Arrows And Paul

Sagittae tuae acutae, potentissimae... Verba cor transfigentia, amorem excitantia. Unde dicitur in Canticis canticorum: Quia vulnerata caritate ego sum. Dicit enim vulneratam se esse caritate, id est, amare se dicit, aestuare se dicit, suspirare sponso, unde accepit sagittam verbi. Sagittae tuae acutae, potentissimae: et transfigentes, et efficientes: acutae, potentissimae. Populi sub te cadent. Qui ceciderunt? Qui percussi sunt, et ceciderunt. Populos videmus subditos Christo, cadentes non videmus. Exponit ubi cadunt: in corde. Ibi se erigebant adversus Christum, ibi cadunt ante Christum. Blasphemabat Saulus Christum, erectus erat: supplicat Christo, cecidit, prostratus est: occisus est inimicus Christi, ut vivat discipulus Christi. De coelo emissa sagitta, corde percussus est Saulus, nondum Paulus, adhuc Saulus, adhuc erectus, nondum prostratus: accepit sagittam, cecidit in corde. Non enim quod prostratus est in facie, ibi cecidit, sed ubi ait: Domine, quid me iubes facere? Modo ibas ad Christianos alligandos et perducendos ad poenam; et modo dicis Christo: Quid me iubes facere? O sagittam acutam, potentissimam, qua accepta cecidit Saulus ut esset Paulus! Ut ille, ita et populi. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Enarrationes In Psalmos, Psalm XLIV Source: Migne PL 38.503

Your arrows are sharp and most powerful...1 These are words that pierce the heart, exciting love. Hence it is said in the Song of Songs, 'Because I am wounded with love.' 2 For she says of herself that she is wounded with love, that is, she speaks of her loving, and of being inflamed with sighing for the Bridegroom, from whom she received the arrow of the Word. 'Your arrows are sharp and most powerful.' They are piercing and effective, sharp and most powerful. 'The peoples shall fall under you.' Who have fallen? They who were wounded have also fallen. We see the nations subdued to Christ, but we do not see them fall. He explains where they fall, that is, in the heart. It was there they lifted themselves up against Christ, it is there that they fall down before Christ. Saul blasphemed Christ, then he was lifted up. He prays to Christ, he falls, he is prostrate. The enemy of Christ is slain so that the disciple of Christ may live. By an arrow launched from heaven Saul was stuck in the heart, he who was not yet Paul, but still Saul. When he was still lifted up and still not yet prostrate, he is wounded in the heart. He received the arrow, he fell in his heart. For though he fell prostrate on his face, it was not there that he fell down in his heart, but it was where he said aloud, 'Lord, what do you command me do?' 3 You were just about to bind Christians and lead them off to punishment, and now you say to Christ, 'What do you command me to do?' O sharp and most powerful arrow by whose stroke Saul fell so they he might become Paul. As with him, so with the peoples.  Saint Augustine of Hippo, Expositions On The Psalms, Psalm 44 1 Ps 44.6 2 Song 2.5, 5.8 3 Acts 9.6