Bellarmine on Psalm 101: Verses 5-6

We continue our series of posts featuring St Robert Bellarmine's commentary on Psalm 101, the fifth of the Seven Penitential Psalms.

The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site  - UANL and is accompanied by my fairly literal translation. The Scripture excerpts (Douay Rheims/Vulgate) are taken from the DRBO site but the verse numbering follows that of Bellarmine’s Latin text.

Where footnotes are included, the text follows each section.

Verses 5 & 6

I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.

Percussus sum ut foenum, et aruit cor meum, quia oblitus sum comedere panem meum.

Through the voice of my groaning, my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.

A voce gemitus mei adhaesit os meum carni meae.

He continues by lamenting his past state and says: “I am smitten as grass,” I am smitten by the sun of worldly prosperity, “as grass,” which dries up very easily, “and my heart is withered,” because of being preoccupied with the cares of this world. I have forgotten to eat my bread, the bread, namely, of heavenly truth, which our bread properly is, not shared with the beasts; for food of the body is not properly our food. This opinion is 

most true and should be carefully considered by those who enjoy prosperity; for unless those in prosperity abide under the shelter of God’s wings, or are bathed by a continual shower of divine grace, they cannot but be smitten as grass, and their heart, sickening at the bread from heaven, will wither away inside. “Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life,”[1] for such people forget to eat of the true bread and are dried up of all the grace of devotion.

He next explains the sorrow he has for his past life, and fruits worthy of penitence; for just as his flesh delighted in pleasures, his heart, neglecting to eat of the heavenly bread, withered away; now, on the contrary, “Through the voice of his groaning,” his flesh forgets to eat bread, and so his “bones have cleaved to flesh.” that is, to his skin; in this text, flesh is admitted for skin, as St Jerome notes. And thus are commended in this text weeping and fasting, which are fruits and signs of true penitence.

[1] And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. Attendite autem vobis, ne forte graventur corda vestra in crapula, et ebrietate, et curis hujus vitae, et superveniat in vos repentina dies illa : [Luc. xxi. 34]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.