Thou must cleanse us, Thou must feed us,
From the Second death must lead us
Upward to our Heavenly Home!
S. Hildebert, following the Fathers: "Isaac, whose name by interpretation is laughter, signifies Christ. For Christ is the joy of man and angels."
So S. Hildebert again: "This rod, thrown down on the earth and become a serpent, devoured the rods of the Egyptian magicians, because the Son of God made flesh, after the dignity of His glory made obedient unto death, by the very means of the death of the flesh deprived the Serpent of his deadly venom, and destroyed death, and the sting of death, according to that saying, 'O death, I will be thy death! O Hell, I will be thy plagues!'"
The reference is to the question, put by God to Job,—' "Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook?"—But what man was unable to do, that Christ could and did effect on the true Leviathan, Satan.—Thus according to the Fathers, our Lord's humanity was the bait, His divinity the hook; Satan, unconsciously swallowing one, was destroyed by the other. Thus in an Ambrosian Hymn:
That very sin should end in bliss!
