Lamentations — Chapter 3

I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation. Jeremiah speaks as 'the man who has seen affliction' — the prophet as exemplary sufferer, typifying both the nation and Christ. Lapide: this triple-verse per letter form is unique in Scripture; Lapide gives elaborate treatment of the Hebrew alphabet allegory (the 22 letters encompassing all possible human lament = universal suffering expressed through every linguistic possibility).

And I said: My end and my hope is perished from the Lord. The nadir of the lament: hope itself seems extinguished. Lapide: this is the dark night of the soul — the purgative moment before the great consolation of v.22. The spiritual life requires this passage through apparent hopelessness before the divine mercy reveals itself.

The mercies of the Lord, that we are not consumed: because his tender mercies have not failed. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The great turning point of all Lamentations — from desolation to consolation. 'The mercies of the Lord are not consumed' = despite all the destruction, God's hesed (loving-kindness) endures. 'New every morning' (novi diluculum) = each day brings fresh divine mercy, erasing the previous day's failures. Lapide: this is the theological heart of the book.

It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth. The pastoral wisdom of early suffering: those who bear the yoke of discipline in youth are better fitted for spiritual life. Lapide: applied to the value of early mortification and ascetical training in religious education; the saints who became great were those who embraced spiritual discipline from childhood (citing Anthony, Benedict, Francis).

Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord. The universal call to examination of conscience and return to God — the hinge of ch.3, moving from lament to conversion. Lapide: 'search our ways' = conscience examination (examen conscientiae), a spiritual practice Ignatius of Loyola would formalize but which is here ancient and prophetic.

I have called upon thy name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thy ear from my sighs and cries. Prayer from the lowest pit = the prayer of total destitution, which God always hears. Applied to purgatory and to the death-agony. Lapide: the 'lowest pit' (lacu novissimo) = the deepest spiritual desolation from which even the faintest call to God is heard and answered.