should find a place to build a temple to the Lord? This fact should be a strong admonishment to us who long to be a dwelling place of the Lord and to be considered his tabernacle and temple forever. “You are,” as Paul reminds us, “the temple of the living God.” Let us, then, be moved by the example of the saints to love vigils to the utmost of our power. And let it not be said of us what is said in the psalm: “They have slept their sleep and … found nothing.” Rather, let each of us be glad to say, “In the day of my trouble…

The more I meditate on the mind of the saints, the more I am reminded of something that is high and hard and beyond the powers of human nature. Call to mind what the same psalmist [David] has said: “If I shall go up into the bed wherein I lie; if I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids or rest to my temples; until I find out a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.” Who would not be amazed at such a love of God, such dedication of soul, that a king and prophet should deny himself all sleep—the very essential of bodily vigor—until he should find a place to build a temple to the Lord? This fact should be a strong admonishment to us who long to be a dwelling place of the Lord and to be considered his tabernacle and temple forever. “You are,” as Paul reminds us, “the temple of the living God.” Let us, then, be moved by the example of the saints to love vigils to the utmost of our power. And let it not be said of us what is said in the psalm: “They have slept their sleep and … found nothing.” Rather, let each of us be glad to say, “In the day of my trouble I have sought God and with my hands lifted up to him in the night and was not deceived.” The reason is that “it is good to give praise to the Lord and to sing to your name, O most High; to show forth your mercy in the morning and your truth in the night.” These and many other such thoughts the saints have left us in song and other writings, so that we who are their heirs may be moved by such examples to celebrate at night the vigils of our salvation.

Psalms 143:10

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.

It can be proved, too, that just as the Father is good and the Son is good, so the Holy Spirit is good. Of the Father, the Only-Begotten speaks in the Gospel: “One there is who is good, that is God.” Of himself he says, “I am the good Shepherd.” So, too, of the Holy Spirit, David in his psalms says to the Lord, “Your good spirit shall lead me into the right land.” Just as it is said of the Son, “The word of the Lord is right,” so of the Holy Spirit it is said, “Renew a right spirit within [me].”