1 Samuel 17:34

When David had been anointed by blessed Samuel before he came here, he had killed a lion and a bear without any weapons, as he himself told King Saul. Both the lion and the bear typified the devil, for they had been strangled by the strength of David for having dared to attack some of his sheep. All that we read prefigured in David at that time, dearly beloved, we know was accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ; for he strangled the lion and the bear when he descended into hell to free all the saints from their jaws. Moreover, listen to the prophet entreating the person of our Lord: "Rescue my soul from the sword, my loneliness from the grip of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth." Since a bear possesses his strength in his paw and a lion has his in his mouth, the same devil is prefigured in those two beasts. Thus, this was said concerning the person of Christ, in order that his sole church might be removed from the hand, that is, the power or mouth of the devil.

And David said to Saul: Your servant was tending, etc. The Lord strengthens the weak in faith, calls unbelievers to faith, urging modestly that amidst the frailties of His humanity, by which He took on our pains, even the exalted aspects of His Divinity, by which He is capable of healing those pains, may be recognized. He Himself, he says, now deformed in the habit of a servant, for the sake of your salvation, was feeding from eternity with heavenly aliments the hearts of all the faithful, namely the flock of My Father. And one of the unclean spirits would come, either exceedingly powerful by strength or cunning with deceit. For both the lion and the bear, although each excels both by strength, yet the bear has more deceit and the lion more strength; and thus one expresses the deceit, the other the violence, each the wickedness of the demons figuratively. They came, he says, and by deceiving they would take away some of the strong leaders of the Church, drawing him into sin from the midst of brotherly society. But I, either through angels or men by openly testifying, or by myself inwardly pricking, such men, having defeated the evil spirits, would call them back to the path of salvation; but these spirits, gravely annoyed, turning their fury to tear at the souls of the faithful that were snatched from their darkness, to blaspheme the worship of My name, promptly turned their rage of madness; whose blasphemy I, by bringing to light and revealing through my prophets, would utterly reduce the whole ritual of idolatry to nothing; catching the wise in their craftiness, I was closing the mouths of the damnable profession, saying: For all the gods of the nations are demons: but the Lord made the heavens (Psalm 95). And: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they shall not speak, and so forth (Psalm 113). But also by another prophet: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from those things that are under heaven (Wisdom 15); for both all the power and wisdom of the profane, which are wont to be shown through them or through men deceived by them, I was powerfully nullifying myself, who always remaining in the divinity of God, appearing temporarily in humanity to serve the salvation of men. Therefore, this inventor and source of all evil will be as one of his…