Bellarmine on Psalm CXXI: Verse 3

Verse 3

Jerusalem, which is built as a city, which is compact together.

Jerusalem, quae aedificatur ut civitas, cujus participatio ejus in idipsum.

The Prophet now, in the name of the pilgrims hastening to Jerusalem, begins to enumerate the praises of that same Jerusalem, so that they may rouse him to make his ascent without any delay. The first praise is that the city is so peaceful that, because of the love of the inhabitants, all things are held in common by all. “Our feet,” they say, “were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem,” that very Jerusalem that was built and is being built up, more and more, so that it is like a city “which is compact together,” that is, which is shared in common by all at the same time. It should be noted that the word eius, judging by the Hebrew text, is superfluous; for cuius participatio / whose sharing (the sharing of which), and cuius participatio eius / whose sharing of it, mean the same thing. Note too that the punctuation in the Hebrew codex is after ædificatur / built, and not after civitas / city; therefore the sense is not: Jerusalem is built as a city, as if it could be built otherwise than as a city; but that it is built as a city – such that it can be shared (by all) at the same time. Note the words that come at the end, in idipsum / together, completely, of one mind, linked by St. Augustine to the eternity of God, which is always the same;  these words 

signify nothing according to the letter, unless at the same time, or jointly; this is clear from the Hebrew, as we have said elsewhere. This whole sentence is truly much clearer and more sublime in reference to the sense of what is to come, for the heavenly Jerusalem is indeed built like a city; it is not properly speaking a city, nor are there stones in her properly speaking, but she is built like a city, because every day living stones, polished and squared by a master craftsman, are added to the structure of the heavenly habitation: from this it follows that those who understand this, not only should bear persecutions with equanimity, but should rejoice and be glad in tribulations, because they know that they are being prepared for the heavenly building. “My brethren,” says one of these living stones, “count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations.”[1] Now in the heavenly home there is most truly a sharing in common together; for in the earthly Jerusalem it was not like this, for the sharing in common together was due to doing this out of love, so that all things might be common to friends; and this sharing existed for a short time in the Church at Jerusalem, “neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own; but all things were common unto them.”[2] This is still the case in communities of religious orders, when they still observe with full rigour the rules instituted. But, in the heavenly Jerusalem, the sharing together in common is perfect, since the one God is all things for all, that is, one and the same God is the honour, and the riches, and the delight of all those dwelling in the house of the Lord; and that most happy and perfect abundance is always the same for all together, for it never suffers diminution or alteration.

[1] My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations; Omne gaudium existimate fratres mei, cum in tentationes varias incideritis : [Iac. i. 2]

[2] And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul: neither did any one say that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own; but all things were common unto them. Multitudinis autem credentium erat cor unum, et anima una : nec quisquam eorum quae possidebat, aliquid suum esse dicebat, sed erant illis omnia communia. [Acts iv. 32]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.