CHAPTER I.
1. In the previous book, while we were discussing the text of sacred history in a moral sense, we placed Anna's fruitfulness in the perfection of the highest contemplation, because for the mind to conceive is to rejoice ineffably in the contemplation of the supreme omnipotence of God, while to give birth is to be unable to conceal the marks of the charity conceived in the mind. Now, what does it mean for her who gives birth to sing a canticle, if not to proclaim with true praises the Creator whom she loves ineffably? She says therefore: (1 Samuel 2:1) My heart has exulted in the Lord.
2. But she who ate and drank, who had a bitter spirit, who wept abundantly, who made a vow—because that mind can worthily praise almighty God which has arrived at the heights of His love through worthy struggles—she indeed learned through long practice to despise all things; and while she casts aside all created things from her attention, she rejoices all the more in the vision of eternal majesty, inasmuch as no appearance of any creature prevails to hold her back in love of itself. She therefore says: "My heart has exulted in the Lord," she who, despising all things, loves Him alone. He had indeed come to this same affection who said: "What remains for me in heaven, and what have I desired from you upon the earth?" (Ps. 72:25). Hence, exulting in God, she says: "Your face, your face, O Lord, I will seek" (Ps. 26:3). Hence the bride in the Canticles asks, saying: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth" (Cant. 1:1). Therefore when she says, "My heart has exulted in the Lord," what else does she glory in than that she has clung to the kisses of Him whom she ardently loves? And for this reason she alone says these things, who knows from experience what the power of love is in the bridegroom's chamber. For illuminated by victories over all passions and raised to the summit of virtues, she arrived at that height from which, through the joy of wondrous devotion and exultation, she placed her heart in God. And because she says "my heart," what else has she declared than the freedom of her mind? The reprobate indeed do not have their own hearts, because the devil possesses them. Whence it is also said of the traitor: "When the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, to betray him" (John 13:2). For if Judas, and not the devil, possessed his heart, he himself would rather have placed good in it than the devil evil. On the contrary, the chosen man speaks, saying: "I carry my soul in my hands" (Job 13:14). For what else is the hand of the elect but the power of inner freedom? What then is it for him to carry his soul in his hands, but to retain the glory of inner freedom in his power? Therefore, as often as we gravely sin, we do not have our own heart. Wherefore Jeremiah also, reproaching the Jewish people for sinning gravely, says: "Hear, O foolish people, you who have no heart" (Jer. 5:21). Hence likewise another prophet, turning back, confesses to God, saying: "Your servant has found his heart" (2 Kings 7:27). She therefore says: "My heart has exulted in the Lord," to declare the freedom of mind without which she could not worthily praise God. There follows: (Verse 1.) "My horn is exalted in my God."
3. By the horn, the intention of the elect mind is designated, which is wonderfully exalted when it arrives rejoicing at him who stands above all things. Hence she declares that her horn is exalted not in anything else, but in God. For whoever loves passing goods, his intention is assuredly lowered, not exalted, because it is fixed in the depths where it is placed by desire. Hence it is that the Lord says in the Gospel: Where your treasure is, there is your heart also (Matt. 6:21; Luke 12:34). Therefore the Lord wished to exalt our horn when he said: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:20, 33). Those to whom Paul conformed himself had an exalted horn, when he said: Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). But whoever loves only heavenly things, if he has not known how to taste that sweetness of intimate delight, although he may be greatly exalted, he has not yet reached the height of this exaltation. He, therefore, is sublime with this exaltation who, advancing through the increase of virtues, has attained the height of supreme contemplation—not only so as to love heavenly things perfectly, but also so as to rest, in the perfection of love, in the contemplation of almighty God alone. He has his horn exalted in God who enjoys the lofty vision of the interior light, in which he glories with a certain familiar singularity. Wherefore she does not say, "In our God," but "in my God." For she says "my" of him whom she loves familiarly and singularly. To which dignity of divine familiarity he had certainly arrived who said: You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, and I will exalt you (Ps. 117:28). Hence Isaiah says, rebuking the unbelieving: Is it a small thing for you to be troublesome to men, that you are troublesome also to my God (Isa. 7:13)? She, therefore, who is raised up by the exaltation of her horn in God, singularly proclaims him her God, because that supreme infusion of divine sweetness makes the exalted mind both receptive of itself and deeply familiar. There follows: (Verse 1.) My mouth is enlarged over my enemies.
4. Who are the enemies of the elect mind, if not evil spirits? What then is it to have a widened mouth over one's enemies, if not to reject all the persuasions of evil spirits by the most ample bounty of grace poured into oneself? For he has a narrow mouth who cannot prevail against all the deceits of evil spirits through the consideration of reason. For the mouth of the mind is reason, and to speak is to deliberate. For the mouth is filled when the reason of the mind is raised up through grace poured into it to the contemplation of the highest truth. Indeed, for it to be filled is to be imbued with the illumination of the highest truth. There it learns both what to desire eternally and what to despise temporally. And because the highest truth is love, the elect soul is raised up by the subtlety of truth and is inflamed with love for that thing which it has learned, and it keeps the teaching all the more strictly, the more fervently the force of love embeds it within itself. To this soul, even if evil spirits suggest evil things, they are confounded by the opening of its widened mouth, because, instructed by the truth of the highest wisdom and kindled by the torches of the highest love, it now possesses against the suggestion of error the immense light of wisdom, and possesses against the offered pomp of this world an ineffable love. In the immensity of light it sees what to reject, and through the force of the highest love it delights in rejecting the unworthy things which it knows. Through wisdom it rebukes the evil things suggested, and in the power of love it refutes the things it has detected. Therefore it widens its mouth over its enemies, because from the abundance of reason it deliberates many things against the demons, and it destroys their objections all the more keenly because it recognizes in lofty things that by which it may reject evil suggestions. Whence, immediately intimating the cause, she says: 56 'Because I have rejoiced in your salvation.'
5. Which is indeed as if she were saying: Because my horn is exalted in my God. This certainly is to rejoice in the salvation of God, namely to have one's horn exalted in one's God. This is not understood of just any joy of salvation, but of that most perfect joy by which the chosen and perfected soul, in the manner of a bride, rejoices in the bridegroom. Concerning which joy David entreats, saying: Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and strengthen me with a princely spirit (Psalm 50:14). She, therefore, who glories in having her mouth opened wide over her enemies, is described as having first rejoiced in the salvation of God, because that blessed mind will be able to powerfully reject the persuasions of malignant spirits, which, having been sublimely raised up through contemplation into the divinity of the Redeemer, receives from Him both the greatness of wisdom and the fullness of charity. Whom indeed she proclaims with worthy praises, saying: (Verse 2.) There is none holy as the Lord is; for there is none other beside you, and there is none strong like our God.
6. For by these words of Anna, every chosen soul cries out this in praise to the Redeemer, which it believes to be a gift from him. But from this order of pious confession, the order is indicated by which we may attain those same goods of the gift which she set forth in sequence. Therefore the Lord is declared holy and strong, by whom we are sanctified, led to rest, and glorified. We receive sanctification from the Lord in the power of regeneration; but being—that is, rest from the changeableness of this corruption—in the ending of exile; and strength in the triumph of the resurrection. Therefore we attain the first of these gifts in this life, when the soul of each chosen one is in the flesh, but both are still placed in the struggle of labor; the next, however, in the soul alone apart from the flesh, after the life of the flesh, and now taken up from the labors of this life; but the last, in flesh and soul, but both now renewed through the glory of eternity. Therefore he is first called holy, because for those regenerated through the washing of salvation, the love of God is poured into our hearts, through whose grace we are prepared for the goods of the eternal homeland, so that while this life slips away through the time of its course, that life may receive us, whose joy the departing souls of the elect from here may possess without fear of death. Then being is ascribed to him, because, secure, we await the day of our consummation, namely the glory of the final resurrection, while in that gift of received rest we learn not to fear the scrutiny of the final judgment, but to await the joy of the promised glory. But in the last place he is declared strong, because in the joy of the future resurrection our weaknesses are strengthened, when the flesh rises from the dust; but that same dust of our flesh, transferred into the glory of perpetual incorruption, returns no more to the misery of its frailty. But it should also be noted that in these three we are led from one to another; but when one begins to have what was not had, he who receives what he did not have does not lose what he had before. For when we are led from sanctification to rest, and from the rest of the soul we are led to the strength of eternal incorruption, both the sanctification of love is increased for us in that rest, and rest and love grow greatly in the resurrection. For let each soul, joined to its Creator through love, beholding such great gifts, say in the words of Anna how well the gift of perfect regeneration and the power of love tastes to it. Let it say: There is none holy as the Lord is. Let it say how much better a gift is the promise of rest in the hour of its passing: Neither is there any other besides you. Let it say how the most excellent and pleasing reward is its final renewal, in the joy of its perfected spirit and glorified flesh. Let it say: And there is none strong like our God. And it should be noted that Anna speaks this in a canticle of prayer. For to the chosen mind, to ask these things in a canticle is to desire such great gifts with joy. Indeed, for it to ask is to desire, and to rejoice is to sing. But she who so joyfully beholds the gifts of her dignity, how strongly she reproaches hidden enemies becomes known. For it follows, and says: (Verse 3) Do not keep talking so very proudly, boasting; let old things depart from your mouth.
7. For evil spirits speak lofty and ancient things, when they suggest to the faithful that the high things of this age, as they appear, should be sought after. Therefore, one who has already learned to exalt his horn in God, who knows how to be held in the joy of Majesty, looks down with reproach upon whatever is offered to him from the enticements of this passing age, saying: "Do not multiply your speech, boasting lofty things; let the old words depart from your mouth." As if he were speaking openly and saying: "The things offered to me displease me precisely because through desire I see other things that greatly please me."
8. Because this is indeed said to apply to one who is already recognized as fit for the ministry of preaching, these words are fittingly understood as directed both against the arrogantly wise and against those who neglect the profession of a holy life. For he speaks lofty things boastfully who glories sublimely in the knowledge he has received, priding himself on his understanding. And he speaks old things who, setting aside the words of Holy Scripture, occupies himself with secular speech. Therefore it is said to the arrogant: "Do not speak lofty things, boasting." By these words it is shown that he does not forbid the manner of speech, but the disposition of the intention. As if he were saying openly: speak lofty things, but flee from glorying in what is called high. Hence Paul also piously admonishes his disciple, saying: "Be not high-minded, but fear" (Rom. 11:20). He did not say "Do not speak high things," but "Be not high-minded"; just as here it does not say "Do not speak lofty things," but "Do not speak boastingly," because the sacred words must be sought out on a deeper level, but the more deeply one advances in seeking them out, the more one ought to restrain oneself from the swelling of vainglory through the custody of humility. It is also said to those who speak idly: "Let old things depart from your mouth." For old things are the words of the world, because while the mind of the speaker is fixed upon them through intention, it is stripped of the beauty of its devotion. The reason why those who boast should not speak lofty things, and why old things should depart from their mouth, is shown by the cause that follows: (Verse 3) "Because the Lord is a God of knowledge."
9. Let the one who is knowing and arrogant therefore hear that he himself is not the lord of knowledge, but God is. For he would rightly speak boastfully if he himself, not almighty God, had been the master of the knowledge by which he is puffed up. Let us also hear, when we speak the words of the world, that God is the Lord of knowledge. For indeed the knowledge not only of the New but also of the Old Testament now renews the minds of the elect; for He came who would say: Behold, I make all things new (Isaiah 43:19). Since therefore we have so many new things which we can speak, we are by no means able to speak old things without fault. Let the old things therefore depart from our mouth, so that when the fault of condemned oldness is restrained even from speech, we may pass over into the beauty of the new man. But if indeed we despise this, let us hear: (Verse 3.) And by Him thoughts are prepared.
10. As if from a lesser fault, with the comparison understood, he terrifies us, saying: Hence let those who speak idle words consider how greatly they ought to fear the fault of speech, if he to whom one sins by speaking reserves even the excesses of thoughts for the examination of his judgment. Let the arrogant likewise hear what follows: (Verse 4.) The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girded with strength.
11. For we have already said in the allegorical exposition that unclean spirits are designated by the name of these mighty ones. Since they fell from heavenly glory through pride, they are fittingly set before proud teachers as a warning, so that they may now think humbly of themselves to the degree that they contemplate how even angels fell from supreme glory through the desire for vain glory. We recall that our Redeemer also did this with His proud disciples, who, when they boasted of having demons subject to them, immediately heard from Him: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). The bow of the mighty, therefore, is the pride of malignant spirits. They are called mighty either because they thought great things of themselves, or because they overcome the human race by the force of great temptations. This bow, when impious intent stretched it, strove to hurl the arrows of its malice upward against its Creator. "I will set my throne in the North," said their prince, "I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13–14). But the bow of the mighty was overcome, because God resisted the pride of the apostate spirits, cast them down from heaven, and stripped them of the glory of their created excellence, so that in the fallen angels man might learn what to fear. For what will become of an earthen vessel, if God does not spare even golden ones that are full of the stench of pride? Hence Peter also speaks in his Epistle, saying: "God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into hell with chains of darkness and delivered them to be reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). It is as though an elect and humble preacher were saying to the proud: That you may cease from your haughtiness, look upon the penalties of deserved damnation in the angels who are like you — that is, the fallen ones.
12. And setting forth whom they ought to imitate, she says: 'And the weak have been girded with strength.' If on account of the presumption of self-esteem the evil angels are called strong, the name of the weak rightly belongs to the blessed spirits, who, presuming nothing of themselves, are subject in perpetual humility to the power of their Maker. 'The weak have been girded with strength,' because, by the merit of voluntary subjection, the holy angels are joined to their Creator by the bond of inward love. To whom the name of girding fittingly applies, because anyone who is girded is held fast on every side by the belt with which he is girded, because clearly those most blessed spirits are so established in eternity that they can never fall from it. Hence it is that an angel is sent to Daniel preaching in Babylon, who is described as girded with fine gold (Dan. 10:5). Hence it is that the angel with whom John held conversation in the Apocalypse he beheld encircled with a golden girdle about the breast. Because indeed those same blessed spirits have risen from the merit of humility to the glory of love, but because they possess that same glory in the embrace of eternity, and do not possess it in fear of losing it, they are indeed ineffably glorious, but they can never lose that ineffable glory. Therefore, that the arrogant may cease to boast, let him hear: 'The bow of the mighty is overcome.' And that, with the fault of pride condemned, they may advance in humility, it is said to them: 'The weak have been girded with strength.' For strength is bestowed upon the weak when, by the merit of subjection, the power of heavenly charity is poured into the meek. We are also girded when we are prepared for the ministry of the word. Rightly therefore the weak girded with strength are set before those who boast in lofty speech, because those spirits who are sent forth in ministry, for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation, were humble before they were girded for ministry. For weakness is mentioned first, but the girding of strength afterward. Paul indeed points out to us these girded ones, saying: 'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth in ministry, for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation' (Heb. 1:14)? Of whom the prophet also speaks, saying: 'Thousands of thousands ministered to him' (Dan. 7:10). As if therefore she were saying: First know yourselves, and so prepare yourselves for the salvation of others, because the good of preaching is then well fulfilled when the preacher who is lofty in word strives to be humble in ministry. But because she rebukes the proud and arrogant preachers by speaking, she adds, saying: (Verse 5) 'Those who were full before have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have been satisfied.'
13. Those are filled first who, while they receive the foods of pride as refreshment for the mind, cannot take in the delights of holy virtues, as though already full of food. But nevertheless they hire themselves out for bread, because in the Scriptures which they understand they think they receive spiritual gifts of virtues according to the greatness of wisdom. But they cannot be satisfied, because they can in no way add the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the fullness of arrogance. For the spirit of discipline itself flees from what is feigned, and does not dwell in a body full of sins (Wisdom 1:5). Hence it is also written: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' (1 Peter 5:5). In vain, therefore, do they eagerly desire to receive the things of God, who by the very fact that they are proud make the bestower of gifts their adversary. Therefore they cannot be satisfied, because they do not obtain the gifts of spiritual graces. But who are the hungry, if not those empty of the foods of vices, fasting from pride? The hungry, therefore, are satisfied, because holy men, endowed with the stronghold of humility, while they do not think highly of themselves, merit the lofty gifts of virtues. For through the good of humility they become seats of the Holy Spirit, and while they receive him abiding in them, they are more fully filled with his gifts. Whence the Lord also says through the Prophet: 'Upon whom does my spirit rest, if not upon the humble, and quiet, and the one trembling at my words' (Isaiah 66:2)? Greatly, therefore, are the hungry satisfied, because in the fullness of gifts the Holy Spirit rests upon the humble.
14. This, however, can not unfittingly be said against negligent ministers of the sacred altar and presumptuous receivers of the Lord's body. For those who hire themselves out for bread were filled beforehand and saturated with the food of vices, because they do not prepare their body for the reception of the Eucharist. They indeed eat and cannot be satisfied, because even though they receive the sacrament with their mouth, they are in no way filled with the power of the sacrament. They therefore fast from that power of the sacrament precisely because they had been filled beforehand. For they do not receive the fruit of salvation in the eating of the saving host, who carry in their mind the sins with which they had filled themselves. Therefore none are satisfied except the hungry, because those who perfectly fast from vices receive the divine sacraments in the fullness of their power. And because even the elect cannot be without sin, what remains except that they strive to be emptied daily of the sins with which human frailty does not cease to stain them? For he who does not daily drain off what he commits in transgression, even if the sins he heaps up are small, little by little the soul is filled, and they rightly take from him the fruit of interior satisfaction. Paul, urging us to empty ourselves of this fullness, says: "Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup" (1 Cor. 11:28). For what does "prove" mean in this passage, except, having emptied out the wickedness of sins, to present oneself approved and pure at the Lord's table? Concerning those who are full he also adds: "For he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself." Therefore, since we sin daily, let us daily run to the laments of repentance, because that alone is the power which empties out what guilt accumulates in the belly of the soul. And then the hungry are truly satisfied, because the more diligently we are cleansed by the lament of repentance, the more abundant the fruit of divine grace we receive in spiritual refreshment. Because this satisfaction of the elect extends all the way to the end of the world, she adds and says: (Verse 5.) "Until the barren has borne many, and she who had many children has grown feeble."
15. Who therefore is signified by the name of this barren woman, if not she of whom Paul speaks, saying: "The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother" (Gal. 4:26, 27)? Whence also shortly after he fitted to her the prophecy of Isaiah, saying: "For it is written: Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry out, you who do not travail, for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband" (Isa. 54:1). But how is Jerusalem understood as barren—namely, the holy society of the blessed angels—when according to the meaning of its name it is fruitful with everlasting joy from the eternal vision of peace? But if she is the mother of the elect among men, she was indeed barren when the human race had perished in Adam. For she was as though unable to bring forth, since she lost through the persuasions of the fallen spirit him in whom she ought to have extended the bosom of her fruitfulness. The weak are girded so long until the barren one gives birth, because we have need of the powerful ministry of the humble angels until as many as are predestined to life from the human race are gathered together, even to the end of the world. For the Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather His elect from the four winds (Matt. 24:31; Mark 13:27). For they are to be sent then to gather those for whose salvation they are sent daily, because they will not gather into the kingdom any except those to whom they now offer assistance through the strength of their girding. Even until the end of the world the hungry are filled. But rightly is this barren woman said to bear very many, because not all men, but only the elect, are led to eternal joys. Fittingly therefore she is also said to give birth, because through the ministry of angels we are taught to seek heavenly things, so that we may be able to attain their goods. But when this barren woman gives birth, she who had many children is weakened, because the fuller the gains of the elect that the heavenly kingdoms receive through the ministries of angels, the more the children of this Babylon are diminished. For she is as though weakened in her childbearing, who through the disordered love of passing things cannot, as she was accustomed, bear children. For everywhere the heavenly kingdoms are now preached, and indeed while the minds of the faithful love what they hear, while they also seek those things through good conduct, Babylon is as though constricted in her childbearing, because our mother Jerusalem brings forth throughout the world for God those whom Babylon was accustomed to bear for hell from her exhausted womb of perdition. Yet the strength of those who are girded is ascribed not to themselves, but to Him by whom they are girded. Fittingly therefore it is added: (Verse 6) "The Lord kills and brings to life."
16. In these words, indeed, the order too must be noted. For he is said first to kill, then to make alive, because unless we cease to love the world, we cannot live for God through love, as John attests, who says: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Whence also he who remembered that he had been put to death and made alive, that he had been cast down and raised up, spoke, saying: "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14). He was living, but not with the life of the world, because he said: "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). Therefore it is not any of those who are girded, but the Lord who kills and makes alive. For to be put to death and made alive is to desire nothing that is present and to long for things eternal. To whom, then, thanks ought to be rendered for these gifts, she sets forth, saying: "The Lord kills and makes alive." Whence also the oft-named preacher of the nations says: "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase" (1 Corinthians 3:7). But in what order almighty God works these things in His elect, she sets forth, saying: (Verse 6) "He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up."
17. For in order to kill, He leads down to the depths; and in order to give life, He leads back from the depths. For to Almighty God, to lead to the depths is to terrify the hearts of sinners by the consideration of eternal torments. And for Him, to lead back from the depths is to raise up the terrified minds of the penitent and those mourning their sins, with the hope of unfailing life. For we cease to sin when, our hearts having been softened by heavenly grace, we dread future torments. And we are led back from the depths when, visited by inward consolation, we breathe again with hope of pardon from the lament of penitence. And so the Lord is fittingly said to lead to the depths and to lead back, because human hardness, by the preaching of man alone, is neither shaken by terror nor lifted up by love. For if it belonged to teachers to kill, as many as their preaching touched would cease to sin; and if it belonged to them to give life, whoever heard heavenly things from them, the love of their inmost affection would immediately kindle them to seek those things with every effort. But now, since they often threaten sinners with eternal punishments, since they preach to them what heavenly goods they can, and yet they neither fear the punishments nor desire the joys, let us cry out with the words of Hannah in the praises of God, and attributing to Him also that by which some make progress through them, let us say: The Lord kills and gives life. The Lord therefore leads to the depths and leads back, because those can fear future torments, those can love heavenly joys, in whom through the words that man speaks outwardly, the mercy of God works inwardly. Moreover, there is that by which each person may recognize in himself whether he has already been led to the depths and led back, whether he has died to the world and lives for heaven; for if he is chosen, he makes progress. But concerning this same progress, she adds: (Verse 7) The Lord makes poor and makes rich.
18. The rich of this world therefore glory in their abundant wealth, because by the high and incomprehensible judgment of God, heavenly goods are hidden from them. The Lord therefore makes the poor, because while He reveals eternal goods to the elect, they consider themselves the poorer insofar as they see themselves driven from true riches. Whence also that king who was most abundant in worldly possession, because the Lord had shown him true riches, cried out to Him, saying: Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and poor (Psalm 24:16). Hence the prophet Jeremiah, expressing in himself the illumination of each of the elect, says: I am the man who sees my poverty (Lamentations 3:1). For the Lord to make poor is therefore to rouse the minds of the elect, in the contemplation of everlasting goods, to contempt for all visible things. But since to the one to whom He reveals the highest things He also indicates that these same highest things must be sought through the prolonged price of labor, let it say that He who makes poor also enriches, because assuredly while we receive from Almighty God the knowledge of heavenly goods, from Him also we obtain the strength to strive with worthy labor for them. And well is it added: (Verse 7) He humbles and He lifts up.
19. Because in the contemplation of heavenly things they perceive how lowly they are on earth, but in that same lowliness of temporal want, through the grace of God, they lift themselves on the wings of their merits to the joys of everlasting life. They therefore receive humility in the estimation of their exile, but sublimity in the preparation of holy work. There follows: (Verse 8.) He raises the needy from the dust, and lifts the poor from the dunghill, that he may sit with princes.
20. For dust is the subtle deliberation of illicit thought, which renders foul the mind in which it has settled. For what is designated by dung except the foulness and boldness of committed wickedness? Hence the prophet too, beholding the life of carnal people buried under the filth of foul deeds, says: "The beasts have rotted in their dung" (Joel 1:17). Therefore, the gifts of God are enumerated in fitting order in the conversion of the wicked. For the needy one is first raised from the dust before the poor one is raised from the dung, because the deliberation of impure thought is first cut away from the heart, and afterward the fault is severed from action. Fittingly too the needy one is said to be raised from the dust, and the poor one to be lifted from the dung, because the one inwardly deliberating on wicked things sleeps from the contemplation of justice, while the one outwardly committing unlawful deeds lies in iniquity through action. And because he now wins trophies with the strong over malignant spirits, the text sets forth what the needy one, once raised, and the poor one, once lifted, deserves, saying: "That he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory."
21. For to sit belongs to one who triumphs. Hence also in the Apocalypse of John the Lord shows the dignity of our victory, saying: "He who overcomes, I will make him sit on my throne, just as I also overcame and sat with my Father on his throne" (Rev. 3:21). Seeing this, Paul too, counting among God's praises the gifts of our resurrection and our being seated, says: "He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). Princes therefore sit with him, because those who by his help suppress the forces of malignant spirits hold the dignity of being seated in their triumph over those whom they dominate by the power of the one presiding over them. Likewise princes sit with him, because even though they are seen to stand bodily in the hardship of this passing life, they nevertheless hold a seat of merits with the Redeemer on high, from whose conformity of glory they are not separated even in this valley of corruption. The needy and the poor in possessions are those who for the sake of the Gospel abandoned everything they could have had in the world. They, to be sure, in order to sit with princes, must be raised from the dust and lifted from the dung. For what are the flatteries of the tongue, what are the trappings of fleeting dignities, but dust? For by their fawning they defile the mind and blind it from true splendors. And what are perishing riches and transitory possessions but dung to those who love eternal things? For dung is what holy souls hold in the contempt of humility, not in the appetite of desire. Hence Solomon too, seeing a rich man of the world saddened by the loss of temporal goods, says: "The sluggard is to be pelted with the dung of oxen" (Sir. 22:2). As if to say: He endures the blows of grief from that which the one who desires to labor for eternal life despises as dung. Hence Paul says: "I have counted all things as loss and consider them dung, that I may gain Christ" (Phil. 3:8). The needy one is therefore raised from the dust and the poor one is lifted from the dung when the mind, renouncing the world, tramples underfoot whatever used to please it—the flatteries of human tongues, the honor of dignities, and the abundance of possessions—while it looks only to eternal things, which alone it ardently loves. For to be raised and lifted is to despise by sublimity of mind those things which one leaves behind in the body. And to sit with princes is to share with the citizens of the heavenly fatherland in the joy of eternal rest. Such a one then surely holds the throne of glory, because one who presides so sublimely never falls silent from the praises of his Creator. For the Psalmist, admiring this seat of glory, speaks to the Lord, saying: "Blessed are those who dwell in your house, O Lord; they will praise you forever and ever" (Ps. 83:5). Isaiah proclaims this seat of glory, saying: "Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of praise" (Isa. 51:3). Holy Tobias likewise, showing this same seat, says: "And its streets will be paved with every precious and pure stone, and through all its lanes Alleluia will be sung" (Tob. 13:22). But let the rescued poor man look at what follows, because he is not brought immediately to the seat of princes and the throne of glory as soon as he has been raised up: "The hinges of the earth," it says, "are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them" (v. 8).
22. Because sinners are designated by the name "earth" in sacred Scripture, these "hinges of the earth" can fittingly be understood as those in whom the world revolves through foolish desires, and leads from one to another. When therefore we behold converted sinners, let us break forth in praise of the Creator with these words of Hannah. For it is as if we say in other words: Those who were long held on the wheel of passing things by worldly desire have now begun to belong to the Lord through His grace. And when, having now abandoned the allurements of secular life, they bravely endure powerful temptations, let us say: "He has set the world upon them." For He has set the world upon them, which, before it was placed upon them, was beneath them. For they now bear as a burden of temptations that which, by flattering them, served them as if subject to them, when they reclined upon it by pursuing pleasures and delights. And because those who had great delights in it suffer great temptations from it, there is added: (Verse 9) "He will guard the feet of His saints."
23. By these words indeed the help of divine protection and propitiation is shown in such a way that the grave dangers of temptations are indicated. For it is as if she were saying: They endure such great trials from the world to which they had clung, that only He suffices to help who cannot be absent from His faithful ones in tribulation. For to preserve the feet of His saints is to strengthen by grace the shaken affections of the elect in temptation, lest they fall. Hence also the prophet, who had wavered toward falling and yet had been preserved by the Lord, said: "But my feet were almost moved, my steps were nearly poured out" (Psalm 72:2). Hence again: "I was pushed and overturned so that I might fall, and the Lord upheld me. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and He has become my salvation" (Psalm 117:13, 14). And concerning the weakness of the enemies she added, saying: (Verse 9) "And the wicked shall be silent in darkness."
24. But what does it mean that when the Lord is said to guard the feet of the saints, the silence of the wicked is mentioned, unless that we are never driven to the fall of sin except when the perverse temptations of malign spirits are suggested to us? When therefore the Lord guards our feet, the wicked are silent in darkness, because while we are protected by divine grace, the unclean spirits are utterly unable to give us the voice by which they might cast us down. Indeed they are silent in darkness, because they possess the darkened hearts of the reprobate, from whose obscurity they dare not advance toward us. Moreover, he explains why he guards the feet of the saints, saying: (Verse 9.) For a man shall not be strengthened by his own might.
25. As if to say: Therefore He holds them, because without Him they could not stand. For even if a man is recognized as a man of virtue, in his strength he has the fear of falling, he does not have the firmness of strength, and he falls by desiring unlawful things as often as his inner steps are abandoned by the Lord who holds him. Was he not indeed a man, he of whom it was sung in the chorus of young women: "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 18:7)? Who indeed, when he was left amid his burdens to his own strength, fell driven into the sin of his flesh, and learned by experience in himself that a man does not have in himself the firmness of strength, but the fall of weakness. Whence also, fearing to fall back, he earnestly seeks Him by whom he ought to be held firm, saying: "Do not utterly forsake me" (Psalm 119:8). Let no one therefore deceive himself, as if he might find in himself the strength to stand, because even if we often overcome the great wars of hidden enemies, if we worthily pursue them by rejecting their persuasions as though turned to flight, the fleeing spirits do not then fear us, but Him whom they behold in us. Or certainly, if they also fear us, they fear us for this reason indeed: because they see us taken up into the strength of divine grace. Fittingly therefore it is added: (Verse 10.) "The adversaries of the Lord shall fear Him, and He shall thunder upon them from the heavens."
26. For we are heavens when we are lifted up to the height of the divine grace that presides over us. And we have thunders against His adversaries when with the powerful voices of holy desires we shatter everything that breathes upon us from their suggestion. For whatever thunder strikes, it kills. Therefore the thunders of the heavens are the perfect desires of the elect. For they come forth as if sounding terribly from the height of the heavens, when from that summit of the mind they strike the malign spirits, over which Almighty God so presides that by the love of the One presiding, one easily overcomes everything that the audacity of the enemy suggesting evil things could have stirred to battle. But with the Redeemer forewarning, we know that he who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved (Matt. X, 22). And with the same Lord promising, we have learned that at whatever hour the sinner is converted, he shall be saved (Ezek. XVIII, 21). Therefore at the end of her canticle let Anna add, and let her say what should terrify the sinner, let her say what should make the righteous more cautious. (Verse 10.) The Lord, she says, will judge the ends of the earth.
27. He does not say "the earth," but "the ends of the earth." For the ends of the earth are those who have closed the final moments of their life with the commission of sin. For he who sins and corrects what he has done wrong is earth through sin, but is not the end of the earth, because by sinning he cast down the heights of his redemption, yet from the depths of his fall he rose again before judgment. For he wept over what he had done, and he awaits the coming Judge all the more joyfully, because in the condemnation of his earthliness he holds through penance the scourges of vengeance upon himself. Because, therefore, the Lord judges the ends of the earth, let the converted sinner not be terrified before the Lord by his former or middle deeds. Because likewise the Lord judges the ends of the earth, let the just man not presume upon his begun righteousness. For if sudden death overtakes him while he is still slipping from that righteousness from which he can fall, because sin is enclosed in his final moments, he is judged by the law of the ends of the earth. There follows: (Verse 10.) And He shall give dominion to His king, and shall exalt the horn of His anointed.
28. Since we referred this passage above to the Redeemer, we do not change it in the order of this explanation either. For He Himself is our peace, who made both one (Eph. 2:14). He is also the cornerstone (1 Pet. 2:4, 5, 6), in whom, while both walls of the elect are joined together, the structure of the eternal city is arranged. Let our discourse therefore maintain its custom, so that, having now set forth both the moral and allegorical understanding of the sacred canticle, both may converge in Him whom we believe by faith and whom we merit by our conduct.