Captivity And Servitude

Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus... Itaque et hanc corporalem populi captivitatem, referri in exemplum spiritalis captivitatis oportet. Captae enim mentes nostrae sunt corporum saeculique dominatu, captae a daemonibus sunt jure vitiorum, quae imperium in nos summ per diversa ministeriorum genera exercent: dum nos ebrietas possidet, dum luxus subigit, dum avaritia devincit, dum ambitio occupat, dum malevolentia obtinet, dum ira usurpat, dum omnia in nobis regnant haec incentiva vitiorum. Venit enim Dominus, secundum prophetam, captivitatem avertere, cum dicitur. Praedicare captivis remissonem. Venit ligatos solvere, cum ait: Hanc filiam Abrahae, quam ligaverat Satanas decem et octo annis, nonne oportuit solvi in die sabbati? Venit servientes in libertatem deducere, dicens: Amen, dico vobis, quoniam omnis qui fact peccatum, servus est peccati. Servus autem non manet in domo in aeternum, filius manet in aeternum. Si vero Filius vos liberaverit, vere liberi eritis. Capimur ergo et ligamur et servimus, non tam corpore, quam et mente. Et mihi in praesenti psalmo omnis virtus et ratio verborum non tam corporlem captivitatem tractare, quam spiritalem videtur. Ea enim et in querelis et in incolis, et in rebus et in nominibus momenta sunt, ut spiritalem potius captivitaem haec lamentabilis Prophetae querela significet. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXXXVI Source: Migne PL 9.778a-c

By the rivers of Babylon where we sat and wept...1 This corporeal captivity of the people should direct as an example of spiritual captivity. For our minds our captive when they are dominated by corporeal and worldly things, when by the vices they are rightly made captive by demons, which exert rule over us through many types of activity: when we are inebriated, when we are subjugated by luxury, when we are conquered by avarice, when ambition seizes us, when malevolence grips us, when wrath rises up in us, when all the provocations of the vices reign in us. And the Lord comes, according to the prophet, to cast aside captivity. 2 He preaches freedom to captives. He comes to undo bonds when He says, 'This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, should she not be freed on the Sabbath day?' 3 He comes to lead slaves to liberty, saying: 'Behold, I say to you that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. A servant does not remain in the house forever, a son remains forever. If the Son has liberated you, truly you shall be free.' 4 Thus we are seized and bound and made slaves, not so much in the body but rather in the soul. And it seems to me that in this Psalm all the force and the reason of the words does not speak so much of corporeal captivity but rather of spiritual servitude. For these sorrowful complaints of the prophet spoken in grief and exile, even the use of things and names, signify rather a spiritual captivity. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 136 1 Ps 136.1 2 Isaiah 61.1, Lk 4.18 3 Lk 13.16 4 Jn 8.31-36