And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
All Commentaries on Leviticus 26:6 Go To Leviticus 26
Caesarius of Arles
AD 542
“I will rid your country of ravenous beasts and keep war from sweeping across your land.” There are many fights which pass over our land, if we do not observe the law of God and keep his commands. Let each one return to his own soul or conscience and examine himself with interior recollection. Let him see how our land, that is, our body, is oppressed at one time by the spirit of fornication, at another by anger or fury. Again it is disturbed by the darts of avarice or struck by the javelins of envy; then it is darkened by the vice of pride. In whatever way the flesh lusts against the spirit or the spirit against the flesh, our land is agitated by exceedingly dangerous battles. Therefore, if a man observes the divine commands, by the Holy Ghost brings his body into subjection, keeps God’s precepts and fulfills them, he suffers this fight and war less or endures them in such a way that he is victorious. Indeed, God takes them away from his land and does not allow them to pass over the land, that is, the soul of the just.
