Commentaria in Isaiam
What cause moves thee, Saturnian bird, to sit on high on the tomb of great Aristomenes?
This I tell thee: as far as I excel in strength among birds, so far does Aristomenes among demigods.
Let timid doves sit on the tombs of the timid; we eagles give kindly signs to the fearless.
Hence also Claudius Paradinus, in his Heroic Symbols, to show that for arduous undertakings the greatest industry, labor and diligence are needed, depicts an eagle sitting on the head of a stag between the horns, and shaking into its eyes the dust gathered on its wings, so that, blinded, it may at last cast it down from the rock. The inscription of this symbol is:
Anagogically, the Blessed are eagles. First, because the eagle, which is of most acute sight (and hence is called an eagle, because it sees acutely, as many hold), signifies the lofty, arduous and intent contemplation of the Blessed. For they, enjoying the divine vision, fix the keenness of their mind on God, the true sun and the fountain of all light.
Secondly, the eagle is not touched by lightning, which yet it is a terror to all mortals: so the Blessed do not fear damnation or hell, which is a terror to all.
Thirdly, the Blessed are like the Angels of God and the Cherubim, who, Ezechiel 1:10, are compared to eagles. For, as St. Dionysius says, Celestial Hierarchy, chapter 15: “The eagle signifies the royal dignity of the Angels, and a motion tending to higher things, and swift flight, and, for catching the food necessary to restore strength, agility and watchfulness, and the highest speed and ease, and therefore that singular power of gazing and attending freely and directly, inclining the keenness of the eyes in no direction, upon that most abundant and brilliant ray of the Godhead which it sends forth from itself like the sun.” All which agree also with the Blessed.
Fourthly, what Isaias here properly has in view, the winged, swiftest eagles signify the dowry of agility of the Blessed. For they will be most perfect in the resurrection, when the spiritual body, by this dowry, will be at once where it wills to be, they say, Jerome here. By this dowry they will fly up to heaven with Christ, who is the first and chief eagle. For, as is said in Matthew 24:28: “Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles also be gathered together,” that is, where Christ shall be, there will the Blessed be also. Wherefore St. Hilary understands that of Psalm 138: “If I take my wings early in the morning,” of Christ, who took his wings in the resurrection, his body now unburdened. And below he says these wings pertain to the change of earthly bodies into spiritual nature. And afterwards he adds: “He remembers elsewhere also (Isaias 40), saying, when he was treating of the now unwearied eternity of the spiritual: They shall put forth wings as eagles, being about to take on the nature of flying up to heaven in the change of the resurrection.”
Fifthly, the eagle loves the heights: the Blessed are in the empyrean heaven, in the most sublime glory and life. For on account of the sublimity of his wisdom St. John is called an eagle, Apocalypse chapter 4, verse 7.
Sixthly, “the eagle does not catch flies”; the Blessed do not care for earthly and vile things: “Do not, therefore, O man, aim to hold the first place among jackdaws, if you can be an eagle”: do not seek first places here among men, when by humbling yourself you can be numbered among the Blessed.
Seventhly, as old eagles renew themselves and grow young again, so the Saints in the resurrection will grow young, and for a mortal body will receive an immortal and glorious one, and with it, like eagles, will be caught up to meet Christ in the air. For there will be no labor there, no weariness, no fatigue, no pain, no groaning, no infirmity, no old age, but rest, alacrity, vigor, joy, jubilation, health and perpetual youth. So St. Jerome, Haymo, Procopius, and St. Augustine, letter 39 to Hesychius, and Hilary on that of Psalm 138: “If I take my wings early in the morning,” take this passage of Isaias literally of the future life and beatitude. But this sense is anagogical. For literally Isaias treats of the living, that is, of the faithful, who in this life, pressed by adversities, hope in the Lord, and are therefore renewed like eagles, as I have said.
THEY SHALL RUN AND NOT LABOR, THEY SHALL WALK AND NOT BE WEARY, the weary shall not fail, but shall go on strenuously in continual walking. More seems promised here to those who run than to those who walk in the way of virtue; for it is more not to labor, that is, not to feel the labor, than not to be wearied, and from weariness not to fail. For those who run are fervent, who from the fervor of the course do not feel the labor, because they love it and seek it: “For where there is love, there is no labor, but relish,” says St. Bernard. Those who walk are less fervent, who therefore feel the labor in works of virtue, but overcome it. So in natural things we see young men, brisk and ardent, often in running and other labors which are themselves pleasant and agreeable, not feel the labor, both because the delight they draw from it drives away the sense of labor, and because they take it up with great courage, force and spirit. For this force and spirit bears the weight of labor so easily that it hardly feels it. For Aristotle teaches in the Physics that a moving force, if it be great and effective, moves a weight otherwise great more easily than a small force and power moves a small weight. So a man carries a burden of ten pounds more easily than an infant a burden of one pound. Run, therefore, in the stadium of virtue, and you will make more progress in it, and merit more, and feel less labor. Therefore the Blessed Virgin, pregnant with the Spirit and the Word of God, “rising up... went into the hill country with haste..., and saluted Elizabeth,” and breathed on her, as on John, her fires and spirit, Luke 1:39. So Christ, like a divine sun: “He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way, his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof: and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat,” Psalm 18:6. To those who run, therefore, God breathes great grace and spirit, great courage and strength, like wings, which blow away all sense of labor.
Hence Paul, running and inviting to the race, says: “So run that you may obtain... I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty,” 1 Corinthians 9:24. There is another cause, which Abbot Pimenius gives in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chapter 39: “As flies,” he says, “do not approach a boiling pot, but if it is lukewarm they settle on it and breed worms: so demons flee a monk set on fire with the fire of the divine spirit, but mock and pursue the lukewarm.”
The fervent, therefore, do not feel labor or trouble, because all this in the work of virtue comes from the temptation and resistance of the demon, the flesh or the world, all of which are put to flight by fervor.
Wherefore Ecclesiasticus, chapter 31, verse 27 (sic), wisely warns: “In all thy works be quick, and no infirmity shall come to thee.”