Jacques Lobbet de Lanthin: The Cross of Christ Is a Bow

Introduction

 To describe Fr. Lobbet, I can do no better than quote a Belgian biographical dictionary: "Lobbe de Lantin (Jacques), ecclesiastical writer and theologian, born at Liège, the 28th of September, 1592, died in that town, the 18th of June, 1672.  He entered the novitiate the 18th of October, 1613, taught philosophy at Douai, and was later rector of the colleges of Tournai, of Mons, and of Liège.  His domain was moral theology, where he was distinguished by his great surety of method."  (The dictionary fails to note that he was a Jesuit.)  The dictionary lists fifteen volumes of works, most about sin or moral questions, and a few more general moral works (The Way of Life and Death, On Christian Fortitude and Constancy), as well as a screed titled Temple of the Lord, or, On the Religious Worship of Temples, Against the Petulant License of This Age.  The selection below is from Lobbet de Lanthin's Treatise on the Sacred Passion and Cross of Christ the Lord, Chapter XI.  The title—"The Cross of Christ Is a Bow"—is Lobbet de Lanthin's own title to this sub-section of the chapter; I have omitted the final page of this sub-section, as it is mostly a florilegium of patristic quotes, as well as an odd tangent regarding the splitting of the temple veil.

Note that I have not double-checked any of Lobbet de Lanthin's references or ancient tales (though I have confirmed Scriptural citations); however, I should note that the phrase "He lives by slaying" (vivificat occidendo), which Lobbet de Lanthin attributes to St. Ambrose's Exhortation to Virgins, is a classic phrase from Luther's On the Bondage of the Will, though the concept isn't unique to the Reformer: it is a standard concept of romantic poetry.  My first thought is of Golden Age Spanish love poetry, though I wouldn't be surprised to find the same idea in, say, Shakespeare's sonnets.  Lobbet de Lanthin may have simply hit upon the same phrase while paraphrasing Ambrose.

The Cross of Christ Is a Bow

Jacques Lobbet de Lanthin (1592-1672)

The prophet of the king described the Messiah as a soldier in this way: for, because he is armed with a sword, then, with a bow, so that he would fight in close combat with that one, and so that, with this one, he might seek out, wound, flatter even far-off hosts.

Gird, it says, your sword upon your thigh, most powerful one (Ps 45:3).

If one of you asks what this is, let him listen to the Holy Fathers, [who say] that it is the word of the Evangelic preaching, which separates all necessities, cuts and divides every chain of the flesh, and, as I say with the Apostle, it attains unto the division of soul and spirit (cf. Heb 4:12), therefore, it proclaims victory over the world and the flesh. Namely, the sword of the Messiah is more powerful than every soul that antiquity makes mention of.

More powerful than Goliath’s sword, from which this phrase is hung: There is no other like this (1 Sam 21:9).

More powerful than the sword of Saul, about which this [phrase] was shot forth: The sword of Saul did not return empty (2 Sam 1:22).

More powerful than the sword of Gideon, to whom The Lord handed over Midian and all its camp (Jgs 7:15).

The sword of the spirit, the Messiah’s word, I say, was more powerful than these in every way: for, with this, immortal souls themselves are penetrated; but, with those, only mortal bodies were touched.

Truly, that’s more than enough about the Messiah’s sword: I come to the arrows, with which he fights and conquers from afar; about these the Seer of the king sings: Your arrows are sharp, peoples fall beneath you (Ps 45:5).

Do you want to know what these are? They are arrows of love, they are arrows of charity, which the Messiah—like an archer sent from the heavenly kingdoms to the earthly ones—shoots from the Cross as from a drawn bow.

Do not damn me, benevolent Reader, if I call the God-man an archer. Certainly, Origen approved this name, he who once [said] these things to the bride, that is, to the soul more loving of its Christ: Furnish yourself with a handsome javelin, for God is an archer (Homily 2 on the Song of Songs).

The old poets, in whom the soul easily finds learned comments, wanted their Gods to be armed with bow and arrow.

Jove, so that he could punish with Supreme power.

Apollo, so that he could persuade with a clearly singular force.

Cupid, for the sweet and at the same time powerful enticements of love.

From these fables and comments, I pass over to the truth: the Eternal Father gave, gave indeed, both bow and arrows to Christ His Son.

The bow was the Cross, love the arrow: for with what arms could He be better equipped?

He had a power, and a heavenly and divine one, with which He might thrust into rebel souls and heads opposed to heaven.

He had a power for persuading, and an unwonted and exceedingly incredible one, so that He did not strive with word alone, but also confirmed with work. For Jesus began to do and teach, and see the power of persuading in this here; since Testimony is more efficacious for life than language, for men believe more by eyes than by ears (Seneca, Epistle 16).

He had marvelous enticements of love, and patient incitements to return love, and, by the best judgment of heaven, He was given arrow and bow for this.

The Cross was that bow, to which that prophecy of Zachariah can be applied: I have drawn Judah for Me like a bow (Zec 9:13), that is, “I have drawn Christ, from the tribe named after Judah, onto the Cross, like a bow.” In Hebrew, I trampled, and, trampling, I drew; for they are wont to draw a bow with giant mills, trampling the bow with their feet, and pulling the string with their hands;¹ and so, on the Cross, as if on some horn or bow, the Savior was stretched; and, so that He would be stretched more, [He was], as it were, trampled by feet, when He was made a reproach of men and outcast of the people (Ps 22:6).

Further, it behooved Him to be thus stretched, so that He would cast forth His arrows both further and more powerfully, to which the Prophet Habakkuk doubtlessly alludes, where he says, prophesying about the Preserver of the world:

Horns in his hands (Hab 3:4), certainly the horns of the Cross, which Christ’s hands attached, and, indeed, nailed to the beam, so that He, drawing them and, as it were, stretching either the Cross or the bow of the body, would sent forth sharp arrows into the hearts of the enemies of the Eternal King, that is, His Father, beneath Whose empire they would fall, now conquered by the bow, now pinned by the arrow.

Further, this was so done, and done well: for whoever was conquered by the love of the Cross, either from among the Jews or even from among the Gentiles, gave palms to the immortal God nailed for him. I don’t want to dally here, since it is wide-open to the eyes of all.

And, truly, what is certainly wondrous, when the Eternal Father put the horns in His hands, or, as the Seventy turn it to their use, He put the robust love of His strength, interpreters know they meant the robust love of divine strength on the Cross, since, as the Distinguished Jerome says, God the Father put the horns, or kingdom of the Cross, into the hands of His Son, so that He would make His beloved loved by men, not lightly, but with strength, that is, vehemently and strongly.

So Paul loved, whose witnesses are his own statements of love. Who will separate us from the charity of Christ? (Rom 8:35)

So, further, Augustine loved, who forthrightly and truly confessed this about himself: Shoot arrows into my heart, Lord.

So St. Elizabeth loved, who, fixed by those arrows, gave her ornaments and all of her womanly beauty as spoils and triumphs of victory to the Crucified One.

So, finally (may I not chase them all down) the Ethnic King in the land of Cush, with his enormous troop of soldiers, handed over his conquered hands and his heart, conquered by that arrow of charity, as from the Cross or a bow; he saw it shoot out by the Crucified One as by an archer; that King, although Ethnic, wondered exceedingly, that a God-man could come to have such love and indulgence that He would hang from the Cross as from a bow, accomplishing a prodigy of incredible charity, by which his heart—the seat and office of love—felt itself sought out and transfixed, with a truly good and happy wound; for, as Origen [says], piously and learnedly, I have been wounded by that blessed arrow! Blessed, I say, since, as the Distinguished Ambrose notes, that arrow gives life by slaying; it gives life in Christ, slaying the world. Too great is this skill of our archer, that, while He wounds, He heals.

Antiquity recounts those who are skilled in the arts of archery in a few spots; among the first, he who, when a dragon had snatched Alcion’s son, killed the dragon with an arrow, leaving the son unharmed. Cambyses, King of Persia, who pierced Prexapses’ son, sanding in the king’s vestibule, through the middle of the heart.

Domitian, who shot arrows at boys standing far away, and mocking the palm of his right hand with daring boldness, and did so with such skill that all of them slipped through their gaps of their fingers, without harm. Commodus, who even pierced a flying crane with a spear, which, even now, is forbidden to do in India; those, I say, and others, foolish antiquity exalts and praises too much; I, leaving aside those arts of human games, and, perhaps, damning the vanity in them, I look to You and love You, good Jesus, and, as much as I may, I proclaim that art of Yours, by which, from the Cross as from some heavenly bow, You shoot arrows into the heart of man, or into Your destined target; arrows, I say, of love and of charity, which You have as arms, and with which You conquer all. For if St. Fulgentius truly declared of the Distinguished Stephan’s charity, Stephan had charity for arms, and everywhere he conquered through it; if, I say, that could be said of Stephan, one of Your disciples, how much more [can nit be said] of that immense and infinite charity of Yours, which You had, in this militant life, as Your arms, and through You conquered everywhere.

You conquered through it, truly; You conquered in heaven, and You cast the prepared thunderbolts of Divine Justice out of Your hands; and You led the Eternal Father to have some mercy on our race.

You conquered on earth, where You drew the sons of Adam with the chains of love, the chains of charity.

You conquered in hell itself, where You overthrew the Tartarean powers and shattered them within; where You led the Fathers out of the obscure bosom of Limbo and the prison into more joyful halls, into that light, namely, into beatitude: go forward, good leader of my soul, good Jesus, go forth to conquer and triumph!

 

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1This describes one method of loading a crossbow: the bow had a stirrup, so that the archer could hold the bow down with his foot while cranking it (using the “giant mills” (ingentis molis)). See, for instance, this detail from a 15th-century painting of the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian.

 

Source: Iacobi Lobbetii Leodiensis, Societatis Iesu Theologi, Tractatus Duo Ascetici; Primus de Sacra Christi Domini Passione et Cruce. Secundus de Religioso Templorum Cultu. Adversus petulantem hujus sæculi licentiam (Leodii: Henrici et Ioannis Mathiæ Hoviorum, 1653), 25B-26B

Introduction Source: Biographie Nationale publiée par L'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Bruxelles: Bruylant-Christophe, 1892-1893), XII:298-300.

 

Translation ©2024 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.