The hearts and minds of all
From a commentary on the psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers, bishop (d. c. 368)
The hearts and minds of all believers were one
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity. It is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity, because when they do so their association creates the assembly of the Church. The term “brothers” describes the bond of affection arising from their singleness of purpose.
We read that when the apostles first preached, the chief instruction they gave lay in this saying: The hearts and minds of all believers were one. So it is fitting for the people of God to be brothers under one Father, to be united under one Spirit, to live in harmony under one roof, to be limbs of one body.
It is pleasant and good for brothers to dwell in unity. The prophet suggested a comparison for this good and pleasant activity when he said: It is like the ointment on the head which ran down over the beard of Aaron, down upon the collar of his garment. Aaron’s oil was made of the perfumes used to anoint a priest. It was God’s decision that his priest should have this consecration first, and that our Lord too should be anointed, but not visibly, by those who are joined with him. Aaron’s anointing did not belong to this world; it was not done with the horn used for kings, but with the oil of gladness. So afterward Aaron was called the anointed one as the Law prescribed.
When this oil is poured out upon men of unclean heart, it snuffs out their lives, but when it is received as an anointing of love, it exudes the sweet odor of harmony with God. As Paul says, we are the goodly fragrance of Christ. So just as it is pleasing to God when Aaron was anointed priest with this oil, so it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity.
Now the oil ran down from his head to his beard. A beard adorns a man of mature years. We must not be children before Christ except in the restricted scriptural sense of being children in wickedness but not in our way of thinking. Now Paul calls all who lack faith, children, because they are too weak to take solid food and still need milk. As he says: I fed you with milk rather than the solid food for which you were not yet ready; and you are still not ready.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Hilary (d. c. 368) was born at Poitiers, Gaul, of a noble family. He was a convert from paganism to Christianity by his study of the Bible and was baptized when well on in years. He was elected bishop of Poitiers about 350. He actively opposed the Arian heresy and refused to attend a synod at Milan called by Emperor Constantius in 355 in which required the bishops present to sign a condemnation of St. Athanasius for his refutations against Arianism. Hilary was condemned for his orthodoxy by the synod of Arian bishops at Beziers in 356. He was exiled by the Arian Emperor to Phrygia later that year. Hilary was so successful in exposing Arianism as a heresy at a council of Eastern bishops at Seleucia in 359 and in encouraging the clergy to resist the heresy that the Arians requested the Emperor to send him back to Gaul.
Hilary was instrumental in the excommunication of Arian Bishop Saturninus. In 361, the death of Constantius ended the Arian persecution of the Catholics. Hilary died at Poitiers in 368 leaving numerous treatises, notable among which were his De Trinitate written while he was in exile, De synodis, and Opus historicum. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1851.