Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 546

622

THE FORMS OF INSPIRATION

§ 84.

by the

vital

[Div. Ill

emotions in God, and the pathway of lyric inspi-

In every lyric poet you find first a concommotion of feeling, occasioned by his own joy or sorrow, or by the weal or woe of that which he loves. Secondly, that sense of solidarity, by which in his personal

ration

is

cleared.

siderable

emotions he discerns the wave-beat of the

And

finally, there

in this universal tion, or victory.

works

in

him

human

heart.

a dominant j)Ower, which,

human emotion-life, effects However subjective the

order, reconcilialyric

may

be, it

always loses the personal subject in the general subject, and in this general subject the Divine subject appears dominant. Since

we may speak

to this extent of a certain

spiration in the case of all higher lyric,

Divine

readily seen

it is

in-

how

naturally lyric lent itself as a vehicle for holy inspiration, and

required but the employment in a special

way

of the

Holy

Spirit, to effect the lyric inspiration of the Psalmist.

The

lyric

ing, but

poet does not merely sing for the sake of sing-

from the

Under the weight consuming sorrow he is near being

thirst for deliverance.

of unspeakable joy or of

overcome. And now the spirit arouses itself within him, not to shake himself free from this feeling of sorrow or joy, but, luctor et emergo, to raise the head above those waves of the ocean of his feeling, and either pour

oil

upon the

seeth-

ing waters, that shall quiet their violence, or bring those

waves into harmony with the wave-beat of his own life, and thus effect reconciliation, or, finally, with power from on high This is always done in two stages. to break that wave-beat. First, by his descent from the personal into the solidaryhuman. He aptly remarks I am not alone in these sorrows there are "companions in misery" (consortes doloris) hence that sorrow must have deeper causes. And secondly, from this " companionship in misery " he reaches out after the living God, who does not stand as a personified Fate over against this necessity, but with Sovereign Authority bears rule over it. It is evident, that God the Lord has led His lyric singers personally into bitter sorrows, and again has made them leap for :

;

;

joy with personal gladness.

But

it

also appears, in the second

place, that these experiences of deep sorrow

and high-strung

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