Bellarmine on Psalm 122 : Verse 5 (conclusion)

Verse 5

For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.

quia multum repleta est anima nostra opprobrium abundantibus, et despectio superbis.

In this last verse, David tells us that the contempt and hatred, of which he spoke earlier, as befalling the poor and humble pilgrims, proceeds from the wealthy and the proud. Some commentators read the words a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud as a curse, so that the sense is: May reproach fall upon the wealthy and contempt upon the proud; but if we consider the original text and we want to harmonise St. Jerome’s translation with that of the Septuagint, we are obliged to follow St. Augustine and say that the sense is: “My soul is greatly filled,” namely with confusion, because I am made “a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.” For St. Jerome correctly translated the Hebrew as the soul is greatly filled with the reproach of the rich and the contempt of the proud. The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate correctly agree with this if the words I am become are understood as implied and the text continues with a reproach, etc. The Prophet therefore says, “My soul is greatly filled,” which is the same as what he said earlier: “We are greatly filled with contempt.” But for the sake of explanation in this context he names the soul, since the sense of contempt pertains properly to the rational soul; for those who lack a rational soul can feel pain but not contempt. The words is filled are read in Hebrew as is satiated with, and this adds to 

the meaning in a marvellous manner; because if they who are greatly satiated, that is, who are filled beyond satiety, even if they are filled with good food, they experience great discomfort: what will be the feeling of those who are filled with bad food, such as are reproaches and contempt? From this it truly follows that: “a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud” signify exactly the same thing: for reproach and contempt are the same, as are the wealthy and the proud. All the proud are inflated and are accordingly rich; but they abound in empty wind not in any solid good, that is, they abound in the opinion and estimation they have of themselves; for if they possess worldly riches, they think they are their own and they do not think they will have to render an account  of them to God. If they enjoy (positions of) dignity and honour, they judge all those things to be due to themselves and to be theirs, and they do not understand they will have to render a most strict account for this dignity, and that this is anything other than a burden. In this, they would be no less foolish in boasting of such a burden than would a walking stick that boasted that it walked greatly burdened.[1] If they have a number of strengths, or intelligence, or learning, they convince themselves they are much greater than they are, and they attribute to themselves what are actually gifts from God. Finally, if they are lacking in riches, dignities and honours but on the contrary are punished and scourged, they judge themselves to have been injured and they murmur and blaspheme against God; all this arises from the fact they are full of themselves, or rather they are full of the empty wind of their own self-regard. But there will come a time when reproach and contempt will return to them, namely, when on the last day they will say, as written in Wisdom V: “ These are they, whom we had some time in derision, and for a parable of reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour. Behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints.”[2] And further on, “What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow.”[3]

[1] By the body of the person carrying the stick.

[2] dicentes intra se, poenitentiam agentes, et prae angustia spiritus gementes : Hi sunt quos habuimus aliquando in derisum, et in similitudinem improperii. Nos insensati, vitam illorum aestimabamus insaniam, et finem illorum sine honore; ecce quomodo computati sunt inter filios Dei, et inter sanctos sors illorum est. [Wisdom v 3-5]

[3] 

Quid nobis profuit superbia? aut divitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis? Transierunt omnia illa tamquam umbra. [Wisdom v 8-9]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.