The Captives

Quia illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos duxerunt nos, verba cantionum; et qui abduxerunt nos: Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion. Quae autem sint quae captivos ducant, nos Apostulus docet, dicens Video aliam legem in membris meis militantem adversus legem mentis meae et captivum me ducentem in lege peccati quae est in membris meis. Cum igitur inter concupiscentiam carnis et spiritus pugna est, tum ea quae captivos 0781B nos conantur sibi subdere, pertentant occupare corpus ejusque dominari, seque doctrinis spiritalibus, ut per consuetudinem his auctoritatem adimant, inserere. Sed resistendum est, et Prophetae voce respondendum, Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena? Terra nostra retinenda est, et in libertatem tuenda. Polluta enim terrae corpora audire de canticis Sion nihil possunt: et aliena a Deo, licet nostra sint, erunt si a lege peccati coeperint esse captiva. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXXXVI Source: Migne PL 9.781a-b

There they questioned us, we who were led off captive, for the words of song, and they who led us off said to us, 'Sing a song to us from the songs of Sion.' 1 Who they are who have been led away captive the Apostle teaches us, saying, 'I see one law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and making me captive it leads me into the law of sin which is in my members.' 2 When, then, there is conflict among the desires of the flesh and spirit, so those who would capture us try to subdue us to themselves, and they strive to occupy the body and rule it, and to insert themselves into spiritual teachings so that through familiarity they may deprive them of authority. But they must be resisted as the voice of the prophet responds, 'How shall we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?' We must cleave to our own land, and look toward freedom, for it is not possible for the polluted bodies of the earth to hear anything of the songs of Sion, and yet things foreign to God may be ours if we have begun to be made captive by the law of sin. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 136 1 Ps Ps 136.3 2 Rom 7.25