Sitting And Rising

Tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam. Quid hic sessio? quid hic resurrectio? Qui sedet, humiliat se. Sedit ergo Dominus in passione, surrexit in resurrectione. Tu, inquit, hoc cognovisti: id est, tu voluisti, tu approbasti; secundum voluntatem tuam factum est. Si autem volueris accipere vocem capitis ex persona corporis, dicamus et nos: Tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam. Sedet enim homo, quando humiliat se in poenitentia; surgit autem remissis peccatis, quando erigitur in spem vitae aeternae. Propterea et in alio psalmo dicitur: Surgite posteaquam sedistis, qui manducatis panem doloris. Panem doloris poenitentes manducant, qui cantant in alio psalmo, et dicunt: Factae sunt mihi lacrymae meae panis die ac nocte. Quid est ergo: Surgite posteaquam sedistis? Nolite exaltari, nisi humiliati fueritis. Multi enim volunt surgere, antequam sederint; volunt se iustos videri, antequam peccatores se esse confessi sint. Ergo si ex persona capitis nostri accipis, sic intellege: Tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam, passionem meam et resurrectionem meam. Si ex persona corporis: Tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam; coram oculis tuis et peccata confessus sum, et tua gratia iustificatus sum. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, Enarratio in Psalmum CXXXVIII Source: Migne PL 37 1786

'You have known my sitting and my rising.' 1 What here is sitting, and what here is rising? He who sits, he humbles himself. The Lord then sat in His Passion, and He rose in His Resurrection. You, he says, have known this; that is, You have willed, You have approved; according to which Your will was done. But if one wishes to refer the words of the Head to the person of the Body: a man then sits when he humbles himself in penitence, and he rises up when his sins are forgiven, when he is lifted up to hope of everlasting life. Therefore it is said in another Psalm, 'You rise up after sitting who eat the bread of grief,' 2 They who are penitent eat the bread of grief, who sing in another Psalm and say, 'They were made for me my tears bread day and night.' 3 What is this, then, 'You rise up after sitting'? Not to exalt unless you have been humbled. Many wish to rise before they have been seated; they wish to be seen to be righteous before they have confessed that they are sinners. So if you would receive this passage of our Head, so understand, 'You have known my sitting and my rising,' as my Passion and Resurrection, and if you would receive 'You have known my sitting and rising' of the Body, understand: before your eyes I have confessed my sins, and by your grace I have been justified. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Enarrations on the Psalms from Psalm 138 1 Ps 138.2 2 Ps 126.2 3 Ps 41.4