717 the fourth word Tobias and Sarah, through which the Angel Raphael expelled the demon from Sarah.”73 To better comprehend this, it is necessary to agree with the philosophers: Two contradictions cannot exist in one and the same object. They fight each other until the weaker is thrown out by the stronger. And what is more opposed to God’s grace than sin? What is more hateful and hostile to God than the demon? Therefore, do you wish to regain God’s grace, of which sin has deprived you? Do you wish to call God, whom you have banished through your wicked inclination toward Satan, back into your hearts? Sinners! First, drive out sin by the incense of ardent prayer and, at the same time, make a break with its source — the tyrant of hell. Soon, both the grace of God — and God Himself — will come back to you. The smoke rising from the fire of the burning fish’s intestines expelled the demon from Sarah and indeed rendered God favorably disposed to her. For prayer, since it is odious to the demon, is therefore pleasing to God. It routs the devil and invites God; furthermore, it draws Him as if bound into the heart of the prayerful one. The piety of Noah can serve as an example for us here. As soon as Noah, the captain of the ark of the entire world, that is, his “Argo” which preserved the entire world within itself, came out onto the earth after the falling of the waters, he recognized that first he must reconcile himself with the God of Heaven. “Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Gen 8:20). Meanwhile, what happened? “And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in [H]is heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done’” (Gen 8: 21). Heavens! Whence this sudden change of God? Before, when He was angry, He had said: “Cursed is the ground because of you; 73 Cf. Lyranus, Nicolaus, Biblia Sacra cumGlossa Interlineari, et Nicolai Lyrani Postilla, […], t. II, Venetiis 1588, f.288r.
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