To set up on high those that are low; that those who mourn may be lifted to safety.
Read Chapter 5
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
“Those below are set on high,” in that they, who are now despised for the love of God, shall return as judges along with God. The “Truth” pledges this which we have just named to the same humble ones, saying, “You who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Then “those that mourn the Lord safely exalt,” because the desire for him is inflaming them; they flee prosperity, endure crosses, undergo tortures at the hands of persecutors, chasten their own selves with grieving. They are then promised a safety so much the more exalted that they now, from devout affection, consider themselves dead to all the joys of the world. Hence it is said by Solomon, “The heart knows his own soul’s bitterness, and a stranger does not meddle impertinently with his joy.” For the human mind “knows its own soul’s bitterness.” When inflamed with aspirations after the eternal land...
26. It is well said then, Who setteth up on high those that be low. And it is fitly added, And those which mourn He exalteth with safety. Oftentimes in this world even any that be glad of heart are ‘exalted,’ whilst they are swoln by the mere gloriousness of their fortune, but ‘those that mourn, the Lord exalts to safety,’ in that he raises His sorrowing children to glory by the solid substance of true joy; for they are exalted by safety, and not by madness, who, set fast in good works, rejoice with a sure hope in God. For there are some, as we have said, who both do misdeeds, and yet do not cease to rejoice. Of whom Solomon saith, Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the things that be froward. [Prov. 2, 14] And again, There be wicked men, who are as secure, as though they had the deeds of the righteous. [Ecc. 8, 14. Vulg.] These, truly, are not ‘exalted by safety,’ but by foolishness, which same are full of pride when they ought to be loaded with sorrow, and for the very rea...
