My eye affects my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 3:51 Go To Lamentations 3
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
The compassion of the prophet is here exposed. First is the exterior lamentation: "My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite." Namely, crying: "without ceasing,": from tears: "without respite": from tribulation for the people. For Jeremiah 9:18-19 asserts: "And our eyelids gush with water. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion."
There is then a final lamentation: "Until the Lord of heaven looks down and sees." Namely, with his eyes of divine mercy. Since Psalm 102 (101):l9 says: "That he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the earth."
Second is the compassion of the prophet, due to the sting from interior grief: "My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens of my city." That is: "my eyes," seeing the depredation upon the earth,"cause me grief". That is, spoiling the earth from delight. Or, lamenting exteriorily, the prophet gives himself up to a total grief within his own heart.
