The Pouring Out of the Word and Spirit

"that it might be born"—"those speaking against the law of the righteous". Does one pray to Him? To Him, yes. I say: if I wish to receive something from another, but I say it is from God, I would not be praying to that person, but to God, so that He might give us such a helper, so that He might lead such a person as a general into our midst. But when it is to Him, God: if someone prays to Him wishing to receive something, they bring both the request and the hope of receiving it to Him.

It is as if I say to God: "Drink from my merit," I am sending a prayer about prayer. "Hear my voice, O Lord, for to You I have cried" (Ps 130:1); and I am sending a prayer about a prayer; for since God needs cooperation and for the prayer to be heard, I call Him again a partner through the prayer, so that He might fulfill my prayer by hearing it. This is also what I mean by "arise to my help, not unarmed, but taking up a weapon." Receive my body and my soul; for through these you will be able to help me.

Often a physician, having great capacity, is unable to heal small things or small people. Sometimes, therefore, he prepares one of his disciples, one of the lesser ones and much more advanced than him, so that he might be able to approach this one and heal him. To take up a weapon and a shield means to take up a man, to assume the form of a servant. And such things often happen.

Therefore he says: if he proposes to help me as God, the help is superior. Having become a man, help me. And he says to Him: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O Mighty One, with your beauty and your splendor" (Ps 45:3). You have beauty and splendor; for you did not commit sin, nor did you know it. "Gird" therefore "the sword upon your thigh." Often the name of the thigh signifies the things of generation, as if saying: "every thigh shall be moistened," meaning euphemistically and decorously through the thigh the functional organs of generation. Because of this also...

Abraham, sending his son for the marriage of Rebekah, says: 'Put your hand under my thigh, and I swear you' (Genesis 24:2); for since he was about to receive a virgin and lead her from a far place to a far place, he necessarily secured his prudence. And it is also possible in this way: since the one coming for the salvation of all is to come from my thighs, there 'put your hand, and I swear you'. And the Scripture very solemnly names many such things.

Concerning the dragon, that is to say, the devil, it says: 'Behold, his strength is upon the loins, and his power is upon the navel of the belly' (Revelation 12:5). Concerning the man, it named the loins, but concerning the woman, it solemnly said that organ 'the navel of the belly'. From the nearby parts, it revealed the use of what it spoke.

'Pour out your sword and shut against those pursuing me; multiply the sword, give us a sword against the enemies' (Psalm 149:6). And the living Word of God is the sword. And again the word of the Spirit: 'and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God' (Ephesians 6:17).

To pour out signifies always, as if it says: 'I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh' (Joel 2:28); it signifies a bountiful gift and a rich provision through the word. 'The love of God is poured out in our hearts' (Romans 5:5). And again: 'Your name poured out as oil'. The poured out oil goes out from the containing vessel and sends out its fragrance to the utmost.

When indeed the Savior was in Israel alone—for 'in Israel great is his name' (Psalm 72:17)—it was as if his name were in a vessel. But when 'how wonderful is his name' has become 'in all the land', and that has been filled: 'As your name, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth' (Psalm 72:17), it has become poured out oil. This word therefore signifies a bountiful provision. This then says: make each of us a sword-bearer, pour out the sword; for then you shut against those of the...