Light's Loss

Et inde exsurgens... Spiritualiter tamen doctor salutis Dominus exsurgit, quia corda audientium sursum erigit, sicut sol se exaltans cuncta ad se trahit quae lumine suo tangit. Oritur sol, et occidit: et ad locum suum revertitur. Sol, vas admirabile opus Excelsi. Sic ergo, exinde exsurgens, et se exaltans in lumine, quaedam loca relinquit, et ad quaedam accedit. Relicta vel despiciens, propter indevotionem: vel sibi relinquens, ad propriae fragilitatis considerationem: vel tentationi exponens, propter virtutis exercitationem. De primo horum dicitur: Ecce relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta. Dico enim vobis, non me videbitis amodo. Ipsi fuerunt rebelles lumini. Tales sol exsurgens deserit, sicut lumen deserit caecos a se aversos: quosdam autem deserit ad suae fragilitatis considerationem. Si ignoras te, o pulcherrima inter mulieres, egredere, et abi post vestigia gregum, et pasce hoedos tuos juxta tabernacula pastorum. Hoc est, si tu, quae pulcherrima es pulchritudine et compositione virtutis, ignoras te per oblivionem propriae fragilitatis, egredere, hoc est, egredieris de sereno tuae lucis quae te tenet et venustat: et statim relicta sequeris vestigia gregum ad modum bestiarum: et abi dissoluta effecta, et pasces sensuum delectatione haedos foetidos, et pecorinos motus, juxta tabernacula pastorum, hoc est, ad similitudinem aliorum pastorum pecorinos motus pascentium. Dimisi eos secundum desideria cordis eorum: ibunt in adinventionibus suis. Sic Paulus de lumine aeternae contemplationis projectus est in stimulum carnis. Quosdam autem deserens, tentationi exponit ad virtutis exercitationem, Quia acceptus eras Deo, necesse fuit ut tentatio probaret te. In hoc sensu dicitur: Cum sedero in tenebris, Dominus lux mea est. In tenebris enim tentationis caute et patienter sedens, ad lucem pro certo consolationis deveniet. Hoc pro certo habet omnis qui te colit, quod vita ejus, si inprobatione fuerit, coronabitur. si autem in tribulatione fuerit, liberabitur: et si in correptione fuerit, ad misericordiam tuam venire licebit. Non enim delectaris in perditionibus nostris : quia post tempestatem, tranquillum facis: et post lacrymationem et fletum, exsultationem infundis. In hoc sensu dictum est illud Psalmi et: Nox sicut dies illuminabitur: et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis. Deus meus, illumina tenebras meas: quoniam in te eripiar a tentatione. Sanctus Albertus Magnus Commentarium In Evangelium Divi Marci, Caput X Source: Here p108

And rising up from there... 1 Spiritually, the Lord, the teacher of salvation, rises because He lifts up the hearts of those who hear Him, as the rising sun draws everything to itself which it touches with its light. 'The sun rises and it sets, and it returns to its place.' 2 'The sun, a wondrous vessel made by the Most High.' 3 Therefore 'rising up from there,' and exalting Himself in light, He left that place and went to another. Either scorning those He left because of their lack of devotion, or that in His absence that they might turn to consideration of their fragility, or to expose them to trial for the exercise of virtue. Concerning the first of these it is said: 'Behold a ruined house shall be left to you. I say to you that you shall see me no more...' 4 'They were rebels against the light...' 5 The rising sun forsakes such folk, as the light forsakes the blind who have turned themselves away from it, forsaking them to the consideration of their fragility. 'If you do not know yourself, fairest among women, go out, and follow after the tracks of the flocks and feed your kids beside the tents of the shepherds.' 6 That is, if you, who are most fair by the beauty and arrangement of virtue do not know yourself because of forgetfulness of your own fragility, go out, that is, go out from the tranquillity of your light which supports and beautifies you, and forsaken you shall immediately follow the tracks of the flocks in the way of beasts, and you go off to ruinous deeds, and feed your senses on the pleasure of fetid kids and the desires of cattle, 'beside the tents of the shepherds,' that is, in the likeness of other shepherds who feed the desires of cattle. 'I dismissed them according to the desires of their hearts, and they went off in their ways.' 7 So Paul was cast down with a goad to the flesh from the light of eternal contemplation. 8 Regarding those whom are forsaken for an exposure to trial for the exercise of virtue: 'Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that trial prove you.' 9 With this sense it is said: 'When I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.' 10 For patiently and prudently sitting in the gloom of trial, it is certain that the light of consolation shall come. 'Everyone who worships you is certain of this, that his life, if it has been tested, thus shall be crowned, and if he was in tribulation, so he shall be delivered, and if in correction, he shall be allowed to come to your mercy. For you do not delight in our ruin, but after the storm you make calm, and after tears and weeping you pour forth exaltation.' 11 In this sense it was said in the Psalm: 'Night shall be as bright as day. Night shall be my light in my delights.' 12 And 'My God, illuminate my darkness, because in you I am delivered from trial.' Saint Albert The Great, Commentary On The Gospel of St Mark, Chapter 10 1 Mark 10.1 2 Eccl 2.5 3 Sirach 43.2 4 Mt 23.38-39 5 Job 24.13 6 Song 1.7 7 Ps 80.13 8 2 Cor 12.1-7 9 Tob 12.13 10 Micah 7.8 11 Tob 3.21-22 12 Ps 138.11-12