Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
What he said at the end of the preceding chapter: For nothing is better than the fear of God, and nothing is sweeter than to attend to the commandments of God. It is a great glory to follow the Lord, for length of days shall be received from Him — this same theme he pursues throughout the whole of this chapter. Therefore Wisdom speaks here, and praises and commends herself to men, from her origin, offices, dwelling, beauty, and fruits. First, she shows that she draws her origin and lineage from God; second, in verse 6, she teaches that she created the heavens, the sea, the earth, and all things contained in them, and directs and governs them most wisely; third, in verse 12, she asserts that she established her home and seat in Zion and among the people of Israel; fourth, in verse 17, she displays her beauty, comparing herself to the most beautiful trees, namely, the cedar, the palm, the olive, the cinnamon, the balsam, the myrrh, the terebinth, the vine; fifth, in verse 24, she enumerates her fruits: namely, love, fear, knowledge, holy hope, and all truth, life, and virtue; sixth, in verse 32, she teaches that she is contained in the Law, Moses, and the Prophets, and is to be sought from them; but especially from Christ, whose full wisdom and abundance and fruitfulness of doctrine she compares to the rivers Phison, Tigris, Euphrates, Jordan, indeed to the sea. Moreover, Sirach according to his custom imitates Solomon, who in Proverbs 8 introduces Wisdom in a similar manner praising herself and commending herself to all.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 24:1-47
1. Wisdom shall praise her own soul, and shall be honored in God, and shall glory in the midst of her people, 2. and in the assemblies of the Most High she shall open her mouth, and in the sight of His power she shall glory, 3. and in the midst of her people she shall be exalted, and in the holy fullness she shall be admired, 4. and in the multitude of the elect she shall have praise, and among the blessed she shall be blessed, saying: 5. I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the firstborn before every creature. 6. I caused an unfailing light to arise in the heavens, and like a mist I covered all the earth: 7. I dwelt in the highest places, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. 8. I alone compassed the circuit of heaven, and I penetrated the depth of the abyss: in the waves of the sea I walked, 9. and I stood in every land: and in every people, 10. and in every nation I held primacy: 11. and I trod down the hearts of all, both great and humble, by my power: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall dwell in the inheritance of the Lord. 12. Then the Creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and He who created me rested in my tabernacle. 13. And He said to me: Dwell in Jacob, and take your inheritance in Israel, and send down your roots among my elect. 14. From the beginning and before the ages I was created, and unto the age to come I shall not cease, and in the holy dwelling I ministered before Him. 15. And so I was established in Zion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and in Jerusalem was my power. 16. And I took root in an honored people, and in the portion of my God was his inheritance, and my abode was in the fullness of the saints. 17. I was exalted like a cedar in Lebanon, and like a cypress on Mount Zion: 18. I was exalted like a palm in Kadesh, and like a planting of roses in Jericho: 19. like a beautiful olive in the fields, and like a plane tree I was exalted beside the water in the streets. 20. Like cinnamon, and fragrant balm, I gave forth a scent: like choice myrrh I gave forth a sweetness of fragrance: 21. and like storax, and galbanum, and onyx, and stacte, and like Lebanon frankincense not cut, I perfumed my dwelling, and like pure balm is my fragrance. 22. I like a terebinth spread out my branches, and my branches are branches of honor and grace. 23. I like a vine brought forth the sweetness of fragrance, and my flowers are fruits of honor and beauty. 24. I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. 25. In me is all grace of the way and of truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue. 26. Come over to me, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits: 27. For my spirit is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance surpasses honey and the honeycomb. 28. My memory is for the generations of ages. 29. They who eat me shall yet hunger: and they who drink me shall yet thirst. 30. He who hears me shall not be confounded: and they who work through me shall not sin. 31. They who explain me shall have eternal life. 32. All these things are the book of life, and the covenant of the Most High, and the knowledge of truth. 33. Moses commanded a law in the precepts of justice, and an inheritance for the house of Jacob, and promises to Israel. 34. He appointed to David His servant to raise up from him a most mighty king, sitting on the throne of honor forever. 35. Who fills up wisdom like the Phison, and like the Tigris in the days of new fruits. 36. Who makes understanding abound like the Euphrates: who multiplies it like the Jordan at the time of harvest. 37. Who sends forth discipline like light, and stands by like the Gehon on the day of vintage. 38. He who first perfectly knows her, the weaker one will not search her out. 39. For her thought abounded more than the sea, and her counsel is deeper than the great abyss. 40. I, Wisdom, poured forth rivers. 41. I like a channel of water from an immense river, I like the course of a river, and like an aqueduct came out of paradise. 42. I said: I will water my garden of plantings, and I will drench the fruit of my meadow. 43. And behold my channel became an abundant stream, and my river drew near to the sea: 44. for I illuminate doctrine like the dawn for all, and I will declare it even to the far distant. 45. I will penetrate all the lower parts of the earth, and I will look upon all who sleep, and I will enlighten all who hope in the Lord. 46. I will yet pour out doctrine like prophecy, and I will leave it to those who seek wisdom, and I will not cease for their generations even unto the holy age. 47. See that I have not labored for myself alone, but for all who seek the truth.
First Part of the Chapter
1 and 2. WISDOM SHALL PRAISE HER OWN SOUL, AND SHALL BE HONORED IN GOD, AND SHALL GLORY IN THE MIDST OF HER PEOPLE: AND IN THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE MOST HIGH SHE SHALL OPEN HER MOUTH, AND IN THE SIGHT OF HIS POWER SHE SHALL GLORY. — It is a prosopopoeia; for Wisdom is here introduced as a person and a most wise, most holy, most beautiful, most wealthy, most glorious queen, who like a teacher instructs all and invites all to her discipline, study, imitation, obedience, and worship. Now "wisdom" here is taken generally and broadly, so as to embrace both the physical wisdom by which God creates and governs all things, and the moral wisdom by which He does all things justly and holily; both created and uncreated wisdom, whether essential, which is common to the entire Most Holy Trinity, or personal, which is proper to the Son. Hence some things that are said here about wisdom better suit the essential, others better the personal, others better the created. For the Son, that is Christ, as the eternal Word of God the Father, is uncreated and hypostatic, or personal, Wisdom begotten by God the Father; the same, as man, is Wisdom incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as I explained more fully in chapter 1, verse 1. Hence Rabanus, Lyranus, and Palacius assign this entire panegyric of wisdom, in its literal sense, solely to Christ incarnate. Sirach, says Palacius, received by revelation that it would come to pass that begotten Wisdom, or the Son of God, before God, before all the hierarchies of Angels (all the Angels called from the world into heaven) would deliver this most brilliant oration in His own praise. And I hold it as most probable that He delivered that oration on the day He willed to become incarnate. On that day He delivered it before God and the entire heavenly court; and after He had delivered it, He won great applause from His hearers. So he says rightly, but too narrowly. In support of this is what verse 2 says: "And in the sight of His power," that is, before the heavenly host, "He shall glory;" and what Paul says in Hebrews 1:6: "And when He again brings the Firstborn into the world, He says: And let all the angels of God adore Him."
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Up to now I, Sirach, as a panegyrist of wisdom, have said many things here and there about her praises; now I will introduce her speaking herself, so that from her own mouth you may understand these and more things better, more dearly, more effectively, and thus burn with love for her, and be carried away in admiration and zeal for her. "And she shall be honored in God," that is, wisdom will honor and praise herself; but "in God," that is, for the honor and praise of the Lord God her author, not for her own vain glory. Moreover, she will do this "in the assemblies of the Most High," that is, in the gatherings of the faithful: for these alone are capable of true and practical wisdom, namely, prudence, virtue, and holiness. Hence wisdom takes these alone as her students, and among them she celebrates and proclaims her glorious works and the virtues of God. Wherefore she adds: "And in the sight of His power" (in Greek, dynameos autou, that is, of the army, or armies of God; namely, in the sight of all the Angels and faithful men); she shall glory, that is, she will commemorate and celebrate the glorious virtues and deeds of herself and of God. For hence God is called sabaoth, that is, of armies; because He has all the angels and men at hand like most valiant legions, with which He vanquishes His enemies. Here note: The faithful people of God is called first, a Church, because of its assemblies for carrying out sacred rites, which are things of peace; but an army for the wars to be waged, under God's leadership, against vices and the vicious. Hence the Syriac translates: wisdom shall praise her own soul, that is, herself, and in the midst of the people of God she shall be honored. In the Church of God she shall open her mouth, and in the midst of His armies she shall glory; the Zurich version: wisdom commends herself, and in the midst of her people she glories. She opens her mouth in the council of the Most High, and before His power she proclaims herself, as if to say: Wisdom before the most powerful God, and before the supreme power and majesty of God, will praise herself, to show that these praises must be heard with great humility, reverence, attention, desire, zeal, and obedience; since she does this before God the judge and avenger, who will most powerfully, most severely, and most sharply punish those who scorn these praises of wisdom.
Mystically, the Church fittingly applies all of these in the divine Offices of the Blessed Virgin (whatever Luther may vainly protest, and the heretics may cry out against) to the Blessed Virgin, and for the most just and weighty reasons: The first is that the Blessed Virgin among pure creatures (for Christ, surpassing His mother, is not a pure creature, but something mixed of Creator and creature: for as God, He is the Creator; as man, a creature) is the wisest work of God, in whose conception, birth, generation, sanctification, and glorification alike, God showed the greatest wisdom; namely, far greater than He showed in the creation of heaven and earth, and the whole universe, indeed of all the Angels and men. For the Blessed Virgin far surpasses all these in her dignity, namely, her motherhood, grace, and glory; for in her, as in the first and most noble creature, God expressed Himself and all His attributes as in a perfect mirror, so that in her He may be always praised and glorified by all.
Second, because God infused in the Blessed Virgin at her conception greater wisdom, virtue, and holiness than in any Angel or man, which she then, by continually augmenting and doubling at every moment, throughout the 72 years she lived, wonderfully increased, to such a degree that she herself is the model of all wisdom and holiness of men and Angels. For this entire panegyric can be understood of created wisdom: and this was most perfect in the Blessed Virgin, because she most perfectly after Christ participated in the wisdom of God, and she is set before us by God as its exemplar, so to speak.
Third, because she is the mother of the eternal Wisdom incarnate in herself. Just as therefore her Son is the begotten and incarnate Wisdom: so she is the wisdom that begets and incarnates Him. Add: she is the most illustrious member of Christ, who is the eternal Wisdom. Wherefore, when the Wisdom of God is praised here, namely Christ, certainly the Blessed Virgin His mother is also praised; for the praise of the son is the praise of the mother. Wherefore, just as Christ is called "the firstborn of every creature;" so the Blessed Virgin is also called the firstborn of every creature, because she was predestined by God before all other creatures; for just as Christ is the first of the predestined, as Scripture and the theologians teach: so also the Blessed Virgin. For when Christ was predestined, and the Incarnation of Christ, at the same time her conception and birth from the Blessed Virgin was predestined: for it was not fitting that He should assume flesh from any other than her.
Fourth, because she is for us the mother and cause of all wisdom, that is, of prudence and holiness; for Christ wills that we receive this through her, He who chose to put on our nature through no other than her. Wherefore, just as St. Paul says of Christ incarnate in 1 Corinthians 1:30, that He was made for us wisdom, justice, sanctification, and redemption: so Christ granted the same analogically to His mother, that she might causally become for us wisdom, justice, and sanctification; because through her He willed that we should become partakers and sharers of His grace, wisdom, justice, and redemption. Therefore God appointed her as mother for us as well as for Himself, and to her, as a mother, He willed that we should have recourse in every temptation, difficulty, and failure of strength and grace, and through her obtain every good thing and every grace, and thus continually praise God in her.
You will say: How can those things which Wisdom says about herself in verse 6: "I caused an unfailing light to arise in the heavens;" and in verse 40: "I poured forth rivers," be truthfully applied to the Blessed Virgin? I reply: first, mystically, as if to say: I caused Christ, who is the sun of justice, to arise in the heavens, that is, in the Churches; I caused the light of faith to arise in them. Again, she herself, as a sea of graces, pours forth their rivers into the Church and the faithful. Second, literally in this sense, as if to say: I was the cause why God created light, the heavens, the sea, rivers, and the entire universe. For the creation of this universe was ordered to the justification and glorification of the Saints, accomplished by Christ through the Blessed Virgin, as to its end; for the order of nature was created and established for the sake of the order of grace. Because therefore the Blessed Virgin was the mother of Christ, and consequently was the means of our redemption, and of the entire order of graces established by Christ; hence she was likewise the final cause of the creation of the universe; for the end of the universe is Christ, and His mother and the Saints; namely, that the Saints in this universe through Christ and the Blessed Virgin might be endowed with grace and glory. Wherefore the final cause of the creation of the universe was the predestination of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints. For although Christ and the Blessed Virgin are certain parts of the universe, and therefore subsequent to it in the genus of material cause; nevertheless in the genus of final cause they are prior. Wherefore between the creation of the universe and the birth of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, there is a certain mutual counter-dependence; for God did not will Christ and the Blessed Virgin to be born except in this universe; nor conversely did He will this universe to exist without Christ and the Blessed Virgin, indeed He created it for their sake. For the whole universe is to be referred and ordered to Christ and the Blessed Virgin, and the order of graces, as to its complement and end, He so willed. See our Suarez, Vasquez, Valencia, Part III, Question 1, and Father Canisius, book 5 of the Marian Writings, chapter 6, and book 1, chapter 12. Christ therefore and the Blessed Virgin are the final cause for which the universe was created, and consequently they are the formal cause of the same, namely the exemplary cause, that is, the idea. For the order of graces, in which Christ and the Blessed Virgin are first, is the idea and exemplar according to which God created and arranged the order of nature and the whole universe. See Dionysius the Carthusian, who applies everything said in this chapter individually to the Blessed Virgin.
3 and 4. AND IN THE MIDST OF HER PEOPLE SHE SHALL BE EXALTED, AND IN THE HOLY FULLNESS SHE SHALL BE ADMIRED (that is, she shall be a cause of admiration): AND IN THE MULTITUDE OF THE ELECT SHE SHALL HAVE PRAISE, AND AMONG THE BLESSED SHE SHALL BE BLESSED, SAYING, — as if to say: The faithful people, hearing these praises of wisdom, will exalt her: and the fullness, that is, the multitude, the ample and full assembly of the Saints, will admire her (thus "fullness" is taken for "multitude," as in verse 16 and elsewhere); and the multitude of the elect, and those who are blessed by God, will praise and bless her. This verse is now absent from the Greek and Syriac, and St. Ambrose omits it in book 4 On the Faith, chapter 4; that it was once in the Greek is clear from our Translator, and from St. Cyprian, book 2 of Testimonies. The Zurich version translates: in the midst of her people she bears herself magnificently, and in the holy multitude she is a marvel. In the assembly of the elect she has praise, and proclaims herself blessed among the blessed, and says:
5. I CAME FORTH FROM THE MOUTH OF THE MOST HIGH, THE FIRSTBORN BEFORE EVERY CREATURE. — These words properly apply to uncreated Wisdom, both essential and personal, namely, to the eternal Word and the Son of God: yet in their own way they also apply to created wisdom, as I showed in chapter 1, verse 1.
You will ask: what is the mouth of God from which wisdom came forth? I reply: anthropopathically, that is, in human fashion, a mouth is attributed to God, although He is the purest spirit, lacking a mouth and body. First, therefore, St. Ambrose, in book On the Faith against the Arians, chapter 2, understands by "mouth" the command of God, by which at the beginning of Genesis He said: "Let there be light, let there be luminaries, let there be a firmament," etc., and immediately all things were made. Then therefore wisdom came forth from the mouth of God, when from wisdom He most wisely said: "Let there be heaven and earth;" and thus He brought forth wisdom itself by His work, so to speak, and brought it to light. So also Jansenius: He signifies, he says, according to the literal sense, that the wisdom of God was brought forth in the world by His word, when by God's word all things were created, in which God's wisdom (which before the creation of the world was, as it were, hidden in the heart of God) was wonderfully declared and shown to men.
Second, more simply, more generally, and more properly, "mouth" here metaphorically signifies the mind and intellect of God: for just as from the mouth a vocal spoken word is formed and comes forth, so from the mind the word of the mind, or mental word, is formed and comes forth. For what the mouth is to the head, the mind is to the soul. Hence Lyranus: "The mouth of the Most High, he says, is called the generative power of the Father, by which the spiritual word is produced, just as by the mouth the sensible word is produced." Wherefore, just as the word of our mouth expresses the entire concept of our mind; so the eternal Father by this one Word of His mind says and expresses everything He knows, everything He comprehends, indeed everything He is, everything He has, everything He can do, and consequently all possible creatures. Hence in this Word are hidden all the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge.
She says therefore: "I came forth from the mouth of the Most High;" that is, I came forth from the mind of God, as a word of the mind, or, I was conceived by the mind of God, I am the offspring and child of the mind of God. It is a catachresis. For just as with our mouth we speak a sensible word, so God with His mind speaks and conceives the divine intelligible Word; both the essential Word, which is common to the entire Most Holy Trinity; and the notional and personal Word, which is proper to the Son, to whom these properly apply, as St. Ambrose testifies, in book 1 On the Faith, chapter 7, and in his book On the Divinity of the Son, chapter 12. Hence some read "heart" instead of "mouth." So Agnellus Bishop of Ravenna, in his epistle to Arminius, which is found in volume 4 of the Library of the Holy Fathers, when the Arians asked whether the Son, when He came into the world, taking the form of a servant, had abandoned the Father, replied: "Let there be a word that has gone out from my mouth, and entered into your ear, and through your ear has begun to dwell in your heart; tell me: Because it dwells in your breast, is it no longer in my breast? If therefore a thought that has gone out through my mouth, and entered into your mind, does not leave my soul; how much more could the Word that went forth from God the Father not have abandoned the Father's breast? For the Son Himself says: I came forth from the heart of the Father, Sirach 24; and the Father says: My heart has uttered a good Word," Psalm 44. Moreover, St. Ambrose, in book 4 On the Faith, chapter 4: "We say, he says, that it is a matter of power that He made us sons of God; but that the generation is a matter of His own nature, the divine oracles declare. For the Wisdom of God says: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High; that is, not compelled, but free: not subject to power, but born, by the mystery of generation, by the privilege of dominion, and by the right of power." Hence follows, "firstborn," that is, first brought forth and conceived, "before every creature." For although wisdom here is understood generally, as common to created and uncreated, not in just any way; but insofar as it is the idea and cause of creatures, as follows; nevertheless properly these words apply to the Son, who proceeds from the Father as the Word and idea of the Father, according to which He spoke and created all things. Hence the Syriac translates: I proceeded from the mouth of the Most High; the Zurich version: I came forth from the mouth of the Most High; firstborn before the whole nature of things; others: I went forth from the mouth of the Most High; for this is what the Greek exelthon signifies.
Wherefore the Son alone is properly the firstborn of the Father, and that from eternity before all creation and every creature: hence He is called by St. Paul "the firstborn of every creature," Colossians 1:15. From this is evident the plurality of persons in the Most Holy Trinity: for the begotten is distinguished from the one who begets, that is, from the parent; for no one can beget himself. The Jews stubbornly deny this, and say that in God there is one person, just as there is one essence. Wherefore they apply this passage to the law given to Moses, which they pretend was created by God before the world, for two thousand years, which is indeed an absurd fable. So Lyranus.
From this passage theologians teach that the Son proceeds and is begotten immediately not from the divine nature, but from the mouth, that is, from the divine intellect of the Father: for He is the Word of the paternal mind; and they refute Durandus in book 1, distinction 6, question 2, who held that the processions of the Son and the Holy Spirit in the divine realm are immediately through nature, and not through intellect or will. See Suarez, book 1 On the Trinity, chapter 5, number 5.
Moreover, Jansenius, who understands all of this of the essential Wisdom of God, holds that she is called "firstborn before every creature" because she subsisted in God before all things, never indeed beginning in Him, but always remaining with Him. But this is not properly to be firstborn, but to be unbegotten and permanent. Wherefore this epithet properly applies only to notional Wisdom, namely, to the Son; but to essential and uncreated wisdom, only abusively through catachresis, by which "firstborn" means the same as "first conceived in the mind." Hence Pope Sixtus, in epistle 1, adduces these words of Sirach to prove that the Son is coeternal and consubstantial with the Father.
This is the first praise of wisdom, by which she praises herself from her most noble origin: for she draws her origin and lineage from God, and that from eternity. Hence in what follows she teaches that, proceeding from God, she was the idea and cause of heaven and earth, and of all created things; but that she at last properly showed herself and established her seat among the faithful people, namely, among the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob.
The Arians wrongly inferred from the word "firstborn" that Christ was a creature, but the first one. For the word "first," they said, implies a relation to a "second," as if to say: Christ is the firstborn of God because the Angels and other creatures are the second-born. Wrongly, I say: for the Son is begotten, not created; but creatures are created, not begotten by God. Therefore the word "first" does indeed look to creatures, but in a different order of production, as if to say: The Son is begotten before creatures were created: for the Son is firstborn in such a way that He is equally the only-begotten, as St. John says in chapter 1, verse 18.
Morally, reading and meditating on these words of Sirach, Blessed Henry Suso was entirely inflamed with love of wisdom, as the author of his Life reports, chapter 4; whence Suso himself, in Dialogue chapter 7, introduces wisdom thus speaking and inviting men to herself: "I was brought forth from a most exalted lineage, and born of the most illustrious origins. I am the most loving Word of the paternal heart, and according to the most sweet abyss of My natural generation from the purest and bare substance of the Father I am wondrously pleasing to His most gentle eyes, in the most sweet and most ardent charity of the Holy Spirit. I am the throne of happiness, I am the crown of souls: my eyes are most brilliant, my mouth most delicate, my cheeks red and white, and my entire bearing and appearance is of such beauty and grace, and of such consummate elegance, that even if someone for this reason should have to lie in a burning furnace until the very last day of judgment, so that he might enjoy but a single glimpse of me, he would not yet have merited it worthily. I am so splendidly adorned with the whitest wool and embroidered garments, interwoven with various flowers (namely, blushing roses, gleaming lilies, purple violets, and whatever others there may be), so delicately surrounded, that however beautiful the flowers of a pleasant and blooming May, all the meadows however sunny, the green shrubs and saplings, and finally the most beautiful blossoms of whatever fields, if they were compared with my beauty, they would be nothing other than horrid thorns." Whence she concludes and adds: "I play a most delightful game in the Divinity; whence such an abundance of joys overflows upon the blessed angelic spirits that a thousand years seem to them scarcely a very brief hour. The entire army of heaven, with unwonted admiration, fixes its gaze upon me and watches me. O thrice and four times blessed is he to whom it shall be given to celebrate this game of love, these joyful dances in heavenly joys at my side, holding my delicate hands, in most happy security for all eternity. A single word sweetly proceeding from my mouth surpasses all the harmony of musical instruments, all the melodies of all the Angels. I am so lovable and sweet to the pure and loving soul that, from desire for me, the hearts of all should rightly burst." So far Suso.
Mystically, apply these words of Sirach to the Blessed Virgin: for she not only excelled all the Angels and all men in wisdom and grace; but, as their head, she pours the same into all the posterity of Adam who invoke her. Hear St. Jerome, or rather Sophronius, in his sermon On the Assumption: "The Mother of God, he says, chosen and pre-chosen, is truly saluted and proclaimed by the Angel as full of grace, through whom every creature has been drenched with the abundant rain of the Holy Spirit." And Blessed Peter Chrysologus, in sermon 142: "Blessed, he says, is she who alone among all human beings merited to hear above all others: You have found grace with the Lord. How much? As much as he had said above — full? And truly full, she who would pour and pour forth with an abundant shower upon every creature. For you have found grace with God. When he says this, even the Angel marvels, that either a woman alone, or all men, should have merited life through a woman." Again Sophronius: "With such gifts, he says, it was fitting that the Virgin should be endowed, that she might be full of grace, she who gave glory to the heavens, restored God and peace to the earth, faith to the nations, an end to vices, order to life, and discipline to morals." And again: "What wonder, if she has full and overfull joy and glory in the kingdom, who has full and overfull grace in exile? What wonder indeed, if both in heaven and on earth her fullness is above every creature, from whose fullness all nature flourishes?" Both passages are cited by St. Bonaventure in his Mirror, chapter 7, to which he appends these words of St. Anselm: "O woman full and overfull of grace; from the abundance of whose fullness every creature, sprinkled, comes to life again!"
To this point also belong those words of St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Aqueduct: "She asks, he says, for an overflowing for the salvation of all: The Holy Spirit, He says, shall come upon you; and that abundant balm shall flow in with such fullness that it overflows most copiously on every side." And elsewhere: "Full, he says, for herself, overflowing for us." St. Bernard concludes in the cited sermon On the Aqueduct: "God placed the fullness of all good in Mary, so that consequently if there is any hope in us, if any grace, if any salvation, we may know that it overflows from her, who ascends abounding in delights. A garden of delights indeed, which that divine South Wind not only breathed upon in coming, but also breathed through in coming upon her, so that on every side her perfumes flow and overflow, that is, the charisms of graces. Take away this solar body that illumines the world — where is the day? Take away Mary, this star of the sea, of a sea truly great and vast — what is left but enveloping darkness, and the shadow of death, and the densest gloom? With all the marrow of our hearts, therefore, with all the affections of our inmost being, and with all our prayers let us venerate this Mary: for such is the will of Him who willed that we should have everything through Mary." Richard of St. Victor adds, in his commentary on the Song of Songs, chapter 28: "She desired, he says, the salvation of all, she sought it, she obtained it; indeed the salvation of all was accomplished through her."
Second Part of the Chapter:
On the Power, Creation, and Governance of Wisdom
6. I CAUSED AN UNFAILING LIGHT TO ARISE IN THE HEAVENS. — The Zurich version has: unwearied. For the light, at the beginning of the world, created by the wisdom of God in the heavens, always remained in them and shone, indeed it was increased on the fourth day of the world, when from it the sun, moon, and stars were made.
This is the second praise of wisdom from its effect, namely, that she is the cause of all things, and especially of light, which is, as it were, the eye, soul, and life of the world: for since she herself is light, she mentions above other created things the light made by her; and when she calls it unfailing, she signifies that even after the day of judgment, light will not be lacking. These words are now absent from the Greek and Syriac; but St. Maximus reads them in homily 2 On the Easter Feast: "He is the Son of God, he says, to whom the Father utters the secret of His divinity as the day (according to Psalm 18:3: 'Day to day pours forth the word.')" He, I say, is the day who says through Solomon: "I caused an unfailing light to arise in heaven."
as I explained in Genesis 1:14,
Lyranus notes: Here is described, he says, the generation of begotten wisdom, namely Christ — first the eternal generation, verse 1; then the temporal generation from the Virgin descending from David, verse 34; next, after the generation of the Word, in this verse 6, the creation of the world is described. St. John the Evangelist maintains a similar order in chapter 1, where in verse 1, he assigns the emanation of the divine Word from the Father, saying: "In the beginning was the Word;" second, the creation of the world, saying: "All things were made through Him;" third, the Incarnation of the Word, when he adds: "And the Word was made flesh."
Mystically, apply these words: "I caused an unfailing light to arise in the heavens," to the Blessed Virgin. Hence Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Assumption: "Chosen as the sun." "Chosen, he says, indeed pre-chosen, as the sun; because just as the sun alone illumines the world; so she alone with a more solid light illumines both Angels and men." And after some remarks: "The Spirit had nothing more excellent among visible creatures to which to compare the excellence of the Virgin; for the brightness of the sun has something far loftier than that of the moon: because although the moon obscures the lesser stars, it does not completely hide them; but the sun, shining more brightly, so seizes for itself the position of the stars and moon that they are as though they were not, and cannot be seen. Similarly the rod of Jesse, going before the true light, shining forth in that inaccessible light, possessed the dignity of both orders of spirits in such a way that in comparison with the Virgin they neither can nor should appear." And further on: "Consider, he says, what a starry and serene overshadowing, what a luminous splendor surrounds the circular orbit of so great a star and overspreads, and not slightly darkens the brightness of other lights; so too the Virgin, raised up among the souls of the Saints and among the Angels, surpasses the merits of each individual and the titles of all. However brightly the stars may shine, the moon nevertheless surpasses them both in size and in splendor; so the singular Virgin surpasses both natures, both by the immensity of her grace and by the radiance of her virtues." And Richard of St. Victor, on Song of Songs 4: "Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins, etc. To these fawns, he says, the said breasts of the Blessed Mary are compared; because, since both the Angels and the Saints are solicitous for sinners and assist them both by their merits and by their intercession, it must be believed that the Blessed Virgin can do as much in this regard as both kinds of creatures together; indeed she is judged more powerful than both, because both are repaired through her, and the fall of the Angels has been restored through her, and human nature reconciled." Again, St. Anselm, quoted by St. Bonaventure in his Mirror, chapter 7: "To you alone, he says, I speak, O Lady: the world is full of your benefits: it has penetrated the depths below, it has surpassed the heavens; for through the fullness of your grace, those who were in hell rejoice that they have been freed; and those who are above the world rejoice that they have been restored."
St. Bonaventure himself also, in chapter 5, says thus: "O how widely and how far the great tree of the blessed virgin Mary extends its branches; how widely to men, how far to the Angels, how high to God!"
Wherefore the reverend Louis de Blois, in his Aspirations, fittingly and devoutly, gasping for Wisdom, sighs thus: "O eternal Wisdom, grant me Your light. Shine upon me, O bright and gracious light, so that the darkness of my blindness may be turned into the brightest noon. Adorn, O good Jesus, my soul with that beauty of charity which You love; fatten it with that richness of love in which You delight; take away from it whatever is less pleasing to Your eyes, and make it entirely pleasing to You. O most sweet ardor, devour and happily consume the little dust of my substance. Transfer me into Yourself, so that, clinging to You with the indissoluble glue of love, I may live from You, and like a lily bloom before You. O most beautiful and most flourishing flower, Jesus; O perennial life; life through which I live, without which I die; life through which I rejoice, without which I grieve; sweet and lovable life, grant that I may be joined to You, embrace You, and, lulled to sleep in sweet charity in You, who are the most welcome peace, may I fall holily asleep!"
AND LIKE A MIST I COVERED ALL THE EARTH. — The Syriac: like a mist I covered the earth; the Zurich version: in the manner of a mist I covered the entire earth. It signifies the primordial darkness, of which it is said in Genesis 1:2: "Darkness was upon the face of the deep," as if to say: I, Wisdom, first covered the earth with darkness, as with a mist, since it was rough and unformed, lest its deformity should appear, just as a naked man covers his nakedness with darkness and hiding places; so that "mist" is in the ablative case. The sense therefore is: Just as a mist usually covers the earth; so wisdom, through the primordial darkness, as her own cloud and mist, covered the earth, according to Job 38:9: "When I made a cloud its garment (of the sea and earth), and wrapped it in darkness as in swaddling clothes," as if to say: Just as a naked infant is wrapped and clothed in swaddling bands; so I clothed and wrapped the primordial nakedness of the earth with darkness, as with infant swaddling clothes and bands.
Our Gregory of Valencia adds, in On the Work of the Six Days, on the work of the second day: "As with a mist," he says, wisdom covered the earth, because the air at the beginning of the world was not created pure, but mist was mixed with it, which closely covered the earth and prevented the view (even when light had appeared) of that open expanse which we now see from the earth all the way to the celestial bodies themselves, as far as the sight of the eyes can reach.
Hence secondly, it can be explained as if to say: I covered the earth with a mist, that is, with a continuous succession of darkness and night, after the creation of light and the sun, whose unfailing light she described immediately before; for she opposes to that unfailing light the mist, that is, the darkness of night, by which, like a mist, the earth is covered and wrapped, while the sun, at the departure of day, sinks below the horizon. And this is the meaning suggested by the phrase "like a mist"; for it is a comparison, as if to say: Just as a mist usually covers the earth, so I covered it with the darkness of night; and I covered it not with light alone, but also with darkness and night, for many most wise reasons: namely, for the rest of men and animals, for tempering the power of the sun, for moistening and cooling the earth, etc.
Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Assumption: "Chosen as the sun." "Chosen, he says, indeed pre-chosen, as the sun;" because just as the sun alone illumines the world; so she alone with a more solid light illumines both the Angels and men."
presence filled the earth in the same manner in which it is said of the divine Spirit: "The Spirit of the Lord moved over the waters;" because, namely, He cherished them with His presence and power.
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin, mother of eternal Wisdom, covers the earth like a mist: first, because she covers the misery and nakedness of men with her mercy and grace; second, because she dries out and warms their moisture and phlegm, that is, their sloth and torpor, and makes them fervent and fruitful in good works; third, just as mist, blown in by the South wind, dissolves the ice and rigidity brought by the North wind, and moistens the earth: so by the Virgin's intercession, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the frost and hardness of heart induced by the devil is dissolved, and flourishing acts of virtue are produced. Wherefore St. Bernardine, tom. III, serm. 11, art. 11, applies those words of Ecclesiasticus ch. XLIII: "The medicine of all is in the haste of the mist," to the Blessed Virgin; for he says the medicine of all men is in the festive Assumption of the Virgin: "Because all, he says, who wish it, become partakers of her grace;" and he cites St. Bernard saying that the Mother of God by her most abundant charity had made herself debtor to all, both wise and unwise; and that she opens the bosom of mercy, and from her fullness all receive.
Third, some with Lyranus fittingly take "mist" by metonymy as the misty and dark waters, which at the creation of the world filled the entire earth, air, and ether up to the empyrean heaven: from which God then formed all the heavens, the element of fire and air; and which, in Genesis I, is called the abyss: "Darkness, it says, was upon the face of the abyss." Wisdom therefore here signifies her power, providence, and fecundity, namely, that she covered the earth with misty waters, so as to irrigate and fertilize it for producing from it herbs, trees, and plants; likewise men and animals, and all other things. To this belongs that passage from Psalm CXLVII, 5: "He gives snow like wool; He scatters mist like ashes," that is, God alone by His speech, that is, by His word, gives snow which in whiteness, lightness, softness, says Theodoret, density, and warmth is similar to wool: for snow covers the earth like wool to foster, warm, and fertilize it, while it restrains the warm breaths and exhalations of the earth; and drives them back into the earth, so that by their warmth the seeds cast may put forth deeper and broader roots, and thus yield an abundant harvest. And "mist," in Hebrew "frost," "He scatters like ashes." For frost is similar to ashes in color, abundance, warmth, and power; for like ashes it burns up and consumes the excessive moisture of the earth, and thus warms, tempers, and fertilizes it. Whence Sextus Pompeius says: "Frost is so called as if 'burning through.'" Therefore, just as in summer God ventilates and cools the earth with rains and winds, lest it be harmed by heat; so in winter, lest it be harmed by cold, He fosters it with snow like wool, warms it with frost as with fire, nourishes it with ice or hail as with bread and food; for hailstones like grains of sugar sweeten, moisten, and nourish the earth. This is what the Psalmist adds: "He sends His crystal (that is, hail) like morsels."
Fourth, explain it thus: Just as mist covers the earth, so I, Wisdom, have covered and do cover the earth, not with mist, but with my glory, and with the varied beauty of creatures. Whence the Arabic plainly translates: for I went forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth. Moreover, glory is fittingly compared to mist, because God was accustomed to temper and veil His glory and the splendor of His majesty, which the human eye could not have borne, with a mist. Whence by a mist God's glory was represented in the tabernacle of Moses, Exodus XXXIII; and in the temple of Solomon, III Kings VIII, 10, and Isaiah ch. VI. 4. Whence Suarez, book II On the Work of the Six Days, ch. V, num. 6, joining the third and fourth expositions, says: Wisdom covered the earth with water, just as the earth is accustomed to be covered with mist: or rather, "like a mist," because with her majesty and presfor she sets up this mist against it: for mist is a symbol of darkness and night. Whence this riddle about mist exists in Symposius:
I am night in appearance; but I am not black in color, And in the middle of the day I still bring darkness with me: Neither do the stars give me light, nor does Cynthia give me radiance.
7. I dwelt in the highest places, — by arranging the empyrean heaven, says Lyranus, and as soon as it was created by me, by filling it with innumerable myriads of Angels. For although divine Wisdom, that is, God, and the Son of God, are by essence, presence, and power in the entire world, according to that passage of Jeremiah XXIII: "I fill heaven and earth;" nevertheless the dwelling, that is, the house and temple in which God is said to dwell, is heaven, especially the empyrean; because in it He shows His power, magnificence, riches, and glory to the holy Angels and to men. Whence Isaiah says, LXVI: "Heaven is my throne; and the earth is the footstool of my feet." Moreover, by heaven, though principally the empyrean, understand generally any heaven, not only the sidereal and ethereal, but also the aerial. Whence concerning it he adds:
AND MY THRONE IN A PILLAR OF CLOUD. — Note: In Scripture God and God's majesty is said to dwell in the clouds, according to that passage: "Who makes the clouds Your chariot;" and this for many reasons: first, because clouds are elevated and high above the earth, and a high and exalted seat is due to God most high; second, because by clouds the majesty and glory of God is veiled and covered; third, because in clouds He shows His power: for in them and from them He wondrously hurls thunders, winds, rain by which He fertilizes the earth, hail, lightnings, and thunderbolts; fourth, because it alludes to the pillar of fire and cloud, in which He resided, and showed His glory to the Hebrews, and going before them, and giving them manna, feeding them for forty years, He led them into the promised land, Exodus XXXI, 21. See what was said there. Whence the Syriac translates: I placed (others, fixed) my tabernacle on high among the exalted ones, and my seat is in the pillars of clouds, accordthat passage of Psalm XVIII, 6: "In the sun He placed His tabernacle, and He Himself like a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber." And Psalm XVII, 11: "He flew upon the wings of the winds. And He made darkness His hiding place; around Him was His tabernacle; dark water in the clouds of the air." The Zurich Bible translates: I took my seat on high, and I placed my throne upon a pillar of cloud. Moreover, this throne of Wisdom is nothing other than the teaching chair of God, and at the same time the tribunal of the judge, according to that passage of Psalm XCVII, 7: "In a pillar of cloud He spoke to them," as if from a royal tribunal and chair pronouncing judgment, favoring the pious, condemning the guilty, teaching, instructing, directing, showing the way to the promised land.
Anagogically, Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, will have His throne in a glorious cloud, when He comes to judge the world on the day of judgment, Matthew XXIV, 30.
Allegorically, Rabanus says: The throne of the Son of God was in a pillar of cloud, that is, in His exalted humanity, endowed with all virtues, which like a glorious cloud veiled and adorned His divinity, according to that passage of Isaiah XIX: "Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a light cloud."
Mystically, incarnate Wisdom, that is, Christ, the Son of God, dwelt for nine months in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, as in a living heaven, and in a pillar of cloud. Wherefore many Fathers call the Blessed Virgin a cloud, because she tempers the heat of the Sun, that is, of divine vengeance, and bedews and fertilizes the soul. Thus Chrysippus, homily 2 On the Mother of God: "Hail, he says, cloud of rain offering drink to the souls of the Saints." And Hesychius, homily 2 On the Mother of God, "calls her a cloud containing incorrupt rains." St. Epiphanius, sermon On the Praises of the Virgin: "Hail, he says, full of grace, cloud like a pillar, who have God, who led the people through the desert." And again: "O Blessed Virgin, you are, he says, a bright cloud, who brought down from heaven as most brilliant lightning, Christ, to illuminate the world; heavenly cloud, who brought forth into the world the thunder of the Holy Spirit hidden in yourself, and sent down the rain of the Holy Spirit upon the whole earth, to produce the fruit of faith, with great force." Proclus, Bishop of Constantinople, On the Mother of God: "This, he says, is truly the light cloud, which bore in her body Him who sits upon the Cherubim." St. Jerome on Psalm LXXVII, 14: "Certainly, he says, by the light cloud we must understand holy Mary. He said beautifully: In the cloud of the day; for that cloud was not in darkness, but always in light." Andrew of Crete, oration 2 On the Mother of God: "O pillar, he says, leading not the carnal Israel, who is put to flight, through a physical light; but the spiritual Israel, who is led to the unerring light of knowledge, illuminating with divine torches. O cloud all radiant, and shady mountain, not overshadowing the ungrateful people of the Jews, but the beloved people of God, the holy nation, illuminated by your maternal torches." St. Bonaventure, in Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, ch. III, says: "Mary is for us the pillar of cloud, according to that passage
Symbolically, the cloud in which God resides as on a throne is the divine darkness, about which St. Dionysius learnedly discusses, epistle 5; for God "dwells in unapproachable light," I Timothy VI, 16. In this darkness the Most Holy Trinity resides, that is, three divine Persons, and first in it the Father has His throne, then the Son, and next the Holy Spirit.
You will say: There is one essence, majesty, adoration, and throne (as Sirach says here, and Isaiah ch. VI, and St. John, Apocalypse ch. IV and V) of the Most Holy Trinity; how then do you suggest that the throne of the Son is in the middle between the throne of the Father and the throne of the Holy Spirit?
I respond: Thrones are attributed to the Most Holy Trinity figuratively and anthropopathically; for it is clear that the Trinity, being spirit, properly neither needs nor has a throne. Thrones therefore signify the very hypostasis or subsistence of the three Persons, and their dignity and excellence: for in this they subsist, and as it were reside on the throne of their glory. For, as St. Thomas says, I part., Question XXIX, art. 3, in the body, person signifies that "which is most perfect in all nature, subsisting in rational nature, and this very thing belongs in a more excellent manner to the divine Persons than to created ones." And to objection 2: "Because, he says, it is of great dignity to subsist in rational nature, therefore every individual of a rational nature is called a person; but the dignity of the divine nature exceeds all dignity, and according to this the name 'person' most especially belongs to God." If person is dignity, then it has the status of its dignity as a throne, so to speak. The reason is that paternity in the Father is a great, indeed infinite dignity, from which, of the psalm: He led them in a cloud, because like a cloud she protects from the heat of divine indignation, and from the heat of diabolical temptation, as is said in the psalm: He spread out a cloud, etc. Mary is also a pillar of fire in the night of this world, illuminating the world." And he cites that saying of Bernard: "Take away this solar body which illuminates the world — where is the day? Take away Mary, this star of the sea — what is left but enveloping darkness, the shadow of death, and the densest gloom?" These things from Bonaventure about the Virgin, who is called the pillar of cloud and fire. For just as it is said of this pillar in Exodus XIV: "In the morning watch the Lord looked down upon the camp of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and slew their army, and overturned the wheels of their chariots, and they were carried into the deep." So God, looking down through the Mother of God as through a window of heaven, and through the mystical pillar of fire and cloud, utterly overthrew the forces and power of the devil.
But if finally you say that in the seat of God His majesty and authority are usually signified, this indeed cannot be denied; yet in no pure creature does the glory and divine majesty of God so shine forth, along with His attributes, especially of power, wisdom, and goodness, as in the Virgin Mother of God. So that on this account St. Bernardine, tom. I, sermon 61, art. 6, ch. IV, says that the Mother of God is called, in Psalm VIII, the magnificence of God.
as the Apostle says: "All fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named." Equal dignity is the filiation in the Son, and the spiration in the Holy Spirit, which we accordingly worship and venerate with the adoration of latria. This is what Damascene says, book I On the Faith, ch. XI: "that the Father and the Son are distinguished by personal perfections." And that the three relations in the persons are three excellent perfections, Suarez teaches with strong arguments, book III On the Trinity, ch. IX, and Gregory of Valencia, on the cited passage of St. Thomas. There is therefore one God, or one Godhead, and one throne of the deity, and likewise one essential adoration; but the Persons are three, and they are excellent and infinite, and therefore each is to be worshipped with latria: they therefore have a threefold personal subsistence, and, so to speak, a throne, and consequently an adoration. For we adore the Father, as Father, as generating the Son; we adore the Son as begotten by the Father; and the Holy Spirit as proceeding from both. Therefore, granted that the essential adoration of God, as He is God, is one; nevertheless the personal adoration is threefold, for by the personal adoration which is proper to the Father as Father, it is not lawful to adore the Son as Son, nor the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit; and vice versa: for this would be, with Sabellius, to confuse the three divine Persons, since they are really distinguished from one another, and are three real hypostases and subsistences. Thus the Church at the feast of Pentecost invokes the Holy Spirit as a Person distinct from the Father and the Son; at the feast of the Most Holy Trinity it invokes and adores the three Persons individually, as they are distinct Persons. Just as therefore of the one deity there is one essential adoration common to the three Persons; so of the Most Holy Trinity there is a threefold adoration of the three Persons, and to each His own proper personal adoration, according to what the Church sings in the Preface of the Mass of the Most Holy Trinity: "That both propriety in the Persons, and unity in the essence, and equality in the majesty may be adored." Therefore propriety in the Persons is to be adored no less than unity in the essence. But this propriety is threefold: therefore it is to be adored with a threefold personal adoration. Again, in the Office at the Magnificat, in second Vespers: "We praise and bless You, God the Father unbegotten, You the only-begotten Son, You the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, etc." The Father therefore is adored as unbegotten, the Son not as unbegotten, but as only-begotten. Daniel seems to have noted these thrones in chapter VII, saying: "I watched until thrones were set up." For that these thrones belonged to God and the Most Holy Trinity is clear from what he adds: "And the Ancient of Days sat," etc., whose majesty he then describes, with no mention made of Angels or Saints. Of the first and highest Angels he says: "Ten thousand times a hundred thousand were standing (not sitting) before Him." For the dignity and honor of the divine majesty requires that those Angels not be said to sit beside, but to stand and attend. It is otherwise with Christ the judge, to whom as man, men, namely the Apostles, will sit beside in judgment,
Matthew XIX. Therefore, to sum up what has been said more at length in the synopsis, the three divine Persons are three real hypostases; anthropopathically therefore we attribute three thrones to them, because to each is owed his own honor and adoration. Whence the Church in the Litanies separately adores and invokes each Person, saying: "Father from heaven, God, have mercy on us. Son, Redeemer of the world, God, have mercy on us," etc.
Again, the three relative properties in the three Persons are most excellent, and therefore are to be honored and adored in their own state, as on a throne; for each Person has its own property, namely, paternity, filiation, spiration. For the Father through paternity generates the Son equal to Himself: the Son through filiation is born as the image of the Father, the splendor of glory, and the figure of His substance: the Holy Spirit proceeds as the immense notional love of the Father and the Son. The Father therefore is adored as begetter, the Son as begotten, the Holy Spirit as notional love: of both together, of the Godhead there is one essential throne; but of the Most Holy Trinity, a threefold personal one.
8, 9, 10, and 11. I ALONE HAVE COMPASSED THE VAULT OF HEAVEN, AND HAVE PENETRATED THE DEPTH OF THE ABYSS (in Greek, of the abysses, that is, of the deepest waters and whirlpools, which seem to have no bottom, because men cannot explore them), I HAVE WALKED IN THE WAVES OF THE SEA; AND I HAVE STOOD IN ALL THE EARTH, AND IN EVERY PEOPLE, AND IN EVERY NATION I HAVE HAD PRIMACY, AND I HAVE TRODDEN UNDERFOOT BY MY POWER THE HEARTS OF ALL, BOTH GREAT AND LOWLY.
The Zurich Bible has: I alone compassed the sphere (others, the circuit) of heaven, and traversed the fords of the deep. All the waves of the sea, and all the earth, and all peoples and nations I possessed, and I trod underfoot the hearts of all, both great and lowly; the Syriac: in heaven together with Him (God) I dwelt, and in the foundations of the abysses I walked, in the springs of waters, and in the foundations of the world, and over all nations and peoples I held dominion. She speaks in the past tense — I dwelt, I compassed, I penetrated, I walked, I stood, I held primacy, I trod underfoot — to signify her antiquity and eternity, and her ancient and eternal right and dominion; otherwise these past tenses, in the Hebrew manner, signify any difference of time, including present and future: I compassed, therefore, means I compassed, I compass, and I shall compass; I trod underfoot means I trod, I tread, and I shall tread; and so for the rest.
By all these things Wisdom demonstrates her ample and universal sovereign right, dominion, and strength, says Rabanus, as well as her knowledge and providence over all things contained within the compass of heaven and earth; that she, namely, surveys, foresees, provides for, orders, and arranges all things, and that she rules and presides over all, and contains and embraces all things; second, that in the creation of all things she implanted in each a law to be perpetually observed, and made all things obedient to her will and law, which is the proper function of wisdom; third, that she instilled in all nations the knowledge, fear, and worship of God, together with reason. For the first and most excellent thing in every commonwealth has always been held to be reverence for the divine, worship, and religion.
Note: When Wisdom says: "I alone compassed the vault of heaven;" if by Wisdom you understand the uncreated and personal Wisdom, that is, the Son of God, the word "alone" does not exclude the Father and the Holy Spirit. For, as Pope Evaristus says, epistle 1, just as it does not harm the Son that the Father alone dwells in inaccessible light, so it does not harm the Father that His Wisdom alone compassed the vault of heaven: for in both cases the word "alone" excludes not the other divine Persons, but created natures, namely, all men and Angels, as the Scholastics teach.
Whence Lyranus expounds these things about the Son of God point by point: "The vault of heaven," that is, the starry heaven, he says, adorned with luminaries and stars, "I alone compassed," by arranging the motion of the spheres. "And I penetrated the depth of the abyss," by preparing hollows in the earth, so that with the waters gathered there the dry land might appear, which gathering is called the Ocean or the abyss. "And I walked in the waves of the sea," by saving Noah, and those who were with him in the ark amid the waters of the flood. "And I stood in all the earth," giving it stability everywhere around the center of the world. "And in every people, and in every nation I held primacy:" for all power of men is from God. "And I trod underfoot by power the hearts of all the great and exalted:" for all, both great and small, are subject to the Son of God, because they are subject to the whole Trinity. Thus far Lyranus.
AND IN ALL THESE I SOUGHT REST, AND IN THE INHERITANCE OF THE LORD I SHALL ABIDE,
that is, In all the peoples and nations, in which I have already said I hold primacy and dominion, I sought a place and a people in which I might properly rest through love and grace, and delight myself as in a people worshipping me, wise, pious, and holy, and I determined: "In the inheritance of the Lord," that is, in the faithful people, who are the special possession, inheritance, and Church of the Lord, "I shall abide," that is, I desire, am eager, and am determined to abide. For I do not wish to abide among an unfaithful people and idolatrous nations: for these are the inheritance, that is, the assembly and church of the devil; and therefore these are foolish, incapable, indeed my enemies: for they themselves are enemies of true wisdom, that is, of true faith and piety.
Whence the Greek and the Syriac have, instead of "of the Lord," the word toutos, that is, "whose"; and thus clearly state: with all these I sought rest, and in whose inheritance I might dwell, or fix my home — repeat: I sought. The Syriac: in what inheritance shall I rest?
Anagogically, Wisdom and the wise person seek rest in the heavenly inheritance of God: for there is no true rest elsewhere, according to that passage of Apocalypse XIV: "Henceforth, says the Spirit, let them rest from their labors: for their works follow them." And that passage of Psalm IV: "In peace, in the selfsame, I shall sleep and rest." See St. Bernard, sermon 7 on the feast of All Saints.
Third Part of the Chapter:
On the Dwelling of Wisdom in Israel
12. THEN THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS COMMANDED, AND SAID TO ME: AND HE WHO CREATED ME RESTED IN MY TABERNACLE.
Up to this point Wisdom has described her origin, namely, that she proceeded from God, because she was His firstborn; and her operation and efficacy, namely, that she formed, illuminated, and governed heaven and earth: now she describes her office and embassy to the earth for the instruction of men. And so she speaks poetically about herself, as if about a person distinct from God, while she is in reality God Himself. Wherefore properly these things belong first to common wisdom, which is an attribute proper to God. For here she takes on a personality, and by prosopopoeia makes herself as it were the minister of God, to carry out His commands, and thus to serve in instructing men, and to communicate herself to them through the wisdom communicated and created by her. By a similar prosopopoeia, mercy and justice are said to stand before God, and to be sent by Him, as ambassadors and judges, to exercise the works of His mercy and vengeance. Psalm LVI, 4: "God sent His mercy and His truth." Psalm LXXVII, 49: "He sent upon them the wrath of His indignation, indignation, and wrath, and tribulation."
Second, however, these things can also be applied to personal Wisdom, that is, to the Word and Son of God. For to Him is appropriated wisdom and teaching, just as to the Father is appropriated power and creation, and to the Holy Spirit goodness and the sanctification of men. For although the Son in Himself in majesty and dignity, as well as in nature and divinity, is equal and co-equal with the Father; nevertheless because the office of embassy which He here assumes, according to the human estimation of men, seems to be less than the Father, and to serve Him: for He is sent here as an ambassador, to carry out the Father's commands, and to promulgate them to men; whence He puts on the person of an ambassador, who seems to men to be less than the person of the King and God. He therefore speaks anthropopathically, or in the human manner: for thus a king, although he is more worthy than his republic and kingdom, yet if he himself is sent by the republic to the Emperor, with respect to this office of mission and embassy, he is considered to be less than and inferior to the republic; and a Bishop, if sent by his Church to the Pontiff, as St. Athanasius, St. Epiphanius, St. Paulinus were sent, and today many are sent; although he is greater and more worthy than the Church; yet insofar as he is sent by it, he is considered to be less than it. So also the Son of God, insofar as
He is here sent by the Father, and becomes the ambassador and teacher of men, anthropopathically, that is, in the eyes of men, and according to the manner and estimation of men, He seems to be inferior to the Father; although in Himself He is plainly equal and co-equal. The Son is therefore introduced here before the incarnation, as an ambassador setting out from the Father to the Jews and Israelites, the descendants of Abraham and Jacob, in order to teach them through Moses the law, faith, and worship of God, and the true wisdom by which they might become faithful, holy, and blessed. So Lyranus. The mission of begotten Wisdom, he says (that is, of the Word, or the Son, into the world) is called a command. Moreover, how the Son is said to be sent by the Father, because He proceeds from Him; and the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son, from whom He proceeds; but the Father is not said to be sent by the Son and the Holy Spirit, since He proceeds from neither — see St. Thomas and the Scholastics explaining I part., Question XLIII. Differently, Palacius says: He does not say, "Then He commanded me," but only: "Then He commanded," that is, He commanded within Himself, decreed, and resolved in His mind. So also Jansenius.
Again, and more especially, the Son accomplished this through the incarnation, when from the descendants of Abraham, that is, from the Blessed Virgin, He was incarnated, and taught them by word and example the way of virtue and salvation. For then in reality the Son, out of His immense condescension and grace, "emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man," as the Apostle says, Philippians II. For the very divinity of the Son lowered itself, and as it were pressed itself down to the lowest depth of our flesh and humanity, so that from everything He might become as it were empty and nothing, that is, a creature and a created man; for this is what "He emptied" signifies. Moreover, the Son made man, as man was less than the Father, and less than Himself as God, as is clear to all. Therefore, just as the Son before the incarnation established His chair of wisdom and teaching among the Jews, teaching them through Moses, the high priests, Scribes, and Pharisees; so also after the incarnation He Himself personally established and assumed the same among them, with His own mouth preaching and proclaiming the secrets of the Father, and things hidden from the foundation of the world. And all these things Sirach signifies here, indeed Wisdom Herself, who speaks here.
He says therefore: "Then He commanded," etc., that is, When I was so eagerly and anxiously seeking a people and a seat, namely, the inheritance of the Lord, in which I might rest; behold, God, complying with my wishes, assigned to me a people, a place, and a home in Jacob, that is, in the posterity and people of Israel: for He Himself chose this as His inheritance, that is, as His own possession, the people and the Church in which I desired and intended to fix my tabernacle. Therefore the Creator of all things commanded me, and said: "Dwell in Jacob." Therefore: "He who created me, rested," that is, made me rest, "in my tabernacle," that is, in the one attributed to me by God, namely, "in Jacob," that is, in Israel. This sense is required by what precedes and follows, and by the Greek, which has katepause ten skenen mou, that is,
He made to rest, fixed, placed my tabernacle, and consequently me in it. Thus Virgil in the Pharmaceutria says:
And the changed rivers rested (that is, made to rest, settled) their courses.
And Plautus in the Mostellaria: "Rest (that is, make to rest, calm) this tumult, which is before the door."
This is a Hebraism: for the Hebrews often use the qal for the hiphil, that is, the neuter verb for the active.
Thus Paul says, Romans VIII, 26: "The Spirit intercedes for us with unutterable groanings;" "intercedes," that is, makes us intercede; for the Holy Spirit cannot intercede with groanings, because He cannot groan, says St. Augustine.
Whence the Zurich Bible connects this entire sentence from verse 11 to verse 14 plainly and clearly, and translates: after all these things I sought rest, and a home in someone's possession. Then the Creator of the universe gave me commands, and my Creator fixed my tabernacle for me, and said: Dwell in Jacob, and take possession among the Israelites. Others, more closely and clearly following the Greek: fix your tabernacle in Jacob, and take up your inheritance in Israel. For the Greek kataskenoson means the same as "fix your tabernacle," which corresponds to what preceded: katepause ten skenen mou, that is, He made to rest, fixed, placed, my tabernacle. So also the Syriac: in all these things I sought rest for myself, for in what inheritance shall I rest? Then the Lord of all commanded me, and He who made me, and placed my tabernacle, said to me: Dwell in Jacob, and be established in Israel.
If, however, anyone prefers to take the phrase "and He who created me rested in my tabernacle" properly, as it sounds, let him explain and apply it thus, that is: The Creator of all things, who created me, and who rested in my tabernacle, commanded and said to me: "Dwell in Jacob." For God is said to dwell in the tabernacle of wisdom, that is, first, in wisdom itself: for wisdom is its own house and tabernacle. By this figure and prosopopoeia it is signified that wisdom is domestic, familiar, and intimate to God, so much so that God seems to dwell in it. Thus God is said to dwell on the throne of mercy and justice. Psalm LXXXVIII, 15: "Justice and judgment are the preparation of Your throne." Psalm IX, 9: "He has prepared His throne in judgment, and He Himself will judge the world in equity, He will judge the peoples in justice." Proverbs ch. XX, 28: "His throne is strengthened by mercy." Proverbs XXV, 5: "His throne will be established by justice."
Second, God the Father dwells in the Son, who is begotten Wisdom, through perichoresis, that is, the divine circumincession, by which one Person is in any other, namely, the Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit; the Son is in the Father and the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son, according to that saying of Christ: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?" John XIV, 10. And verse 20: "On that day you will know that I am in My Father." Whence Pope Evaristus, epistle 1, and Pope John II, in the year of Christ 532, in his epistle to Valerius, read it thus: "He who begot me rested in my tabernacle."
Third, God, especially the Son, is in the flesh and humanity which He assumed, as in His tabernacle: for in it "all the fullness of divinity dwells bodily," Colossians II, 9. The humanity of Christ, therefore, which is the tabernacle of created and incarnate Wisdom, is the same tabernacle of God, and of the Son of God: for in it He Himself dwells hypostatically, essentially, and personally.
Fourth, the tabernacle of wisdom, that is, of true faith, religion, piety, and holiness, is the Church, in which as in His tent and temple, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest.
Tropologically, Nazianzen in his Distichs says: "Let this be your perpetual endeavor, he says, to build your mind as a temple for God. For from this you will attain to having Him as a spiritual image in the innermost part of your heart. Know yourself, that is, whence you derive your origin, and with what dignity you are endowed: for thus you will easily attain that primary exemplar of beauty." So also St. Bernard, in his Meditations, ch. 1: "Nothing, he says, is so similar to that supreme Wisdom as the rational mind, which through memory, understanding, and will exists in that ineffable Trinity. But it cannot exist in it unless it remembers it, and understands and loves it. Let it therefore remember its God, in whose image it was made; and let it understand, love, and worship Him, with whom it can always be blessed. Blessed is the soul in which God has found rest, and in whose tabernacle He rests. Blessed is the one who can say: And He who created me rested in my tabernacle. For He will surely not be able to deny it the rest of heaven. Why then do we abandon ourselves, and seek God in these external things, when He is with us, if we are willing to be with Him?"
Mystically, the tabernacle in which God stored up the highest created wisdom, and indeed also the uncreated and incarnate Wisdom, is the Blessed Virgin, in whom the Son of God, when He was conceived, dwelt and rested for nine months. And from this she received all her dignity; for she receives the maternity of God, which is a dignity so great that it cannot be comprehended by men and angels, but surpasses the grasp of all. For, as our Christophorus a Castro rightly teaches in On the Mother of God, ch. III, that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God is a quasi-infinite excellence; because there cannot be a mother of a more excellent son than God, just as, in due proportion, that the human nature of Christ is united to the Son of God hypostatically is an infinite dignity: because it cannot be united to a more excellent supposit than the divine. Hence Blessed Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Nativity of St. Mary, said "that God exists in creatures in three ways; but in a fourth way, by identity, in the Virgin, because He is the same as she," in the manner in which a mother and son are one flesh, and as it were one civil person; much more so than husband and wife, of whom it is said in Genesis II, 24: "The two shall be in one flesh." And St. Anselm, book On the Excellence of the Blessed Virgin, ch. II: "Although, he says, this alone — that the holy Virgin is proclaimed the Mother of God — exceeds every height that can be said or thought after God."
From this principle a second is deduced: that, just as from the union of Christ's humanity with the Word, we conclude by a certain natural consequence that there was given to it infinite grace of headship, and impeccability, and every capacity for meriting and satisfying for men, as mediator and redeemer; and all knowledge and awareness of them, even of their thoughts; and finally all charisms, so much more abundantly and excellently than to others, as He inherited a more excellent name of head than the members, and the name of son, more than His ministers whether angels or men: so also we should acknowledge that by a certain natural consequence, from the dignity of the mother there was owed to her an immense grace, by which she was made by the grace of God impeccable, advocate, mediatrix, and redemptrix of all men; and there was bestowed upon her the knowledge of all of them that was required, and so abundant an affluence of charisms and supernatural gifts, as a mother is more excellent than servants, and closer to the Word than all others, both angels and men.
In accordance with this, Methodius rightly says, in his oration On the Purification: "Well done, he says, well done, you who have as your debtor Him who lends to all: for to God we all are indebted; but to you even He is indebted. Therefore, He who said: 'Honor your father and your mother,' in order to observe the decree He Himself promulgated, and to exceed all others, bestowed upon His mother every grace and honor." St. Cyprian likewise, sermon On the Nativity of Christ: "To the mother, he says, the fullness of grace was owed."
And for this reason she was called Mary, that is, exalted, sublime, eminent, from the root ram, that is, "he was exalted"; or Mary, that is, lady, teacher, and princess: for more means lord, master, prince, from the root iara, that is, "he taught, directed," although others wish Mary to be the same as myrrh or the bitterness of suffering, from the root marar, that is, "he was bitter." Moreover, the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God without a father, for she herself supplied the role of both father and mother. Wherefore she is more a mother to God than other mothers are to their children: for these do not give the whole substance to their son, but only one part; for the other, and that the principal part, the father gives. Christ therefore received His entire humanity from His mother, and owes all that is His, as man, to His mother. Wherefore Christ, God and man, through this His conception and birth from the Virgin, became the Blessed Virgin's debtor, and is obligated to her as to both mother and father, and must acknowledge what He has received more than other sons are debtors to their parents, and are bound to acknowledge their existence as received from them.
Jacob and Israel, that is, in the Church and assembly of the faithful and Christians. For these are the sons of Abraham and Jacob, not according to the flesh, but according to wisdom, that is, faith, spirit, and grace, as the Apostle teaches, Romans IX, 8.
Tropologically, Wisdom and Christ dwell in Jacob and Israel, that is, in the supplanter (for this is what Jacob means in Hebrew) of vices and passions. Whence Jacob represents the Saints and the elect; but Esau the impious and the reprobate, according to that passage of Malachi I, 2, which the Apostle cites, Romans IX, 13: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." The same inherit in Israel, that is, in the man devoted to prayer and contemplation, who praying with great confidence dominates, as it were, over God, and obtains from Him whatever he wills, as Jacob did when wrestling with the angel who represented God, and therefore he was called Israel, that is, "ruling over God," or, as others say, "man seeing God," Genesis XXXII, 26. Namely, these two virtues, prayer and mortification, will make one truly wise and holy.
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin, mother of eternal Wisdom, dwelt in Jacob; because born from the Jews she dwelt among the Jews, and there she brought forth Christians: in these therefore, as chosen by God, she sent the first roots of the Christian Church. For this Church began in Zion and among the Zionites, that is, the Jews converted to Christ, through the work of the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles. Again, the Blessed Virgin is the leader, mother, teacher, and guardian of the elect. Whence eminent Theologians teach that a sign of predestination and divine election is the worship and constant devotion toward the Blessed Virgin, according to that passage which the Church mystically attributes to her: "He who finds me will find life, and will draw salvation from the Lord," Proverbs VIII. Whence Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, in his oration On the Mother of God says: "Just as, he says, continuous breathing is not only a sign of life, but also its cause; so the name of St. Mary, which is constantly on the lips of the servants of God, is at once a proof that they truly live; and at the same time it produces and preserves this very life, and bestows upon it all joy and help for all things."
14. FROM THE BEGINNING, AND BEFORE THE AGES I WAS CREATED.
Wisdom praised herself, verse 5, from her divine origin, namely, that she was born from God as the firstborn daughter of God: now she praises herself from her antiquity and eternity. For because shortly before she said that she had dwelt in Jacob, lest anyone think she began in the time of Jacob or Moses, she adds: "From the beginning, and before the ages I was created," that is, From eternity, before all ages and times, both real and imaginary, I was created, that is, produced or conceived. Conceive and imagine in your mind before the world a hundred thousand years, millions of years, a thousand myriads of myriads of years — before these, and any others you can conceive in your mind, I existed, and I preceded them all infinitely, because I existed from eternity, and I was co-eternal with God. For eternity precedes all real and imaginary times infinitely. Whence the Greek has: before the age (that is, before
Which is indeed a great dignity of the Mother of God, and a great condescension of the Son of God.
Moreover, that Wisdom says she was created, saying: "And He who created me," understand it in an accommodated sense: "created," that is, made in whatever manner, as the Syriac translates. For the Hebrew bara, that is, "created," has a very broad signification. Wherefore first, regarding uncreated and essential Wisdom, explain it thus, that is: The Creator of all created me, that is, brought me forth, conceived me, for she is the concept of the divine mind, and the essential Word of God; second, regarding personal Wisdom, that is, the Son, meaning: "The Creator created me," that is, the Begetter begot me; third, regarding incarnate Wisdom, that is, Christ as man, and regarding created wisdom, which God communicates to Angels, men, and other creatures — properly speaking, meaning: The Creator created, that is, produced me from nothing. See what was said at chapter XIV.
13. AND HE SAID TO ME: DWELL IN JACOB, AND TAKE YOUR INHERITANCE IN ISRAEL (take up the inheritance, let Israel be your inheritance, portion, and possession), AND SEND DOWN YOUR ROOTS IN MY CHOSEN ONES,
that is, God assigned to Wisdom as her people, place, and home the descendants of the Patriarch Jacob, who by another name was called Israel, namely, the Israelites. For these were the Church, that is, the faithful people chosen by God, that He might imbue them with His wisdom, that is, with faith, worship, and religion, above all other nations. In this people, therefore, Wisdom is said to have dwelt as in her inheritance, and to have sent down roots, that is, the wisdom of God was firmly rooted there. First, because He imbued that people alone with the true and pure knowledge of God, according to that passage: "God is known in Judah: in Israel His name is great," Psalm LXXV, 1. Second, because to that people alone He gave the law, rites, and ceremonies by which they might purely worship God, according to that passage: "He has not done likewise for any nation: and He has not manifested His judgments to them," Psalm CXLVII, 9. Third, because He gave them high priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, succeeding one another through every age, who would preserve and propagate this knowledge of God, His law, and worship among their descendants. Fourth, because to the Jews alone He gave oracles and responses familiarly from the propitiatory; likewise through the Urim and Thummim, which were in the Rational of the high priest. Fifth, because to these alone He gave in turn the Prophets, and finally Christ foretold by the Prophets, who wished to become incarnate and dwell in Judea, in order to teach them true wisdom. Finally, God pursued the Jews with so many miracles and benefits, and with such great and such singular providence continually, that He seemed to be properly their God, father, guardian, protector, provider, according to that passage: "I am... the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob," Exodus ch. III, 16.
AND IN MY CHOSEN ONES (that is, in the Israelites, whom I chose for myself as a people), SEND DOWN YOUR ROOTS, — that is, take root, and establish your seat firmly. Differently, Lyranus says: The roots, he says, are the precepts of the Decalogue, and other ceremonial and judicial laws, which God gave to the Hebrews, so that through their observance they might be rooted in divine wisdom.
Allegorically, Wisdom and Christ dwell in time and the world) from the beginning He created me, and until the ages I shall not fail; the Zurich Bible: before the age was established, from the beginning He established me, and forever I shall not fail.
"From the beginning," therefore, means from eternity: whence it follows: "And before the ages." For Scripture calls the "beginning" that which was before times; but this was eternity. Whence in Proverbs VIII, the same Wisdom says of herself: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything." And Micah, ch. V: "His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity." So Gabriel Vasquez, I part., Question XXXIII, disp. 139, ch. 1, at the end.
Therefore by these words Wisdom signifies: first, that she is timeless, and therefore uncreated and divine, indeed God; for eternity separates her, just as it does God, from every human and created thing. For, as Nazianzen says, oration 5 On Theology: "By the interval of time we are cut off and divided from God." For God is eternal; but we are subject to time, just as all other created things. Whence Blessed Peter Damian says of Jesus the Son of God, book II, epistle 5: "He is for us both timeless time, and placeless place." Second, Wisdom signifies that she is free from vicissitude, and superior to all the changes that the variation of time produces, that is: I transcend temporal changes, I am constant, and unconquered in the face of all events, as if I were vying with God in eternity and immutability.
Note: Sirach alludes to that passage of Solomon, Proverbs ch. VIII, verse 22: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways;" where in place of "in the beginning" the Hebrew has reshit, which our translator takes for bereshit, that is, "in the beginning." The Seventy, however, took reshit simply as "beginning"; whence they translated: the Lord created me as the beginning or principle of His ways for His works. Wherefore it is likely that the elder Sirach, who composed this book in Hebrew, imitating Solomon, wrote in this place in Hebrew reshit, that is, "beginning"; but the younger Sirach, who translated the elder into Greek, took reshit for bereshit, that is, "from the beginning, from the first," as our translator understood it in Proverbs VIII. Wherefore, if with the Seventy you take reshit simply as arche, that is, "beginning," in this passage also you may translate with them: I was created as the beginning; and this first, meaning: The Lord made me the beginning of His works, so that I, Wisdom, might be first, and the first conceived before all the works of God; second, meaning: God made it so that I would be the beginning and cause of all His works: because through me, as through an exemplar, He designed all things; third, arche signifies not only "beginning" but also "sovereignty"; whence that passage of Psalm 109: "With You is sovereignty" (for in the Greek it is nedabot, Hebrew: "sovereignty") "in the day of Your power:" thus the sense will be: I, Wisdom, was created to be the sovereignty of God, I was made the ruler of all the works of God; fourth, arche signifies firstfruits and first offerings, meaning: I, Wisdom, was created as arche, that is, as the firstfruits of the works of God, so that I might hold the first place among the works of God, according to that passage of chapter I, 4: "Wisdom was created before all things."
Mystically, all these things may easily be applied to the Blessed Virgin, as I shall show more fully at Proverbs VIII, 22; in the meantime, see there our Salazar treating these matters learnedly and piously. For the Blessed Virgin was predestined from eternity to be the beginning of the works of God, that is, of all pure creatures. Second, to be the model of holiness, according to which He would form the holy Angels, Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, Confessors, and Religious. When therefore God conceived and predestined the Blessed Virgin in His mind, He predestined all these, and indeed all the faithful. Third, He decreed to her the sovereignty of grace and glory, He assigned to her the sovereignty of holiness, as well as of dominion: for He destined her to be the ruler, queen, and lady of all creatures. Fourth, God made her the firstfruits of His works. It was customary to offer to God the firstfruits of the harvest, so that through them all the other fruits might be considered as offered to God and sanctified; so the world offered to God the Blessed Virgin, as the firstfruits of human nature, through whom all men, and all of nature, might be considered offered to Him, purified, and sanctified.
Wherefore Rupert beautifully, in chapter II of the Song of Songs, introduces the Blessed Virgin speaking thus about herself: "Before I was born, I was present to God; before I came to be, I was well known to Him. He chose me before the foundation of the world, that I might be holy and immaculate in His sight in love. And if His delight was to be with the sons of men, how much more did He delight in this handmaid of the Lord, the marvel of all the sons of men?" Thus Rupert. For which reason Damascene, sermon 1 On the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, calls her "the abyss of miracles, the workshop of miracles."
Anagogically, apply these things to the inheritance of the heavenly Jerusalem, in which the Blessed Virgin reigns and triumphs as queen. Whence the Church applies these words to her on the feast of her Assumption.
AND UNTIL THE FUTURE AGE I SHALL NOT CEASE,
that is, Just as I am eternal from the prior part, so also from the posterior part, because, unto the ages, as the Greek has it, that is, through all future ages, I shall persist forever. So Lyranus. The Syriac: before the ages I was created, and for ages of ages my memory shall not cease.
AND IN THE HOLY DWELLING I MINISTERED BEFORE HIM,
that is, In the Jewish tabernacle and temple in which I dwelt, I performed the sacred ministries through my ministers the Levites and priests, and I offered true sacrifices to God: for this is what the Greek eleitourgesa signifies: whence the Greek and Syriac clearly have: in the holy tabernacle I performed the sacred ministry before Him. Hence Wisdom is called mystes, that is, priest and initiate, who preserves the secrets of God, and sacrifices holy victims to Him, as I said above.
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin ministered to God in the temple, when she was presented in it at the age of three, indeed she voluntarily presented herself. Whence the Church reads these words as the Epistle on the feast of her Presentation.
the Epistle reads on the feast of her Presentation. For she herself from the age of three up to fourteen, when she was betrothed to Joseph, and, at the announcement of the Angel, conceived Christ, continuously ministered to God in the temple, devoting herself to perpetual prayers, meditations, pious readings, sermons, and manual work for the services of the temple, so that she might prepare and dispose herself for the conception of the Word. See our Canisius in the Marian work and Christophorus a Castro in his Life of the Mother of God.
15. AND SO I WAS ESTABLISHED IN ZION, AND IN THE SANCTIFIED CITY I LIKEWISE RESTED, AND IN JERUSALEM IS MY POWER.
As if to say: I, Wisdom, through my tabernacle and temple, which I built on Mount Zion through David and Solomon, and firmly established, whereas before I moved and wandered through various cities of Judea by means of the portable tabernacle, in Zion I was firmly established and securely placed. Whence in the city sanctified by my temple and my worship, namely in Zion and Jerusalem, I firmly rested: for God was said to reside and rest in the ark and the mercy-seat of the temple, especially because from it He spoke and gave oracles. Whence I established not only ecclesiastical dignity, but also secular and royal power in the same place: for David fixed his royal throne in Zion and Jerusalem, and all his descendants followed him. Whence the Greek text, corrected at Rome, reads: in Zion I was established, in the beloved city (they read egapemene, that is, beloved, whereas the Complutensian edition and our Vulgate read hegiasmenē, that is, sanctified) He likewise caused me to rest, and in Jerusalem is my power; the Tigurina: and in Zion I was confirmed; then also in the dear city He gave me rest, and in Jerusalem I obtained power; the Syriac: and again in Zion I stood, in the city which is beloved to Him, just as I rested, and in Jerusalem was my dominion, that is, the royal seat and throne of kings.
Mystically, all these things may be applied to the Blessed Virgin. To her therefore you may more truly cry out what the Israelites acclaimed to the victorious Judith for the slaying of Holofernes: "You are the glory of Jerusalem, you the joy of Israel, you the honor of our people," Judith 15:10.
16. AND I TOOK ROOT IN AN HONORED PEOPLE, AND IN THE PORTION OF MY GOD IS HIS INHERITANCE, AND IN THE FULLNESS OF THE SAINTS IS MY DWELLING.
What she said of the place, she now says of the people, as if to say: Just as I dwell in Zion and am rooted there, so likewise among the inhabitants of Zion, that is, among the Israelites, I dwell and am rooted: for these alone know and worship the true God. Wherefore these alone are the honored people, and the portion and inheritance of God, or, as the Greek has it, the portion of the Lord's inheritance, that is, the hereditary portion and inheritance of the Lord, namely His special possession and lot. Wherefore the word "His" does not so much refer to the honored people, as Palacius would have it, as if to say: The portion of God is the inheritance of the honored people; but rather to God, as if to say: The portion of my God, in which I took root, is the inheritance of Him, namely of God. Finally she calls them Israel, and their fullness the fullness of the Saints, that is, the full and complete assembly of the faithful and of the Saints, that is, the Church.
"I took root," therefore, in Israel as "in an honored people," and as "in the portion" and lot "of my God," which portion and lot is "His inheritance," namely God's. Finally, in the full assembly of the Saints of this people is "my dwelling" and habitation. Whence the Tigurina clearly translates: in a distinguished people I am rooted, and in the possession which has fallen to the Lord: the Syriac: I was raised in an honored people, in the portion of the Lord, and in the midst of the inheritance of Israel. For the word "I took root" signifies education and nourishment: whence "the root in plants is similar to the mouth in animals," says Aristotle, book 2 of On the Soul: because just as these take food by mouth, so plants through their root draw sap for nourishment.
Wherefore symbolically, the phrase "I took root in an honored people" denotes the Incarnation, life, and Passion of begotten Wisdom, that is, of Christ the Lord, by which He bound the whole faithful people to Himself with an insoluble debt of love. Concerning which St. Bernard beautifully says, in his sermon On the Fourfold Debt: From Christ Jesus, he says, you owe your entire life, because He laid down His life for your life, and endured bitter torments, lest you should endure everlasting ones. What could seem harsh or hard to you, when you recall that He, in the form of God, in the day of His eternity, in the splendors of the saints, begotten before the morning star, the brightness and figure of the substance of God, came to your prison, to your mire, plunged (as it is said) up to the elbows in the mire of the deep? What would not be sweet to you, when you gather together all the bitter sufferings of your Lord, and recall first the necessities of infancy, then the labors He endured in preaching, the weariness in traveling, the temptations in fasting, the snares in conversation; finally the dangers among false brethren, the insults, the spitting, the blows, the scourging, the mockeries, the sneers, the reproaches, the nails, and all such things, which for the salvation of our race He wrought and suffered for thirty-three years in the midst of the earth? O what undeserved compassion, what gratuitous and thus proven love, what unexpected condescension, what astonishing sweetness, what unconquered meekness, that the King of glory should be crucified for the most despised slave, indeed for a worm! Who has ever heard such a thing, or who has seen anything like it?"
And shortly after: "When therefore I shall have given Him whatever I am, whatever I can, is not this like a star compared to the sun, a drop to a river, a stone to a mountain, a grain to a heap? I have nothing but two small coins, indeed the very smallest, body and soul; or rather one small coin, my will; and shall I not give it to the will of Him who, being so great, anticipated so small a creature with such great benefits, who purchased me wholly with His whole self? Otherwise, if I retain it, with what face, with what eyes, with what mind, with what conscience do I approach the tender mercies of our God; and dare to divert these riches from the five parts of the body to my own advantage?"
Allegorically, Wisdom and Christ constantly and perpetually dwell, and will dwell forever, in the Christian Church and in the assembly of Christians. For these, more than the Jews, are Zion, that is, a watchtower: because they contemplate God here through faith, and will contemplate Him in heaven through glory; and Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace, because they enjoy present and eternal peace. These also are the honored people, the portion and lot of God, and the fullness and complete congregation of the Saints. So Rabanus says: "In an honored people, that is, in the Christian people, who by the distinguished proclamation of His name merited to be honored (so that from Christ they are called Christians), who are called His portion and inheritance, because among all the nations of the world, this people alone belongs to His lot: and in the fullness of the Saints is His dwelling, since they are members of His body: He Himself becomes all in all." For Christ honored the Christian people when He deigned to become a man like others for their sake, to suffer death and the cross for them, and to nourish them with Himself in the Eucharist, so that He might raise them to heaven, and indeed elevate them to the noble palms and crowns of Martyrs, Virgins, Doctors, etc. Whence Palacius, reading: "In the portions of my God is the inheritance thereof," explains it thus, as if to say: I struck the roots of love in the honored people, for that people loves me. And not in vain: for therefore in the portions and riches of God that people which loves me has its inheritance. Or more clearly: the inheritance of that honored people is in the portions and inheritance of God. O honored and fortunate people!
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin rightly says of herself: "In the fullness of the Saints is my dwelling." First, because, as St. Bernard says on these very words of Ecclesiasticus: "Rightly in the fullness of the Saints is her dwelling, since she lacked neither the faith of the Patriarchs, nor the spirit of the Prophets, nor the zeal of the Apostles, nor the constancy of the Martyrs, nor the sobriety of the Confessors, nor the chastity of Virgins, nor the fruitfulness of the married, nor the purity of Angels," as if to say: All the endowments and graces of all and each of the Saints, gathered together in her as in a sea, the Blessed Virgin received as infused by God. Whence theologians commonly teach: "Whatever was granted by God to any of the Saints was not denied to the Blessed Virgin, as the Mother of God, but was rather granted to her more fully than to anyone else:" for to others grace was given in parts, but upon Mary the fullness of grace poured itself out entirely, as Sophronius testifies, sermon On the Assumption, and Chrysologus, sermon 143, according to that saying of Proverbs chapter 31: "Many daughters have gathered riches, but you have surpassed them all." Whence St. Bernard, sermon 174: "What, therefore, is known to have been bestowed even on a few mortals, it is certainly not right to suspect was denied to so great a Virgin, through whom mortality rose to life." And St. Thomas, Part III, Question 27, article 5, in the body: "The Blessed Virgin Mary, he says, was most closely united to Christ according to His humanity, because from her He received human nature; and therefore she was bound to obtain from Christ a greater fullness of grace than all others." And in Question 7, article 10, reply to objection 1, he explains that the fullness of the Virgin's grace consisted in her having sufficient grace for that state to which she was elevated by God, namely to be the Mother of His Only-begotten Son. Wherefore St. Cyprian, in his sermon On the Nativity of Christ, says: "As to a mother, the fullness of grace; as to a virgin, more abundant grace, was due." And St. Epiphanius, in his sermon On the Praises of the Mother of God: "How, he says, is the Virgin found to be a heavenly spouse and mother, who under the title of prenuptial gifts received the Holy Spirit, and by way of dowry, heaven together with Paradise?" Wherefore St. Ephrem, in his oration On the Blessed Virgin, calls her "queen of all;" and again, "lady, princess, and most excellent queen, and most blessed, the purest lady of ladies;" and shortly after, "queen and lady more sublime than all." Likewise St. Athanasius, in his sermon On the Blessed Virgin, calls her "queen of the citizens above and lady of the Angels": "Because Christ Himself, he says, is King and Lord, the mother who bore Him should truly be reckoned as queen and lady."
Second, because the Blessed Virgin, just as she had the fullness of grace, so also she had the fullness of the glory of all the Saints. So St. Bernardine, volume III, sermon 11, article 2: "In this Assumption of the Virgin, he says, was fulfilled what is said of David in 2 Kings 6, that he brought up the Ark of the Lord, and there were with David seven choirs, namely of the blessed Spirits, of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles who had already passed on, of Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, so that there might be fulfilled in the Virgin what is written in Ecclesiasticus 24: 'In the fullness of the Saints is my dwelling.'" And shortly after he says this glory of the Virgin was prefigured in 3 Kings 2, when Solomon placed his mother's throne at his right hand: "There contemplate, he says, the most exalted sublimation of the mother, and the most immediate union, because a throne was placed for the mother, and she sat at the right hand of the son."
Third, because, as St. Bonaventure says in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter 7: "The Blessed Virgin is not only detained in the fullness of the Saints, but she also detains the Saints in their fullness, lest their fullness be diminished: she detains virtues, lest they flee; she detains merits, lest they perish; she detains demons, lest they harm; she detains her Son, lest He strike sinners. Before Mary there was no one who dared thus to detain the Lord, as Isaiah testifies in chapter 64, verse 7, who said: 'There is none who calls upon Your name and takes hold of You.'" And below, for this same purpose he cites St. Anselm: "And therefore, he says, Anselm well says thus: To you alone I speak, O lady: your benefits have filled the world, they have penetrated the underworld, they have risen above the heavens; for through the fullness of your grace, those who were in hell rejoice that they are freed; and those who are above the world rejoice that they are restored."
Wherefore in this mystical body of the Holy Church, whose head is Christ, she is called the neck, which surpasses the other members and through which all power from the head flows into the members: so that with very good reason in Apocalypse 12, as St. Bernard says, the moon is placed under her feet as mediatrix, which moon, because it sometimes receives splendor from the sun, signifies the Church of this time illuminated by its rays from Christ, the Sun of justice. The same thing St. Antoninus observes, Part IV, title 5, chapter 20, section 2, where he explains of the Virgin that passage of Ecclesiasticus 24: "In Jerusalem is my power," that is, in the Church: "Since the Church, he says, is rightly under the feet of the Virgin, because she is not only under her patronage, but also under her dominion and power. Therefore, since she is the noblest part after Christ, through whom God exercises His providence and mercy toward men in a special way, she seemed especially worthy of commemoration."
Wherefore Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Assumption, calls her the Holy of Holies; and Andrew of Crete, in his work On the Dormition of the Virgin: "O Holy One, he says, holier than the Saints, and most holy treasure of all holiness." Damascene, oration 2 On the Dormition: "I seem to see, he says, this one holier than the Saints, more sacred than the sacred, and surpassing the devout in devotion," etc. St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Aqueduct, to prove the great power and efficacy of the Virgin's prayers, cites the saying: "The prayer of the just penetrates the heavens;" and adds: "And who is just, if not Mary the just one, from whom the Sun of justice arose for us?" St. Bernardine, volume III, sermon 11, article 3, chapter 1: "Just as, he says, the Son of Mary is the Holy of Holies; so it is certain that the mother who bore Him is the Holy of Holy Women, in whom was that precious treasure, the tabernacle of God, the throne of God, and the bridal chamber of God. Where therefore is the supreme fullness of human and angelic holiness, there the Virgin Mother of God always laid the first foundations of her holiness, there she maintained her position, and planted her virginal foot." Finally our own Sebastianus Barradius in his commentary on the Canticle of Moses, book III, section 8, annotation 16, number 243: "The praise of the Blessed Virgin, he says, has no fullness in which to take its stand, unless we say that there was granted to her, beyond the merits of all the Saints, immunity from original sin. In this assertion lies the fullness of the Saints in which she is held: 'In the fullness of the Saints is my dwelling.'"
Fourth Part of the Chapter:
Wisdom Compares Herself to the Cedar and Other Trees
Note: Wisdom has hitherto praised herself for her intrinsic endowments; now she praises herself through extrinsic analogies and comparisons. For to display her beauty, excellence, and usefulness, she compares herself to trees, aromatics, and rivers that surpass all others; and to sacred ones at that, to signify that she is sacred, and indeed that she is uncreated holiness itself, which instructs, directs, and leads men toward created holiness. Wherefore Isidore, book IV, epistle 228: "Solomon, he says, presenting Wisdom as a person, when he could not find how through any single example or any one plant to display her beauty, sublimity, and sweetness, ranged through all growing things, and gathering from each what was most fitting and becoming for representing her, he thus portrayed her to men, so that by borrowing beauty from this plant, sublimity from another, sweetness and fragrance of scent from yet another, he provided an occasion for thinking something worthy of Wisdom."
Therefore first, in the opening verses she compares herself to four outstanding and equally sacred trees, namely the cedar, the cypress, the palm, and the olive. Sacred, I say, because from these the temple and its vessels were fashioned, as is clear from 3 Kings 5:6; Canticles 1:16; 3 Kings 6:18, 29, 32. Whence the cross of Christ is also said to have been composed from these, as I shall show below, which accordingly Sirach here enigmatically foreshadows.
Second, in verse 21, Wisdom compares herself to four sacred aromatics, namely galbanum, myrrh, stacte, and frankincense, from which was made the sacred incense that was burned daily to God both morning and evening on the altar of incense, and which represented the ardor of devotion and charity with which Christ offered Himself to God on the cross, as incense and a sweet-smelling sacrifice.
Third, in verse 35, she compares herself to four rivers that are as it were sacred, namely the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Phison, and the Geon; sacred, I say, both because these four rivers are near the Holy Land, that is, Palestine, and are its boundaries and borders, whence they are frequently named in Sacred Scripture; and because these were the four rivers of Paradise, which was the place of innocence and holiness, in which Adam lived as long as he remained holy; but when he sinned, he was immediately expelled from it: because this place was destined by God for innocence, for the innocent and the holy; for it was itself a symbol and beginning of the Paradise and happiness of heaven. Wisdom therefore in this verse and the following ones, to declare her elegance and wonderful endowments and virtues, and to teach that she most perfectly possesses all the perfections of the most perfect things, compares herself to the most beautiful, most excellent, and most precious trees, which flourished in Israel, that is, in Judea, and especially on Mount Lebanon near Judea. For, as St. Jerome says on chapter 14 of Hosea: "The trees of Lebanon, as much as they rise with their tops into the air, so deeply do they plunge their roots into the depths; so that they are shaken by no storm, but stand with immovable mass. The branches of these trees stretch out in every direction, so that the birds of the sky may come and dwell in them. Cedars grow here in abundance, knotless and incorruptible, and of wonderful height (to which therefore the proud are compared in Sacred Scripture). Also straight and choice firs, fragrant cypresses, rich olives, pines, box trees, and various incense-bearing trees; whose gum is called choice frankincense by physicians."
Since therefore the trees of Judea and Lebanon surpass all others, Wisdom compares herself to these, and especially to the cedar, the cypress, the palm, the plane tree, the olive, and the rose, which flourish and stand out there. To the cedar belongs immortality, says Palacius; to the cypress, uprightness; to the palm, victory; to the plane tree, the pleasantness of shade; to the olive, the value of oil; to the rose, the grace of fragrance. All these therefore Wisdom ascribed to herself, namely that, since she is the loftiest of all things, she possesses a better immortality than the cedar, a better uprightness than the cypress, a better power of conquering than the palm, a better shade (that is, protection, favor, and aid) than the plane tree, a more pleasant fragrance than the rose, a greater value of her mercy than the olive. And because Christ gives what He has, therefore He gives immortality to His own, uprightness to the just, victory to those who fight, to those afflicted by the heat of temptations the shade of His protection, to the devout the fragrance of eternity (for it is said: "We will run in the fragrance of your ointments"); and finally He bestows upon all the oil of His mercy; for this reason He is called Christ, that is, the Anointed One, anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions.
17. LIKE A CEDAR I WAS EXALTED ON LEBANON.
The Tigurina renders: like a cedar in Lebanon I grew; the Syriac: I was nourished. And so these translate "on Lebanon" in connection with "like a cedar": it can also be referred to "I was exalted," as if to say: I, Wisdom, was exalted on Lebanon, that is, in Jerusalem and the temple, which was built from the timber of Lebanon (and therefore is called Lebanon, Ezekiel 17:3), just as the cedar is exalted among the trees of Lebanon. Above all, Wisdom compares herself to the cedar, because the cedar stands out among trees: first, in height, which is so great that Pliny, book 16, chapter 40, says: "In Cyprus it is reported that a cedar was cut for the eleven-banked ship of Demetrius, one hundred and thirty feet tall, and in girth requiring the embrace of three men." Moreover, the cedar loves mountains; in the same way Wisdom is most lofty, because she reaches to the heavens and to God; for she teaches a heavenly and divine doctrine, which makes men into Angels and certain earthly gods, and indeed raises them to heaven, and there makes them kings and heirs of the kingdom of God. Furthermore, she was thus exalted on Lebanon, that is, in Judea and in the Church and people of God: for this is Lebanon, that is, white in purity, and fragrant in holiness and the fame of virtues.
Second, in straightness: for the cedar is knotless and perfectly straight. Wisdom likewise is perfectly straight; because she gives nothing to favor, partiality, fear, or human respect; but most uprightly she adapts and conforms herself to the eternal truth, law, and will of God, which is the pattern of all uprightness.
Third, in solidity; for the cedar is extremely solid and almost bone-like; so too Wisdom is solid, because she teaches one to follow stable and eternal principles, not temporal and fleeting ones. Moreover, the cedar does not shed its leaves, but is green with perpetual foliage; its heartwood is red and fragrant; so wisdom is ever green and most sweetly fragrant; and the heart of the wise and holy man, because it is sprinkled with the blood of Christ, glows red and burns.
Fourth, in incorruptibility; for the cedar does not suffer decay, moth-worm, or aging; indeed other things, anointed with cedar oil, do not suffer decay or moth-worm, says Pliny. The same author, book 24, chapter 5: "It preserves dead bodies incorrupt for ages, he says, but corrupts living things: a marvelous difference, since it takes life from the living, and serves as life for the dead."
Fifth, in duration; for the cedar lasts for a very long time; whence it is designated as eternal: hence things that merit eternity are called "worthy of the cedar." Hear Pliny, book 13, chapter 5: "The very material possesses eternity. And so they fashioned images of the gods from it. In Rome the Apollo of Sosius in his shrine is of cedar." And book 16, chapter 41: "It is memorable, he says, that in the temple of Apollo at Utica, the beams of Numidian cedars have lasted from the first founding of the city, 1,188 years." And he adds that the roof of the temple of Diana at Ephesus was made of cedar beams. Moreover, Solomon built not only his own palace but also the temple, which was the wonder of the world, from cedar wood, 3 Kings chapter 7, verse 2 and following, and chapter 9, verse 11. Wisdom likewise is eternal, and she makes those devoted to her eternal, indeed she bestows upon them glory and an everlasting kingdom.
Sixth, in fruit. "Cedars bear fruit (says Pliny, book 13, chapter 5) the size of myrtle berries, with a sweet taste. And there are two kinds of the larger cedar: one that flowers does not bear fruit; one that bears fruit does not flower, and in it the new fruit replaces the old." I myself saw at Rome the fruit of a cedar: it was a great nut like a pine nut. The fruit of wisdom and discipline likewise, though at first it seems bitter and harsh, soon becomes sweet, and at last becomes most sweet: "All discipline, says the Apostle in Hebrews 12:11, at the present indeed seems not to be of joy, but of sorrow: but afterwards it will yield the most peaceful fruit of justice to those who have been exercised by it."
Seventh, in fragrance; for the cedar is fragrant, and therefore incorrupt and eternal. Hence the cedar drives away and kills serpents with its scent, and for this reason it was customary to burn it in houses and country estates: so Rabanus, who proves this from that passage of Virgil, Georgics III:
"Learn also to burn fragrant cedar in the stables, and to drive away the sluggish water-snakes with the fumes of galbanum."
Where Servius comments: "Chelydri, he says, are serpents, so called as if chersydri, because they dwell in water and on land. For we call cherson land, and hydor water." So also Pliny, book 24, chapter 5: "Cedar sawdust puts serpents to flight, he says, this is certain: likewise if anyone is anointed with the berries crushed in oil." Hence also they used to anoint books with cedar oil, which Pliny therefore calls "cedrated," which endured unharmed and intact by moth-worms for many centuries. Pliny relates, book 13, chapter 13, that such were the books of Pythagoras, which, having been buried in the earth, were found intact after 535 years because they had been treated with cedar oil. Wisdom likewise is fragrant: the fragrance of wisdom is fame and renown, according to that saying of Paul: "We are the good odor of Christ," 2 Corinthians 2:16. So Rabanus.
Eighth, in medicine and healing power; for the cedar has a most prized resin, which cures various types of diseases. "The cedar, says Pliny, book 24, chapter 5, produces a great pitch, which is called cedria, most useful for toothaches." And further: "Cedrides, that is, the fruits of the cedar, cure coughs, promote urination, check the bowels, and are useful applied to ruptures, sprains, spasms, strangury, and the womb." In the same way wisdom heals all diseases of the soul, and either cures or soothes them.
Tropologically and mystically, Wisdom communicates all these endowments of hers to the wise who devote themselves to her, namely to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints, especially to the Doctors. For she makes them first, lofty and exalted, so that with Paul they may say: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians 3:20; second, just and upright, so that they swerve not even a point from the line of justice and honesty, through fear or favor of anyone; third, solid, so that they are broken by no adversity; fourth, incorrupt, so that they are weakened by no pleasure, flattery, or blandishments; fifth, eternal, and "sowers of eternity, conferring incorruption upon all whom their words have touched, who dispense the word of life as food of eternity for nourishing the family of Christ," says St. Hilary, canon 27 on Matthew; sixth, sweet in speech and consolation, according to that passage in chapter 20, verse 13: "The wise man makes himself beloved by his words;" seventh, fragrant, on account of the fame of their virtue and wisdom; eighth, healers, because they cure the errors, passions, and vices of men, drive out hellish serpents, and protect from the corruption of sin those who invoke them. Hear Rabanus: "The teachers of Wisdom, he says, by the power of the heavenly word, are accustomed to repel the poisonous doctrines of heretics and to drive them from the seduction of the simple. This also, that its resin, which is called cedria, is so useful for preserving books that those anointed with it neither suffer moth-worms nor grow old with time: who does not see how well this applies to the same holy preachers, by whose spiritual sense Holy Scripture was composed, which cannot be corrupted by any cunning of heretics, nor consumed by any passage of this fleeting world: to such a degree that until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one tittle shall pass from the law until all things are fulfilled: and since the Lord said this of the law, how much more should it be understood of the Gospel?"
So St. Ildephonsus, in his sermon On the Assumption, speaking of the Mother of God: "This is she, he says, who, like the cedar of Lebanon, will daily be multiplied on earth and extended in her branches, and in heaven in her roots, so that the more she grows, the more she is strengthened."
AND LIKE A CYPRESS ON MOUNT ZION.
The Greek reads: on Mount Hermon. "Zion" therefore is Hermon. For there were two Mount Zions: one in Jerusalem; this is written in Hebrew at the beginning with the letter tsade; the other, which by another name was called Hermon; this is written with shin; this is clear from Deuteronomy 4:48: "As far as Mount Sion, it says, which is Hermon;" and Psalm 132: "Like the dew of Hermon, which descends upon Mount Zion," as if Zion were the lower part of Hermon; and Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 8: "As far as Mount Hermon, which the Sidonians call Sarion, and the Amorites Sanir." Whence the Syriac in this place translates: and like an olive tree on Sanir, the mountain of snow. Hear Adrichomius in the Theater of the Holy Land, page 89: "Mount Hermon, which is called by the Hebrews Chermon, by St. Jerome Aermon, by the Amorites Sanir and Sinir, by the Sidonians Sarion and Sirion, by the Phoenicians Sanior, in Deuteronomy also Sion or Seon, by Strabo Irachon, by others Irachonus, and appears to be called Alsadamus by Ptolemy, is situated beyond the Jordan opposite the city of Paneas, etc. This mountain is of very great height, and therefore snows are perpetually found upon it, which St. Jerome in his Hebrew Places writes were in his time customarily brought to Tyre for luxury, so that in summertime they might cool their summer drinks."
Wisdom here compares herself to the cypress, which is also called cypressus and cyparissus: first, in beauty; for the cypress is a tree with most beautiful foliage; for its rounded crown rises very high into a cone; whence it is called cone-bearing. For this reason in Rome and throughout all Italy, cypresses are the ornament and beauty of gardens and vineyards. So most beautiful is Wisdom, and most highly exalted on Zion, that is, in the Church and people of God, who directs the cone, that is, the keen edge and intention of the mind, upward, that is, to heaven and to God. Furthermore, the cypress instead of broad leaves has hair-like fronds, just as the pine, and these are dense, rising in the shape of a crown into a cone, which gives it great elegance; so Wisdom does not luxuriate in the broad leaves of words like phylacteries, but with concise and as it were hair-fine abundance of matter instructs the listener, and makes him wise in all things.
Second, in usefulness; for from the cypress were made poles and precious planks, concerning which Pliny, book 16, chapter 33, says: "Both kinds (of cypress, that is, male and female) are trimmed by pruning their branches into poles and planks, which in the thirteenth year sell for a denarius each. A grove is a most profitable investment; and the ancients commonly called nurseries the dowry of their daughters." In the same way, what is more useful, what more profitable than wisdom? See her riches and profits described in Wisdom 7:8 and following; Proverbs 8:15; Job 28:15 and following.
Third, in duration; for the cypress is ever green, and does not easily crack or fall apart in any section. Whence Pliny, book 16, chapter 40: "Neither decay nor age, he says, is felt by the cypress, cedar, ebony, lotus, box, yew, juniper, wild olive, and olive." And further on, speaking of the temple of Diana at Ephesus: "The doors, he says, were of cypress, since in this one type of material, beyond all others, the luster endures eternally. Does not the image of Jupiter in the citadel, made of cypress, last from the 551st year of the city's founding?" — that is, for about two hundred years; for that many years had elapsed from the 551st year of the founding of Rome to the time of Pliny. In the same way, the luster, grace, and beauty of Wisdom endure forever, and indeed in the Saints it increases day by day with great growth of virtues and heroic deeds, as if adorned with ever-new ornaments.
Fourth, in healing power. Pliny, book 24, chapter 5: "Crushed cypress leaves, he says, are applied to serpent bites, and to the head with barley meal if it aches from the sun; likewise for hernia, for which reason they are also drunk. The same, crushed, etc., relieve pains of the feet and sinews. The pills are drunk as a remedy against serpent bites." So wisdom heals all diseases of the soul and body.
Fifth, the cypress when cut down does not grow back. Wherefore among the ancients it was a symbol of death and funerals, and hence it is called funereal; whence Horace says that no tree follows men to the underworld except the cypress. Hence the pagans dedicated it to Dis, the god of the underworld. Wherefore Suetonius in his Life of Vespasian, chapter 5, relates that this omen portending empire befell him: "A cypress tree, he says, in his ancestral field, uprooted and cast down without any force of storm, on the following day arose greener and stronger." "For this, says Tacitus, was a great and favorable omen according to the interpretation of the soothsayers, and the highest distinction was promised to the very young Vespasian." Conversely, the Emperor Severus, as Pierius testifies, Hieroglyphics 52, chapter 5, received an omen of death when a certain Ethiopian with a crown made of cypress met him and declared: "You have been everything, you have conquered everything: now be a god, O victor." And a few days later Severus died. So Wisdom teaches man to be mindful of death, and that after death there is no return to life, but a passage into eternity. Wherefore she continually calls out to each person: "Remember your last end, and you will never sin," Ecclesiasticus 7:40, whence it happens that the wise and the Saints do not depart from this arena of mortality without a laurel, but the very cypress becomes their laurel, that is, a most honorable and most holy death crowns a life most worthy of the crown by bringing it to a close.
Sixth, images of the gods and sarcophagi of heroes were made from cypress, on account of its perpetuity and sweet scent. Thus the image of Juno the queen was made from cypress, as Pliny testifies, book 12, chapter 7. Again, Thucydides, book 2, relates that the Spartans who had fallen for their country in the Peloponnesian War were laid to rest as heroes in cypress coffins. So divine Wisdom is, indeed God Himself and the Son of God, who makes His followers strong athletes and heavenly heroes. Hence also the cross of Christ is said to have been composed of cypress, cedar, palm, and olive. Whence the verse:
"The woods of the cross: palm, cedar, cypress, olive."
This is cited by the Gloss on Clementine 1, On the Supreme Trinity. And: "The lofty cypress holds the body." And: "The topmost part is olive." See our Gretser, book 1 On the Cross, chapter 5, from St. Chrysostom. For on the cross Christ was exalted like a cedar, was beautiful like a cypress with its foliage, poured forth the oil of grace like an olive, and like a palm triumphed victorious over death.
Seventh, the bitter cypress drives away moths and worms; so Wisdom is severe, and shuns and drives away flatterers, whom Seneca rightly judges should be called not "smilers" but "gnawers." Hear the elder Cato (painting the cypress in severe colors) in Pliny, book 16, chapter 33. The cypress is "surly in growth, useless in fruit, harsh in its berries, bitter in leaf, violent in scent, not even pleasant in shade, rare in timber, almost of the shrub kind, sacred to Dis, and therefore placed before houses as a sign of mourning."
18. LIKE A PALM I WAS EXALTED IN CADES.
Judea abounds in palms and palm groves: whence Vespasian, triumphing over its conquest, struck a coin on which Judea was depicted sitting as a captive, grieving and wringing her hands; while he himself was shown standing beside a palm tree. Hence also Palmyra, the city built by Solomon in the tribe of Manasseh, was called in Hebrew Thamar, that is, palm; whence Palmyra, as St. Jerome testifies in his commentary on chapters 47 and 48 of Ezekiel. Similarly another city of Judea, namely Engedi, was formerly called Asasonthamar, that is, the city of palms, from the abundance of palms, because it flourished with palms and balsam, which formerly was found almost only near it, and scarcely in any other place in Judea or the whole world.
In the desert of Sin, however, which by another name was called Cades, palm groves and palms particularly flourished, and in it one palm was more distinguished and celebrated than the rest, which gave its name to the place, so that it was called the Palm of Cades, as Sirach here calls it. The witness is Adrichomius in the Theater of the Holy Land, page 118, and in the chorographic map attached to it.
Moreover St. Isidore, book 17 of the Etymologies, chapter 7: "The palm, he says, is so called because it is the adornment of the victorious hand (palma); or because its branches are spread out in the manner of a human palm. For it is a tree distinguished for victory, clothed with tall and beautiful stems, with long-lasting fronds, and preserving its leaves without any succession. The Greeks call it phoenix, because it lasts a long time, from the name of that bird of Arabia (the phoenix) which is reported to live for a very long time."
For Cades the Greek Complutensian edition has in Gaddi, or Engaddi: because Engaddi is situated near Cades, and there palms and balsam abound, as I said a little before from Adrichomius: but it is more likely that in the Greek texts Gaddi is a corrupt reading for Cades; whence the Greek texts vary. For those which were corrected at Rome read instead by yaddi, that is, in Gaddi, read in alguadois, that is, on the shores; whence the Tigurina renders: like a palm along the shores I raised my top; the Syriac, however: like a palm I was nourished in Engedi. Note: For "palm" the Greek is phoenix, which word signifies both the phoenix bird, whether real or rather hieroglyphic, as I showed on Genesis 7:2, and the palm tree: for both are long-lived, and therefore a symbol of eternity. Whence Job says in chapter 29, verse 18: "And I said: In my nest I shall die, and like a palm (Greek phoenix) I shall multiply my days." Hence Phoenicia was named, which borders on Judea, because it abounds in palms, says Jansenius. Although others, like Stephanus in his book On Cities, would have Phoenicia named from its founder Phoenix, the son of Neptune and Libya; whence Silius, book 1:
"And the phoenix who gave to the lands its lasting name."
Moreover, the palm excels in strength, foliage, duration, its striving upward, evenness, and fruit: whence the long-lived anchorites lived on dates, which are the fruits of the palm, and even now some Africans live on nothing but dates: for dates are as pleasant in taste as they are healthy and wholesome in use. Such also is Wisdom, namely strong, luxuriantly crowned, eternal, tending upward, and striving and struggling against all adversities toward heaven, just, and fruitful.
Wherefore mystically the palm (as also the phoenix — for of women, indeed of men, and even of Angels, the phoenix was the Blessed Virgin) represents the Blessed Virgin, the Church, and the Saints, as the anonymous Author of the Hieroglyphics, book 3, page 89, shows through many analogies and parallels. First, he says, Judea is famous for its palms, as Pliny testifies, book 13, chapter 4. So the Catholic Church is the most delightful palm grove of Jesus Christ, which has been planted throughout the world by His hand.
Second, the palm, called Thamar by the Hebrews, phoenix by the Greeks, loves salty soil: therefore where such soil is not found, they sprinkle salt, not at the roots, but sending it a little further away, as Ruellius noted from Theophrastus, in On the Nature of Plants, book 1, chapter 108. But the just man, sprinkled with the salt of wisdom, professes this in words and deeds, because he has taken these sayings to heart: for "every man shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt becomes unsavory, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace among yourselves," Mark 9:49-50; likewise Colossians 4:6: "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every one."
Third, some assert that the palm greatly abhors dung. The spiritual palm in the same way, namely the holy Church, is most gravely offended by the filth of sinners, as by the foulest dung. For she knows the commandment given to her: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Corinthians 7:1. Likewise Apocalypse 22:11: "He who harms, let him harm still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he who is just, let him be justified still: and he who is holy, let him be sanctified still."
Fourth, the palm has its crown spread out at the top, its branches extending in the manner of fingers, and its fruits, because they resemble fingers, are called palmulae or dates (dactyli). The just man, extending pure and suppliant palms to God, conceives prayers through faith, and in spirit and truth adores God the Father, not ignorant of the couplet of Gregory Nazianzen:
"No work of hands is better than to stretch toward heaven Pure hands, and to join prayers with one's whole heart,"
that is, to employ them promptly and skillfully in fulfilling the divine commandments.
Fifth, among cultivated trees (says Ruellius, repeating the opinions of the ancient natural philosophers) the olive, palm, laurel, myrtle, etc. flourish with perpetual foliage. The same is said also of just men, who are green with constant honor, as these words testify: "But I, like a fruitful olive tree (St. Jerome: green: for this is what the Hebrew raanan signifies) in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God forever and ever," Psalm 51:10.
Sixth, the palm delights in moisture, and though it loves to drink the whole year round, it is more joyful in a thirsty and parched year. The just man likewise rejoices in that watering of which it is said: "I planted, Apollo watered: but God gave the increase," 1 Corinthians 3:6, and Isaiah 58:11: "The Lord will give you rest always, and will fill your soul with brightness, and deliver your bones, and you will be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of waters whose waters will not fail." Others translate: the Lord will lead you always, and will satisfy your soul in dry places, and will make your bones fat: and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Likewise in the midst of the heat of afflictions he rejoices in hope, and glories in tribulations, Romans 5:3, and with the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 4:8 says: "In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair: we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken: we are cast down, but we do not perish."
Seventh, the palm bears its leaves and fruit buds almost at the very top, since its whole generative power resides in its crown: wherefore when its top is cut off it dies, and does not sprout again (as if it had been scorched). The devout man likewise in Christ Jesus, his head, obtains the highest glory, and brings forth the fruits of good works: without Christ he can do nothing, John 15:2. And it is well that, having become one with Christ Jesus, he can never (unless he wills it) be separated from Him, Romans 8:38-39.
Eighth, as Aristotle and Theophrastus attest, the palm is a symbol of victory, and does not yield to any burden, however great, nor is it bent down, but rises up against the weight: moreover the leaves of the palm are hard and sharp like a sword: wherefore it is armed with as many swords as it has leaves: and therefore in festive competitions there was scarcely any other prize given than the palm was given. So of the just it is said: "All that is born of God conquers the world: and this is the victory that conquers the world, namely, our faith," 1 John 5:4, to wit:
"As the palm grows green pressed under a great weight, So hearts dedicated to God flourish under the cross."
Ninth, palms delight in being transplanted; although in Greece they become barren when their location is changed. The just likewise rejoice that they have been translated from death to life, 1 John 3:14; they are never unfruitful anywhere among the nations: because having become sharers of Christ they are guided by His Spirit, and are equipped for every good work.
Tenth: "The palm, says Pliny, is most fond of the sun." Thus he himself in book 17, chapter 44, and book 13, chapter 4, asserts that "no palm is fruitful except in hot and warm soil:" hence it always thirsts, and rejoices more in spring water than in rain, says Theophrastus, book 2 of On Plants, chapter 4. And Palladius, writing on agriculture in October, treatise 12: "The palm, he says, should be dug around constantly, so that by continual watering it may overcome the heat of summer." So also the just man is most fond of the Sun of justice, that is, of Christ; hence he perpetually thirsts for His living waters of grace springing up unto eternal life, John 4:14.
Eleventh, the palm rises to a great height, but bends its dates toward the ground. So the Blessed Virgin raised the summit of her merits in heaven to the throne of the Divinity, says St. Gregory; yet the same bends the fruits of her clemency toward the earth, while as a mother she helps and succors those who invoke her. The Holy Spirit signified this in Canticles 7, praising the bride, who was a type of the Blessed Virgin: "How beautiful you are, He says, and how comely, dearest one, in delights! Your stature is likened to a palm tree, and your breasts to clusters of grapes." Theodoret reads: How comely, and how pleasant is love, in your delights! He explains this beauty, these delights of love, in this way: "For although you are so lofty that you reach the summit of heaven, yet you stoop down to the weak, to whom you offer the breasts of your teaching. For the palm has its fruits hanging downward." The palm is indeed an excellent symbol of charity, rising to the heights, yet laden with dates hanging downward; so that she who intimately embraces God nonetheless stoops to the benefit of her neighbors. This the Blessed Virgin did and does beyond all Saints: because beyond all Angels and men she excels and burns with charity.
This parable, or fable, Cyril represents in a similar apologue of the palm, olive, laurel, orange tree, and fig tree, interwoven with beautiful ethical maxims like a crown with roses, in the last chapter of the Moral Apology: "Among the laurel, he says, the olive, the orange tree, and the palm, a fig tree sprang up. When with the coming of winter those trees flourished in solid greenness while the fig tree itself was stripped bare of its leaves as if dried up, no less confused than envious, it proposed a querulous question to its neighbors with a gloomy expression: Why do you always retain green leaves, and after the fruit is past, cherish your now useless foliage? Does perhaps a shadowy appearance please you? And does the bark delight you while the substance is despised? But those trees, sensing the itch of envy, broke the thorn of the word with the laughter of patience. Then, when they spoke only about virtue, the laurel answered first: I indeed grew warm by my natural constitution, and therefore, with cold repelled, the leaf in me always lives. Then the olive added: Indeed in me the moisture of richness grows abundantly, by which the overflowing root nourishes its fronds perpetually. Then the orange tree said: A more solid substance composes me; whence in me constant greenness never perishes. So also the palm finally added: In me the leaf never withered, because I produced it with moderation. Finally the laurel, speaking eloquently on behalf of all, said: Have you not heard why the wise man never loses the beauty of a renowned name? It is because by the brightness of prudence, the richness of justice, the solidity of constancy, the purity of moderation, he always flourishes. For he directs himself through prudence, harms no one through justice, does not fail in adversity through constancy, and does not grow soft in prosperity through temperance. Therefore with these four anchors of the virtues he secures his vessel in the port of wisdom. Wherefore the wave of worldly tempest never overpowers him. Having said this, they were silent."
AND LIKE A PLANTING OF ROSES IN JERICHO.
In Greek phyta, that is, plants of roses, as the Tigurina translates; others render: shoots of roses. The rose is the queen of flowers and the purple of spring; for it is white as a diamond and red as a garnet. Moreover it has the sweetest fragrance, and in food and medicine is as wholesome as it is flavorful, surpassing all other flowers in both taste and vigor: whence from roses is distilled rosewater, which clarifies the sight of the eyes and soothes pains. Wherefore the rose kills with its fragrance the scarab beetle, foul and stinking as it sits upon its dung. Hence the rose in Greek is called rhodon from rhein, that is, to flow, because it overflows with the abundance of its fragrance, says Plutarch. Such also is Wisdom, namely most pure, most fragrant, and most flavorful. Moreover Eucherius in his Formulae of Allegory says that roses are a hieroglyphic of martyrdom, and that Martyrs are crowned with roses, on account of the redness of blood shed for Christ. Again, the rose is a symbol and crown of virginity and of virgins, as I said on Acts 12:13.
Hear the praises of the rose from Josephus Stephanus in his Defense of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, chapter 3. The rose among the ancients is a sign of joy and beauty, since among all flowers it alone shines conspicuous with a purple color, and spreads itself in the full circle of its red and gleaming petals. Sappho (according to Achilles Tatius) called it the queen of flowers, the ornament of the earth, the glory of plants, the eye of flowers, the blush of the meadow, flashing beauty, the laughter of the earth. And the same Sappho sang that the Muses were accustomed to be crowned with roses, as Clement of Alexandria attests in book 2 of the Pedagogue, chapter 8. Anacreon, the ancient poet, who in praises of the rose sadness is always conjoined with merriment. Wherefore Catullus not inelegantly says that Venus, who is regarded as the chief author of pleasure and gladness, sows thorny cares in the heart. Moreover, the fact that the rose both blushes and pricks, Placiades affirms to be a sign of amorous affection, inasmuch as it cannot exist without the blush of modesty and the ulceration of criminal wrongdoing.
St. Basil relates that the rose at first lacked thorns, but that afterwards prickles were added to the beauty of the flower, so that whatever delight we may have derived from pleasure, being wounded by the pain closely following, which arises from the recollection of sin, we immediately lose it. Of this the earth itself everywhere shows us a memorial in thorns and thistles. Moreover, just as the thorn guards the rose, so mortification preserves chastity. For which reason St. Benedict, feeling a temptation of the flesh, rolled himself in thorns, and by that pain extinguished the noxious pleasure. St. Francis, visiting this briar thicket in the year of our Lord 1222, and kissing the thorns and impressing upon them the sign of the cross, by a miracle converted the thicket into a rose garden bearing the most beautiful roses, which endure even to this day and have brought health to many sick persons; concerning which a Poet keenly wrote:
"Benedict hedges the virginal flower with sharp briars, and nourishes it with the dew of his own blood. Hence the thickets, made fruitful by such liquor, and cultivated by the hand of Francis, bore new roses. The poets indeed sang false things about the rosy bud, but true faith lay hidden in their witty verse. Do you wish to know whence the flower of rosy modesty springs? Only the piercing of Venus could produce roses."
So Wadding in his Annals of the Friars Minor, year of Christ 1222, no. 5.
Now, the fact that he compares wisdom to a rose in Jericho signifies that the roses of Jericho were more excellent than all others, whether in beauty and redness, or in fragrance (for Jericho in Hebrew denotes smell, or rather the exhaling of fragrance; whence the city of Jericho seems to have received its name), or in size, or in height; namely, that rose gardens there grew into trees, or at least into shrubs. For Sirach here places the rose among the cedar, cypress, palm, and olive, which are all trees. Perhaps also the roses of Jericho were of a different species and kind from others. Certainly Saligniacus, volume IX, chapter vi, writes that near the fountain of Jericho, which Elisha made sweet from salty (IV Kings II), the most beautiful flowers grow on thorny trees, which they call the roses of Jericho, and that they have this grace, that on the night of the Lord's Nativity they open themselves, and afterwards close themselves, although they are dry and withered, in testimony of the Virgin birth, as one may believe, says Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, under the Fountain of Elisha.
Thus the Chinese rose is a tree, or rather a shrub, with leaves similar to the fig, lacking thorns, which produces a rose similar to ours in color; but in such a way that at first it is white, then gradually changes entirely to red bestowed the greatest labor and zeal upon it, and thus praised it with these words:
"With its leaves the rose is graceful, the rose unique, the very flower, the rose the first care of spring, the rose the delight of the heavenly ones, frequenting the dances of the Graces."
And a little later:
"With the father of flowers in spring, the praise of roses is to be joined. The rose is the flower and fragrance of the gods: the rose the delight of mortals, the ornament of the Graces."
For that the rose was anciently sacred to the Graces, on account of the remarkable elegance of the flower, Pausanias is the authority, book VI; since its beauty and kallipullos (as Anacreon puts it), that is, the grace and adornment of its petals, expresses a living image of beauty itself. Aurora also, who with her golden face brings back the shining countenance of the sun, who paints the world with new light, and strews all things with the ruddy flower of radiance, is called by the ancient authors the Rosy Goddess, and by Anacreon rhododactylos, that is, adorned with rosy fingers. Moreover, the ancient Poets, as soon as they feign that Minerva sprang from the head of Jupiter, fable that immediately a noble stock of roses was produced and received into the bosom of the mother. Constantine Caesar, book XI On Agriculture, chapter XVIII, to express the sweetness of the rose, testifies that it emanated from divine nectar poured upon the earth. So says Josephus Stephanus. But Pierius, Hieroglyphics 58, chapter 1, says: This flower, so beautiful, so fragrant, so fair to behold, so delightful in its sweet scent, is a hieroglyph of human weakness and a sign of momentary good; so short is its life, so fleeting its beauty, that on the very day on which it shines forth blooming and vigorous, on that same day it fades and languishes. Hence the most elegant poet, whoever he was, who celebrated the rose (which is attributed to Virgil), or rather lamented it, thus bewails this sudden robbery of delight:
"I marveled at the swift robbery of the fleeting season, and that the roses had grown old while still being born."
How much envy and bitter complaint against the nature of things does that contain!
"As long as one day, so long is the life of roses, which old age, joined to their blossoming, presses down."
And further on: This also is worthy of note, that the image of the rose signifies a good that is hedged about on every side by evils, and therefore that our pleasures are full of bitterness and harshness. For, as St. Ambrose philosophizes in his Hexaemeron, a thorn fenced about the rose, as if to display a mirror of human life, and that what might have been sweet, pricked by the neighboring stings of cares, seems to grow bitter; for the elegance of our life is hedged about and surrounded by certain anxieties, so that it changes. We saw it transported from China to Rome, and there in this jubilee year 1625, in December near Christmas, flowering to the amazement of the onlookers, and producing roses first white, then red and purple. It is remarkable what our Father Joannes Baptista Ferrarius of Siena, professor of the Hebrew language in the Roman College, published about it this year, who was the first to sow and cultivate the seed received from China in Rome, and made it grow into a tree and flower this year, as I am an eyewitness; for I view it daily, set opposite my room, indeed placed right next to it. Thus he himself, in oration 25, whose title is The Flowering Age, paints the Chinese rose: "You may see it clothed with leaves imitating vine-tendrils in size and shape, coming forth from the emerald chamber of a bursting calyx, with a manifold train of petals royally unfolded, into the public light, daily rivaling the beautiful distinctions of light itself, so that at first indeed you admire it as white, then from white becoming red, and finally of a deep purple color, that is, at once different and at once the same, and you are compelled by the novelty of the daily miracle to confess that the princes of colors come as tributaries to the queen of flowers, who, like another sun, colors the day with the varied hue of light."
Moreover, those who think the rose of Jericho is a species of amomum are mistaken, whom Matthiolus recounts and refutes in Dioscorides, book I, chapter XIX: "Altogether," he says, "those are to be rejected who do not hesitate to assert for certain that the plant they call Jerichunta, from the town of Jericho in Palestine, is amomum. This plant is commonly brought to us from Jericho by those who make a pilgrimage to the most holy Sepulchre of our Redeemer. For it is the plant which our countrywomen call the rose of the blessed Mary. It is clear that this is not amomum, because it does not produce the leaves of a white vine, nor does it breathe any fragrance.
For the genuine kind is very fragrant, so much so that it strikes the nostrils at the very first encounter and fills the organ of smell. Cordus, in his little book On Compounding Medicines, wrote quite inconsistently about amomum; for in the composition of the golden Alexandrine preparation he asserts for certain that true amomum is the rose of Jericho; but in the composition of theriac, forgetting himself, he denies that we have amomum. Our countrywomen use the Jerichunta at the time of childbirth, to determine the hour of delivery; since (as they themselves admit) when placed in water, it does not open until the child begins to be born. Such superstition has crept in among Christians!" About the rose of Jericho, Doctor Joannes Sturmius, doctor of philosophy and medicine in the University of Louvain, wrote a notable book.
For "planting of the rose" the Syriac translates arbat vardo; which word, if you divide it, means the same as a planting or plantation of a rose, as our text and the Greek have; but if you read it together and take it as one word, it signifies the ox-eye daisy (buphthalmus); and so the Syrians read it, whence they translate, "and like the ox-eye daisy in Jericho;" and they add: The buphthalmus is a certain plant which sprouts alongside watercourses, and has flowers like a rose (the same appears in the illustration of the buphthalmus which Clusius provides, book III of his History of Plants, chapter XXX), and is commonly called among the Arabs the tree of Mary. It is called buphthalmus by crasis, as if bovis oculus, that is, the eye of an ox, because it resembles one; just as bugloss is called quasi bovis lingua, that is, the tongue of an ox, because this herb resembles one. Whence Pliny, book XXV, chapter VIII: "There is also the buphthalmos," he says, "resembling the eye of an ox, with fennel leaves, growing around towns, bushy in its stems, which are also eaten when boiled. Some call it cachla. This, with wax, disperses hard tumors."
Mystically, the rose in Jericho is the Blessed Virgin in this sublunary world (for Jericho in Hebrew denotes the moon or fragrance): for all the praises of the rose already given apply far more aptly to the Blessed Virgin, who by her most ornate beauty and dignity surpasses all the splendor of the world. For she is the rosy dawn, at once most beautiful and most abundant in the grace of virtues, as well as most splendid and most radiant, who, having driven away the shadows, brought forth a new light to the world (Song of Songs VI:9). She it is who, having come forth after the long winter of the sadness and desolation of sin, brought a new spring of grace, light, and consolation to the world. For which reason, on Laetare Sunday, which usually falls near the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, a rose is blessed by the Roman Pontiff, as a herald of joy and gladness (as Innocent III says in a sermon published on this subject), so that all may thereby recognize the new offspring and the child of spiritual propagation brought forth in the Church, when that most pure Virgin conceived and embodied in herself the flower of joy and exultation, the ornament of the human race, and the author of the whole world. Moreover, the rose is a badge of modesty and virginity — whom does it denote if not the Virgin of virgins? Indeed Columella, book X, calls the rose a flower full of modesty. Moreover, the rose is fragrant and overflows with scent. Who indeed does not perceive in Mary the outpouring of all virtues as if of perfumes? Who is not drawn by it and allured by its sweetness? Who does not run toward the fragrance of her ointments? For through her, Christ manifests the greatest fragrance of His knowledge in every place (as Paul says, II Corinthians II), pouring forth and breathing the incense of divinity, amomum, musk, and every exquisite elegance of spices, and sending forth as an aromatic balsam a fragrance of sweetness, and adorning the whole world with the flowers of Paradise (as St. Epiphanius says); so much so that she has deservedly been called the rose of Jericho.
Wherefore Blessed Cyril of Alexandria, in his oration Against Nestorius: "This is the Virgin," he says, "through whom the Holy Trinity is glorified and adored in the whole world, through whom heaven exults, through whom Angels and Archangels rejoice, through whom demons are put to flight, through whom the tempter devil fell from heaven, through whom fallen creation is raised again to heaven; is again lifted up; through whom every creature, held captive by the madness of idols, has been led to the knowledge of truth: through whom holy Baptism has come to believers, through whom the oil of exultation is consecrated, through whom churches have been founded throughout the whole world, through whom the nations are brought to repentance; through whom, to conclude briefly, the only-begotten Son of God shone as a light upon those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death; through whom the Prophets foretold the future, through whom the Apostles preached salvation to the nations, through whom the dead are raised, through whom kings reign in the Holy Trinity." Whence Sedulius elegantly, in book II of his Poems, alluding to the rose, which St. Basil and St. Ambrose in the Hexaemeron consider to have been created at the beginning of the world without thorns, and to have put on thorns after sin, thus sings:
"And as amid sharp thorns the tender rose arises, having nothing to wound, and surpasses its mother in honor; so when from the stock of Eve sacred Mary came, the new virgin atoned for the crime of the ancient virgin: as the thorn brought forth the rose, so Judea brought forth Mary."
Hence Blessed Hermann Joseph, wonderfully devoted to and familiar with the Blessed Virgin, used to call her his rose, and not without reason. For on a certain occasion, when he was visited by her and flooded with heavenly consolation, he saw her scatter through his chamber very many roses of the most fragrant scent, which he reverently gathered and placed in a precious chalice. Whence she herself, frequently visiting him, consoling him, and conversing familiarly with him, used to call him her faithful friend, chaplain, and even spouse: For one night appearing to him in the most beautiful form, accompanied by Angels, one of the Angels took the right hand of Hermann and joining it to the hand of the Blessed Virgin, betrothed her to him with these words: "I give you this Virgin as your spouse, just as she was once espoused to Joseph, so that you may receive the name of the spouse together with the spouse, and henceforth be called Joseph." This and more is found in his Life in Surius, under the 7th of April, which his familiar friend, a man of gravity, wrote.
The rose therefore exhibits to us the beauty of the Blessed Virgin, as well as the sweet fragrance of her dignity and grace, conjoined with purity of life, the ardor of charity, and the sweetness of manners. Whence Damascene, in his first oration On the Nativity: "O rose," he says, "who have sprung from thorns, that is, from the Jews, and have suffused all things with divine fragrance." And for this reason the faithful honor the Blessed Virgin, as a heavenly rose, with the rosary (whose author and propagator was St. Dominic), that is, with a crown, repeating the Angelic Salutation one hundred and fifty times.
Similar mystical roses are virgins burning with the love of God, who, as followers of the great Mother of God, crown her with rosaries of their salutations and praises. Such a rose of the Sicilian Jericho shone forth in the Blessed Virgin Rosalia, whose sacred bodily remains God most good and great, in these days in which I write, after nearly five hundred years of concealment, flashing with a multitude and glory of miracles, wonderfully revealed for the salvation of Sicily and all of Italy; since through those same relics He stayed and removed the common plague devastating everything. Wherefore the Most Illustrious Lord Archbishop, and the senate and people of Palermo exposed them for public veneration in the jubilee year 1625. The body of the virgin was found in a cave on Mount Ercta, enclosed in a stony crust. For the natural moisture of the cold place, flowing around the body of Rosalia deposited there, and frozen over the long passage of time, had formed around it something like a crystalline casket and a translucent sarcophagus. As if it had not been enough for the native mountain to devote itself entirely to entombing its citizen and nursling, unless it had also instilled its own tears, pressed out drop by drop from the brow of the ridge, and gleaming with almost rigid sorrow, to enclose — nay, to display — her in a more illustrious tomb; so that Rosalia might seem not so much to lie in a sepulchre as to shine like a rose in crystal. Blessed Rosalia was born of an illustrious family which had contracted an alliance with the kings of Sicily who freed the island from the Moors, in Palermo, a most noble city which is entirely a harbor, as is noted from its name (for hormos in Greek means both harbor and necklace, such as this harbor, among other things, gave the blessed Rosalia). She had as her father Sinibaldus, prince of Quisquina and of the Roses (a region of Sicily so called because it blooms with roses at every season of the year). Nor should this heavenly rose have been born anywhere else than in the principality of earthly roses. From her tender years she gave herself to God, and like a rose opened the bud of her mind to the rays of the divine Sun rising. She had scarcely looked upon the court when with an exalted will she despised it. Indeed, as she imitated the name of the rose, so she was admonished by its example. For the rose gives a true tragedy pointing to the vanity of the world, when in the space of one day a royal flower, in its purple train of petals, turning purple, then as the petals droop and fall, it is pitifully cast down upon the ground, a corpse of a flower, the sport of winds, the disgrace of trampling feet. Meditating on this, Blessed Rosalia scorned the pomps of the world and royal nuptials, and leaving her father's royal house, she undertook a journey alone to the most deserted part of her domain, but she had Angels as companions of the way. On the mountain the virgin chose a cave for herself, and as it were a watchtower, from which to keep constant guard for the protection of her virginity; and so that the very stones might be monitors of her duty, in the same cave she inscribed upon the rock the resolution of the life she had undertaken, in these words: I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibaldus, Lord of Quisquina and of the Roses, for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, have determined to dwell in this cave. Here, living on the roots of herbs and the dew of heaven, she gave herself entirely to prayer, reading, meditation, fasting, penance, scourgings, and hair-shirts, and always had the cross and Christ crucified before her eyes and in her mind; by the sight of whom Rosalia's heart was pierced through, so that, wounded by the dart of love, the blood of her heart and tears through her eyes and the wounds of love she poured forth. Here Rosalia, after the manner of a rose, painted herself purple for her Christ, using the scourge for a brush and blood for color. Here, taught by an Angel the manner of praying, running through the rosary of prayers according to the number of beads, she transmitted as many roses as prayers, through the Angel to Christ and the Virgin Mother of God to be crowned, in baskets. After her death, prayer beads were found around her breast and between her fingers, with which she had suppliantly offered a crown of praises to the great Mother of God. Wherefore in turn she received various services from Angels and gifts of flowers. And at last, at the time of death, by Christ the Lord sitting in the lap of His Mother as in a royal chamber and caressing her, with Angels singing, crowned with a crown of gold and roses, with the holy princes of the Church, Peter and Paul, assisting, as if invited to the heavenly nuptials of the Lamb, composing herself in the manner of one sleeping, alone in the cave of a foreign mountain, most well-known to Angels but inaccessible to men, she breathed forth her rosy and virginal soul into the hands of Christ the Lord; and led by an Angel, also wreathed in roses, to the heavenly bridal chamber of the Spouse, she reigns and triumphs forever. There is a constant report that her body, like that of St. Catherine, was buried by angelic ministry; which even the huge and intact rock, in which it was enclosed on every side, shut in and sealed (surpassing all the power and art of nature and men) itself proclaims. All of these things are preserved in very ancient tablets and paintings of Sicily, and from them in images approved at Rome and skillfully engraved in bronze, and printed from them in the past year, which was 1627 from the Virgin's delivery. Therefore upon her sepulchral rock you may inscribe this epitaph, which Martial inscribed for a bee, book I, epigram 95:
"She both lies hidden and shines, enclosed in a drop of Phaethon's amber, so that the bee seems to be shut in by her own nectar. She bore a worthy reward for such great labors; it is believable that she herself wished to die thus."
19. LIKE A BEAUTIFUL OLIVE TREE (Greek euprepes, that is, comely) IN THE FIELDS.
The Syriac has, "like an olive tree I was nurtured in a field;" Vatablus, "like an elegant olive, and like a plane tree by the waters I excelled." The olive is beautiful both in its trunk, in its ever-green foliage, and especially in its fruit, from which oil is pressed, which, as St. Bernard says on that passage of Song of Songs I: "Your name is oil poured out: it gives light, it feeds, and it anoints. It kindles fire, nourishes the flesh, soothes pain; it is light, food, and medicine. See the same now also regarding the name of the Spouse (Christ). Preached, it gives light; meditated upon, it feeds; invoked, it soothes and anoints." Which he then explains point by point, and pursues at length in Sermon 15 on the Song of Songs.
Rightly therefore is wisdom compared to the olive and to oil, because the olive is a symbol first, of mercy; second, of peace; third, of victory; fourth, of gentleness — for nothing is milder and more tranquil than oil; whence John the monk of Sinai says: "Like a vessel filled with oil, he changed the fury of the waves into the tranquility of serenity;" fifth, of gladness and joy; sixth, of hope; seventh, of brightness; eighth, of fatness; ninth, of eternity. See the many analogies between the olive and wisdom, and between oil and the wise and holy, which I recounted at Genesis VIII:11; Zechariah IV:11, and Apocalypse XI:4. Hence that celebrated noble crown, which a Poet expressed in this verse:
"A crown worthy of a leader, made from laurel, oak, and olive, befits the prudent, the brave, and the peacemaker."
All these things you may mystically apply to the Blessed Virgin, who is rightly called a beautiful olive tree, and that in the fields, both because at all times and in all places, and for every kind of disease, as the mother of mercy, she is available to help all who wish to invoke her; and because to us wayfarers afflicted by the heat of temptations, as by the burning of the sun, in open fields where similar trees are lacking, she provides the desired refreshment with her shade; and because the Mother of God is like a field without a husbandman, because without the work of a man she brought forth Christ, and set Him forth for all who come. Whence He Himself says in Song of Songs II: "I am the flower of the field." And finally, because the Blessed Virgin herself is a field of virginity, open and accessible to all who have recourse to her in their needs, as well as fruitful and health-giving.
Finally, the olive is a symbol of wisdom and chastity; whence the olive was sacred to Pallas or Minerva; but the true Pallas is the Blessed Virgin. Hear Pierius, Hieroglyphics 53, chapter XVI: "As regards Minerva, who is said to be unwed, who is called a virgin, she rightly claims the olive for herself, since the olive delights in purity and chastity no less than Minerva. For the Greeks, as Rutilius Taurus says, command that the olive, when it is planted and gathered, should be tended by clean boys and virgins; I believe," he says, "that they remembered that chastity is the guardian of this tree. Florentinus also, in his book On Agriculture, relates that the olive is so pure that it loves only pure gatherers, who, when they come to the olive harvest, swear that they come from nowhere else than from their own wife; thus it happens that in the following year they produce a more abundant harvest. In particular they say that at Anaxarbus, which is a city of Cilicia, the olives are most fruitful, because they are cultivated only by chaste boys." So says Pierius; which things however are to be taken with a grain of salt, lest we fall into the superstition of the Gentiles.
It is memorable what the author of the History of Plants writes about the olive: that if licorice (commonly called regalizia, or sweet wood) attaches itself to an olive tree and sends its roots around its trunk, the olive gradually dies and is killed; just so, if chastity dwells amid delights, it is killed and suffocated by them. Again, the olive, in itself tasteless and wild, becomes savory and edible if it is macerated with salt and vinegar; thus chastity becomes savory and stable when rubbed and macerated with the salt and vinegar of mortification. Finally, olives, in order to yield oil, must be crushed with many strokes of the pestle; so the flesh must be crushed with fasts and other forms of austerity, if you intend to press from it the oil of purity and virginity, pleasing to God and the Angels. Let this therefore be your Charterhouse, as it was St. Paul's: I Corinthians, chapter IX, last verse: "I chastise," he says, "my body, and bring it into subjection." See the commentary there.
AND LIKE A PLANE TREE I WAS EXALTED BY THE WATERS IN THE STREETS.
The Syriac has, "I was nurtured like a plane tree over the waters;" the Greek, "like a plane tree I was raised up or exalted by the water." The plane tree (platanus) is named from platos, that is, breadth, because it spreads its branches and leaves wide, by which it provides a most welcome shade from the heat of the sun to travelers and strangers; so much so "that nations pay tribute for its shade," says Pliny, book XII, chapter 1; hence it loves water, because to nourish so many and so great branches and leaves, it needs much moisture. Moreover, the leaves of the plane tree repel bats, says Pierius, Hieroglyphics 25. Furthermore, when the same leaves are placed in the nest, storks ward off from their eggs and their young the owls that are harmful and fatal to them, that is, the life-giving tree sets itself against the deadly bird; for owls cannot endure the touch of the plane tree's leaves, but from it they immediately fall into torpor and are as if stupefied, says Pierius from Aelian, Hieroglyphics 17, chapter VII. See what I said about the plane tree at Ezekiel XXXI:8.
A similar shade, refuge, and refreshment in every heat of persecution, tribulation, and temptation, as well as of divine wrath and vengeance, Wisdom and Christ provide to those who flee to them, according to the words: "I sat under His shadow whom I had desired" (Song of Songs II:3). And: "Under the shadow of Your wings protect me" (Psalm XVI:8). And: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven. He shall say to the Lord: You are my protector and my refuge; my God, I will hope in Him. With His shoulders He will overshadow you" (Psalm XC:1). And He does this in the streets, that is, in the broad ways of this world, namely, in our dealings with so varied and dissolute and difficult a race of men, where there is a greater need for shade and refreshment.
Again, the plane tree represents the Blessed Virgin. For the plane tree spreads with wide-spreading branches and has leaves like shields and bucklers; so the Blessed Virgin is like a plane tree, spread out with wide branches, with which she hides and protects all men; she is a refuge, protection, shield, and asylum for all who flee to her. There is no temptation, no calamity, no labor, no danger, no enemy, against which the Blessed Virgin does not suggest and supply her most powerful shields and bucklers to those who implore her aid.
Furthermore, some incorrectly punctuate this passage differently, and refer the phrase "in the streets" to what follows, cinnamon and balsam, so that they read: "in the streets, like cinnamon and balsam, I gave forth fragrance." But cinnamon and balsam do not grow in streets, but in gardens.
20. LIKE CINNAMON AND AROMATIC BALSAM I GAVE FORTH FRAGRANCE.
In place of "aromatic balsam," the Complutensian editors read hos palathe, that is, "like a ball or mass of spices;" others, hos palathe, that is, "like a mass of dried figs." So Vatablus. The Roman and other Greek texts more correctly read aspalathos aromaton, that is, "the aspalathus of spices," that is, the aromatic aspalathus, because instead of hos palathos, divided into two words, they read by contraction as a single word, aspalathos. Whence the Tigurine version has, "in the manner of cinnamon and aspalathus I breathed forth an aromatic fragrance;" the Syriac, "like cinnamon and incense, and elect myrrh I made sweet my fragrance." Wherefore some think that in the Latin text aspalathus should be read here instead of balsam, both because the Greek and some manuscript Latin Bibles read so, and expressly Rabanus, Jansenius and Lyranus who reads aspalthum: which those who formerly copied the Bible did not understand, and seem to have written balsam for aspalthum; and also because Sirach will soon mention balsam in the following verse.
Now, the aspalathus is a small tree, or rather a shrub, fragrant especially when the rainbow appears, as Pliny relates, book XII, chapter XXIV (whose words I shall shortly cite from Rabanus), and Aristotle in the Problems, section 12, no. 3, where he also investigates the cause of this. This aptly suits the literal sense of Wisdom, and mystically the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. For the rainbow is a symbol of the mercy and grace of God, from whom all the beauty and fragrance of wisdom flows. Again, the rainbow is a symbol of the Incarnation of Christ; for it is like a heavenly arc having two horns, that is, two natures, namely divinity and humanity, as I showed by seven analogies at Genesis IX:13. But from the Incarnation of Christ all the wisdom and holiness of the Blessed Virgin and our own are derived. Wherefore, although before the conception and Incarnation of the Word she was full of grace, as she was greeted by the Angel, yet as soon as she conceived and embodied the Word in herself, as it were full of God, she spread the wonderful fragrances and ardors of wisdom and holiness in Judea, and then throughout the whole world.
Secondly, Dioscorides ascribes these virtues to the aspalathus, book I, chapter XIX: "The aspalathus," he says, "bristling with many thorns, possesses the power of heating with astringency. Whence a decoction with wine is suited for washing foul ulcers of the mouth; it is poured upon cancerous sores of the genitals and dirty ulcers; applied in a pessary, it draws out the afterbirth. Its decoction stops the bowels, and when drunk, checks the vomiting of blood, and dispels difficulty of urination and flatulence." Galen, book VI of Simple Medicines: "The aspalathus," he says, "is indeed pungent and astringent to the taste; but in its properties it consists of dissimilar elements, namely, by certain parts of itself it heats, but by other parts, namely the astringent ones, it cools. Therefore by the operation of both it dries, and consequently it is useful against putrefaction and fluxions." Furthermore, pharmacists use the aspalathus for theriac, as the most expert of them in Rome assured me, and they showed me the very wood of the aspalathus; which I found indeed to have a pleasant but masculine scent. In a similar manner, Wisdom dries up all the flowing motions of concupiscence and all the putrefactions of the soul, and against all the poisoned suggestions of the devil gives a most effective theriac and antidote.
But hear Rabanus, who excellently explains this passage, both literally and tropologically: "Like cinnamon," he says, "and aromatic aspalathus I gave forth fragrance: Cinnamon and aspalathus are aromatic trees. For cinnamon is so called because its bark is round and slender in the manner of a reed; it grows in the regions of India and Ethiopia, from a short shrub of only two cubits, with very thin branches of a darkish or ashen color. For what grows thick is held in contempt; but what comes forth more slender is excellent: when broken, it sends forth a visible breath like a cloud or dust." Concerning the aspalathus, however, Pliny the Elder reports thus: "In the same region the aspalathus grows, a white thorn, of moderate tree size, with a rosy flower; its root is sought for perfumes. They say that in whatever shrub the celestial arc curves, the same sweetness of fragrance as that of the aspalathus exists, but in the aspalathus it is indescribable: some call it erysisceptrum, others sceptrum. It is tested by its reddish or fiery color, its thick touch, and its smell of castor. It is exchanged for fifteen pounds."
Rabanus adds the tropological interpretation, saying: "These two shrubs, then, on account of their small size, are reckoned by some among the fragrant herbs; which rightly, on account of their very smallness, signify the humble in spirit, whose is the kingdom of heaven: who, as if clad in purple, are always mindful of the Lord's Passion, always prepared to suffer for the Lord, such as the one who said: For Your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter. For this is the virtue which above all is accustomed to chastise and remove among us the motions and wantonness of the soul, like pains of the bowels. When, reflecting on what God suffered for us, we recognize that we suffer less than we deserve. Rightly therefore cinnamon and aspalathus are joined; because our manner of life ought to be conformed to the mystery of the Lord's Passion; so that according to the saying of John, just as He laid down His life for us, so also we may learn to lay down our lives for the brethren. For that cinnamon is said to be of a darkish or ashen color corresponds to the souls of the humble, who, conscious of their own frailty, know how to say to God in their daily prayers: I will speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes. And again: I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes. But that the aspalathus has the likeness of a white thorn with a rosy flower signifies that we ought daily to imitate the pain of the Lord's Passion in the narrowness of our manner of life, according to that Gospel saying: He who wishes (He says) to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. And that its root is sought for perfumes signifies that the humility of Christ commends the fragrance of all virtues, and redounds to the sweetness of eternal delight for the elect of God."
Now, modern physicians and natural philosophers disagree about the aspalathus. For some think the aspalathus is red sandalwood, whom Matthiolus refutes at the cited passage of Dioscorides. In the same place Amatus and Ruellius think the aspalathus is Rhodian wood, from which rosary beads are made: to Matthiolus and Cornarius the plant is unknown. However, because all printed Bibles, even those corrected by the Romans, consistently read, "like cinnamon and balsam," not "aspalathus," and the Church likewise reads this in the Ecclesiastical Office of the Blessed Virgin, and all the other Doctors and Interpreters as well; I therefore think this reading also should be explained, indeed retained. Therefore, after Sirach has compared wisdom to three larger trees, fragrant and excellent, namely the cedar, cypress, and palm, he now compares the same to three smaller shrubs, but more fragrant and excellent, each of which is aromatic, that is, diffusing an aromatic scent, and even the very aromatic substance from itself. For the bush of cinnamon yields the aroma of cinnamon, the bush of balsam yields opobalsamum (while the aspalathus gives no resin or aroma), the bush of myrrh distils myrrh.
Now, cinnamon is counted among the most delicate spices, to such a degree that the ancients imagined it was born in the nest of the phoenix, as Pliny attests, book XII, chapter XIX. It has a sweet scent, but at the same time delicate and subtle: for which reason it used to be mixed with other spices, such as nard, myrrh, etc. Whence Martial, book IV, epigram 15:
"Now the rare cinnamon is well blended with its own nard."
And Ovid, Metamorphoses XV:
"And he strewed crushed cinnamon with tawny myrrh."
Moreover Galen, in his book On Antidotes: "You will recognize the best cinnamon," he says, "if it is most fragrant and displays a certain indescribable grace of scent surpassing other spices."
Cinnamon is so called as if "cane of amomum": for it has the appearance of a cane or reed; whence in Hebrew it is called kinnamon, from kaneh, that is, a reed. From the Hebrew kinnamon, the Greeks, Latins, and others called it cinnamomum. Wherefore Garcias ab Horto, book I of the History of Spices, chapter XV, less accurately thinks cinnamon is so called as if the amomum of the Chinese, because Chinese merchants transported and sold it from the island of Ceylon (for that island produces the best cinnamon) to other shores: whence the Persians call it Darchini, that is, Chinese wood.
But balsam excels among spices: whence it is called "aromatic;" the Tigurine version has "aromatic," that is, fragrant, not only in scent, but also in the aromatic substance from itself dripping: for it drips opobalsamum; for opos signifies juice, as if to say, the juice of balsam. Hear Pliny, book XII, chapter XXV: "Balsam is preferred above all fragrances, granted to the one land of Judea, formerly in only two gardens, both royal, etc.; it is more like a vine than a myrtle; its leaf close to that of rue, ever-green. It is cut with glass, stone, or bone knives; the sap flows from the wound, which they call opobalsamum, of exquisite sweetness, but in a thin drop."
Hear also Brocardus, Saligniacus, Bredenbachius, and from them Adrichomius, under the word Engaddi, where balsam grows: "There are," he says, "balsam shrubs, once granted to Judea alone of all the lands, which Solomon in the Song of Songs calls the vineyards of Engedi; whose branches, if they are cut with sharp glass, stone, or bone knives, drip a most precious juice, of exquisite sweetness, which they call opobalsamum, and which is preferred above all fragrances. This garden, or vineyards of balsam, in the time of Herod the Great, Cleopatra queen of Egypt, with the consent of Antony, whether her lover or her husband, envying Herod such great good fortune, transferred to Egypt, where it is irrigated by a small but most abundantly flowing spring, in which report has it that the boy Jesus was often bathed by the Blessed Virgin, and that He even drew drink from it for Himself and for His spouse Saint Joseph, when He was in Egypt; and therefore it is held in the greatest veneration and worship by the inhabitants. There are nonetheless still shoots of balsam on Mount Engedi, but of no cultivation, of no yield: namely, this is the most just judgment of the justice of God, who avenges Himself upon sinners who persecute His name, so that because Herod, the former possessor of balsam, was persecuting the boy Jesus, Jesus fleeing into Egypt drew the balsam garden after Him." And further on: "The harvest of balsam is as follows: a leaf is plucked from the stem facing the sun, and immediately a bright and wonderfully fragrant drop springs from the break; and this most precious liquid of balsam is collected in glass vessels, and would by no means flow unless the break is made at sunrise. But the little fountain of Jesus is small, not sufficient for the irrigation of the whole garden: wherefore the Saracens dug another well near it, from which four oxen draw water by a wheel, hoping that from the nearness of the fountain of Jesus the water would be healthful; but the result was far otherwise, until they sent channels to lead the water of the well into the fountain of Jesus. When this was done, the balsam garden is irrigated abundantly and healthfully from the mingled waters. Wonderful to tell! Nevertheless from noon on Saturday until the dawn of Monday, the oxen cannot be driven by any beating to labor in drawing water: which is a celebrated testimony of our faith. But the Saracens also wash themselves and their children here, not in order to be baptized, but to escape the natural stench of their bodies." So says Adrichomius.
Hence it is clear how rightly wisdom, the wise and the saints, and especially the Blessed Virgin, are compared to cinnamon and balsam. For first, balsam was peculiar to Judea, but from there it was carried and celebrated throughout the whole world; so too the Blessed Virgin, born, raised, living, and dying in Judea, spread her fragrance and fame throughout the whole world. Likewise, just as she, fleeing from Herod out of Judea, drew balsam with her into Egypt; so also the true knowledge and worship of God, namely Christianity, she herself transferred from the faithless Jews to the Egyptians and other nations.
Secondly, the fragrance of balsam has a masculine and strong virtue: for which reason balsam, as something manly and noble, excelling all other ointments, used to be applied to men, while women were given Assyrian amomum and other delicate ointments of that kind, according to that saying of Martial, book XIV, epigram 54:
"Balsams delight me; these are the ointments of men; you daughters-in-law, you smell of the luxuries of Ninus."
Hence the matter of the sacrament of Confirmation, by which we are made perfect Christians and anointed as soldiers and athletes of Christ for the fight against the devil, the flesh, and the world, is chrism, which is made from oil and balsam: so that Christians who have been confirmed, mindful of the pleasant fragrance breathed forth from balsam, may strive by the holiness of their life and the sweetness of their manners to allure all others to the Christian life and the pursuit of virtue.
Again, the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist is like a balsam, embalming (so to speak) our bodies, that they may rise again to immortal life: on which matter see St. John, chapter VI, verses 50, 55, 58. In a similar manner the fragrance of the virtues of the Mother of God had nothing soft or effeminate, but was manly and masculine. For she was a virgin, indeed a virago, who seized not only women but also faithful men into admiration and imitation of herself, so that they would say: "We will run after the fragrance of your ointments" (Song of Songs I).
Thirdly, the balsam tree (as our Spinellus rightly observed, On the Mother of God, chapter XXI) is not cut with an iron knife, but with one of bone and stone and glass, and (as some say) on the side that faces the sun; and from there flows white balsam, which then turns red and hardens. This also can be applied to the Mother of God, who, looking upon Christ, the Sun of justice, and receiving Him deeply into herself, was pierced not by the cutting of material iron, but by compassion for her Son, who is the cornerstone, and a spotless mirror of glass, and consisted of true bones; and she sent forth not blood, but tears and affections, white with purity and red with charity: whose most brilliant merit will never at any time vanish through softness, but will stand hard and firm.
Fourthly, the balsam of the Mother of God was vitiated by no admixture of oil or honey. Which is said in this chapter, verse 21, in her person, in these words: "And like unmixed balsam is my fragrance." And this St. Bonaventure in his Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter V, elegantly explains: "Balsam," he says, "is wont to be mixed and adulterated with honey or oil; but certainly the balsam of the Holy Spirit in Mary was not mixed, because neither with the honey of carnal and worldly consolation, nor with the oil of vain praise and flattery was it adulterated; but the grace of Mary was true and pure."
Fifthly, Pausanias in his Boeotian book, book IX, writes that in Arabia very many vipers lurk under the balsam trees, and that by dwelling under them and feeding on balsam they lose their venom, and that likewise their bites are harmless for that reason. But truly, by the protection of the Mother of God, who is mystically the balsam tree, the venom is taken away from demons signified by serpents, lest their bites and the wicked suggestions they inject should harm those devoted to the Mother of God.
Wherefore St. Bonaventure in his Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter VII: "The fragrance," he says, "of Mary was like cinnamon in the bark of her manner of life, like balsam inwardly in the unction of devotion, like myrrh in the bitterness of chastisement; the fragrance of Mary was also like cinnamon in action, like balsam in contemplation, like myrrh in suffering. O truly rich one, who was so full of the fragrant balsam of the Holy Spirit! as St. Bernard says on that text: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you." The same author, in the same place, chapter V: "The balsam," he says, "of Mary is the unction of grace, which was poured into Mary most copiously; whence St. Bernard, speaking about that word: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, says: That precious balsam will flow into you with such abundance and such fullness that it will overflow most copiously on every side."
LIKE CHOICE MYRRH I GAVE FORTH SWEETNESS OF FRAGRANCE.
The Tigurine version has, "like the most excellent myrrh I gave forth a sweet fragrance;" the Syriac, "like choice myrrh I made sweet my fragrance." Pliny, book XII, chapter XV, writes that myrrh is a tree, that is, a shrub five cubits high, thorny, with a hard and twisted trunk, thicker than that of frankincense, with a smooth bark, leaves like the olive but more curled and prickly, with the foliage of alexanders, which is cut twice a year, so that the resin, namely the liquid of myrrh, may flow out. But it sweats, he says, spontaneously before it is cut, which is called stacte, or the tear of myrrh, and that myrrh is the most excellent: just as among the resins of other trees, the tear that flows spontaneously is the best; and among wines, the tear that drips spontaneously from the ripest grapes is the most flavorful. Myrrh denotes the mortification of the wise person, which produces in the soul a wonderful consolation and sweetness from God, like the spice of myrrh of the sweetest fragrance: this keeps the soul incorrupt from the putrefaction of vices, just as myrrh keeps the bodies of the dead incorrupt. So says Rabanus. Again, myrrh is compunction sweet-smelling to God, and the tears of a contrite heart; whence this enigma and hieroglyph of myrrh exists:
"From tears, and for tears my origin began; from eyes I flowed, but now from a tree I am born: the joyful honor of foliage, but a sad image of sorrow."
In this myrrh the Blessed Virgin excelled; whence of her it is said in Song of Songs III: "Who is she who ascends through the desert like a pillar of smoke, from the spices of myrrh and frankincense, and of every powder of the perfumer?" For in frankincense prayer ascending on high is represented, just as in myrrh the bitter mortification of the flesh, unpleasant indeed but most useful against the putrefaction of vices, which ought to accompany prayer to make it more efficacious, are symbolized. In the remaining powder of the perfumer, not only the totality of all the virtues that were in the Virgin is designated, but it also shows that not even the most minute acts of virtue were lacking in the Virgin, since one who strives to become rich in spiritual things ought not to neglect them. Moreover this pillar ascended straight up to heaven, because the most holy Virgin was always intent upon God; also fragrant with virtues, like spices ground to powder and placed on the fire of charity, she filled all around her with a wonderful sweetness of fragrance.
So Sophronius, in his sermon On the Assumption: "She is called," he says, "as it were a pillar of smoke, because she was slender and delicate; because worn thin by divine discipline, and inwardly consumed in a holocaust by the fire of pious love and the desire of charity. As a pillar of smoke from spices, namely because she was filled with many fragrances of virtues; a most sweet odor flowed from her and was fragrant even to the angelic spirits." So also Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Assumption: "In myrrh," he says, "understand continence; in frankincense, devotion." And shortly after: "These are the two things that surrounded the whole virginal substance with virtue, namely continence and devotion; of which the one so possessed the flesh, the other the mind, that the most pure flesh and the most pure mind consecrated the mother of the Lord with singular distinction." And further on: "Every powder of the perfumer was gathered in the Virgin, because in her the assembly of virtues consecrated a chamber worthy of reverence for itself; and, if to others the spirit was present in parts, to Mary, however, the entire beauty of grace came. These were the whole species in her, namely the spices of perfumers, but ground to the finest powder: because she it is who, crushed by the heavier mallets of those who afflicted her, saw her own Son and God's Son nailed to the cross, pierced by a soldier's lance, placed between two thieves, and breathing His last."
Now, that the Blessed Virgin was devoted to myrrh, that is, to mortification, is clear, both from the fact that she chose to stand beside Christ her Son affixed to the cross, so that she might be the companion and sharer of His death and mortification; and from her name: for Mary, as many believe, is derived from marar, that is, "he was bitter;" and also from what St. Bonaventure writes in his Meditations on the Life of Christ, chapter III, that the Blessed Virgin said to a certain person devoted to her (whom he thinks was St. Elizabeth) these words: "Daughter, I tell you that I had no gift, grace, or virtue from God without great labor, continual prayer, ardent desire, profound devotion, many tears, and much affliction; always saying and thinking what was pleasing to Him, as much as I knew and was able, except for the grace of sanctification, by which I was sanctified in the womb of my mother." And she added: "Know for certain that no grace descends into the soul except through prayer and bodily affliction." St. Bridget likewise asserts that the same thing was revealed to her in her Revelations.
and from him our Serarius in Joshua, chapter 1, Question VII, although Francisco Ribera in chapter II of Habakkuk thinks Lebanon was named from the whiteness of snows: for laben in Hebrew means white. For, as Tacitus says, book V of his History: "This region raises Lebanon, the chief of mountains -- remarkable to say -- shady and faithful to its snows amid such great heats." Some join both meanings: for since frankincense grows white there, Saint Jerome judges it was therefore called Lebanon. Moreover, the most praised frankincense is produced by Arabia alone: whence Virgil, Georgics II:
"The frankincense branch belongs to the Sabaeans alone."
He adds "not cut": which word is no longer in the Greek, but plainly seems to have fallen out through the carelessness of scribes, because ἀτμίς (that is, vapor) follows, which word is close to the word ἄτομος (that is, not cut). When the scribes did not understand this, they thought it was repeated by error and was the same as ἀτμίς, and therefore they omitted it. For there is a twofold libanos, that is, frankincense: the first is called ἄτομος or ἄτρητος, that is, not cut, not incised, but undivided and whole -- this holds first place, and therefore is called male. The latter is called ἔτομος καὶ τμητός, that is, cut and sectioned, or divided and broken up, and often mixed with other substances.
Moreover, some think that cut frankincense is what drips from a cut tree: while uncut frankincense is what flows spontaneously from the tree as if pregnant and about to give birth, by a destined and fruitful delivery of nature, which is the most mature and best concocted, and therefore the most perfect and most fragrant. For thus other resinous trees, such as myrrh, pine, storax, and balsam, spontaneously exude gum or resin, which is better than that which is elicited and extracted by incision, as if raw and imperfect, forced from the tree: just as an infant born spontaneously from the mother is more perfect than one extracted by incision from the womb. But since Pliny does not mention any other frankincense than what is obtained by incision, which is done twice a year, Jansenius, Palacius, and others therefore judge that ἄτομον frankincense, that is, uncut, or unsectioned and undivided, is that which, from a cut tree, flows together spontaneously into a mass, when the succeeding tear of resin mingles with the preceding one still adhering: and this has the chief excellence, as Pliny attests, both because it is a sign of well-concocted, mature, and fruitful frankincense; and also because united force is stronger than the same divided. For when the drops are scattered separately, the strength of the frankincense evaporates, and it is therefore called cut, sectioned, divided, and is less fragrant. Hear Pliny, book XII, chapter 14: "What," he says, "has hung from the roundness of a drop, we call male." And shortly after: "But the chief excellence belongs to the mammose kind, when, with the former tear still adhering, another following has mingled with it. I find that each of these used to fill the hand, when, with less eagerness of plundering, it was allowed to grow more slowly. The Greeks call this kind stagodia and atomus (that is, uncut); the smaller kind they call orobia (some wrongly read Arabia; others, even worse, Arabia).
the crumbs shaken off by striking we call manna." And further: "It is tested by whiteness, size, fragility, by charcoal so that it immediately catches fire, also that it should not receive the tooth but rather crumble into crumbs." So also Dioscorides, book I, chapter 70: "Frankincense," he says, "is produced in Arabia. The first place is held by the male kind, called stagonias, round by its own nature: such frankincense is indeed undivided, white when broken, fatty inside, immediately burning when fumigated. The Indian kind, however, is yellowish and livid in color, but they make it round by industry, etc., which they call atomum or syagrum. The second place is held by the Arabian, which some call copiscum, much smaller and more tawny."
Therefore Wisdom says of herself: "I, like uncut frankincense, filled my dwelling with vapor," as if to say: Just as male frankincense, placed on coals, fills the house with the finest aroma that it exhales, by which it dries up and consumes all noxious humors and corruptions of the air -- so likewise I, Wisdom, imbued the Hebrew people, among whom I chose my dwelling, with my most sweet doctrine and law, by which I consumed all the errors of unbelief, impiety, and every vice, and imbued them with the most sweet fragrance of heavenly grace and virtues, and refreshed them with that consolation. Just as frankincense cures eye inflammation, bleeding, tenesmus, cough, skin diseases, inflammations, arthritis, dysentery, migraine, and ulcers -- it increases memory, drives away sadness, gladdens the heart, etc., as Dioscorides teaches, book I, chapter 70 and following, and Matthiolus there from Galen -- so likewise wisdom cures and heals all maladies of the soul, especially by the power of prayer, whose symbol is frankincense, as I said a little above. Whence frankincense is called from θυόω, that is, I produce fragrance; or rather θύω, that is, I sacrifice, because those who sacrificed used frankincense.
All nations in all ages gave frankincense to God alone and offered incense to Him. Whence the honors of frankincense are called divine honors, which are owed and rendered to God alone. Much more has Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, accomplished all these things and continues to accomplish them daily for Christians. He therefore has filled and fills His Church, in which He dwells, with vapor -- through miracles, teachings, laws, evangelical counsels, and divine examples of all virtues, whose most sweet vapor and fragrance breathes forth His divinity, refreshes the faithful, heals the sick, gladdens the sorrowful, strengthens the weak, and delights the Angels and God Himself -- especially the fragrance and vapor of His wondrous Passion and death on the Cross.
"AND MY FRAGRANCE WAS LIKE UNMIXED BALSAM." -- Some delete these words, because they are not in the Greek, and because balsam was already discussed at verse 20. But here that balsam is explained and specified, and it is said to be unmixed, that is, pure and undiluted. For balsam is adulterated in many ways by the mixture of other substances. Hear Dioscorides, book I, chapter 18: "In the summer," he says, "at the rising of the Dog Star, the tree is cut with iron nails, and sap flows from the wound, which they call opobalsamum; but in such small a dripping that in a single year no more than six or seven congii can be gathered, and there the weight is repaid with double its weight in silver. The test of the juice is that it be fresh, of strong odor, pure, not tending to sourness, easy to dissolve, light, astringent, and mildly biting to the taste. But it is variously adulterated, with some mixing in terebinth, henna, mastic, or balan ointment; also with lily oil, metopium, honey, or liquid Cyprian wax. This fraud is easily detected: for the pure kind, poured on a woolen garment, neither makes a stain nor leaves a mark if washed out; but the adulterated kind clings. And dropped into milk it coagulates it, which the adulterated kind does not do. Furthermore, the pure kind dissolves very quickly in water or milk, and becomes milky in color; but the adulterated kind floats on top like oil, curling up or spreading out in the shape of a star. The pure kind thickens with age and becomes inferior." And then, listing the virtues of pure balsam: "It dispels shivers," he says, "by application; it cleanses foul ulcers and matures raw ones; it promotes urination when drunk; it benefits those who breathe with difficulty; it is given in milk against swallowed aconite or the bites of serpents. It is mixed with liniments, poultices, and antidotes. In short, the chief value lies in the juice, the second in the seed, the least in the wood. The seed is conveniently given in drink for pains of the side, diseases of the lungs, cough, sciatica, epilepsy, vertigo, orthopnea, difficulty of urination, colic, and serpent bites: for women's fumigations it is very useful: it opens the womb," etc.
22. "I LIKE A TEREBINTH SPREAD OUT MY BRANCHES, AND MY BRANCHES ARE OF HONOR AND GRACE." -- Concerning the terebinth, hear Pliny, book XIII, chapter 6: "Syria has the terebinth. Of these the male is without fruit. There are two kinds of female. One has red fruit the size of a lentil, the other pale. It ripens with the vine, no larger than a bean, more pleasant in fragrance, resinous to the touch, resinous around Ida of the Troad. But in Macedonia this tree is short and shrubby, in Damascus of Syria it is large. Its wood is very flexible and durable with age, of excellent and dark luster; the flower is clustered like the olive, but red; the leaves are dense." The same author, book XIV, chapter 20, says it "pours forth the finest and thinnest resin," which is therefore called terebinthine, commonly known as turpentine.
All these things Rabanus applies in detail to wisdom, to the preaching of the Gospel, and to the Church, which has spread her branches throughout the whole world. Moreover, the branches of wisdom -- that is, her extensions -- are of honor, in Greek δόξης, that is, glory; and of grace, because they win grace, honor, and glory for her and her followers, both among men and before God and the Angels. For just as the honor and beauty of a tree are its leaves, and much more its flowers and fruits, according to that verse of Virgil, Georgics II:
"And already when the vine has put forth its late leaves, And cold Aquilo has shaken off the honor from the woods,"
that is, leaves; so the honor and beauty of wisdom are her branches, that is, her extensions, by which she extends and propagates herself through all the faithful, teachers, and Churches -- with which she is adorned, as it were, with as many graces and honors as leaves adorn the branches of any green and leafy tree, especially the terebinth. Similar is Ezekiel 31:3.
The Syriac translates terebinth as oleander: "I," it says, "like an oleander extended my roots, and my branches are branches of praise and honor." The oleander is a shrub, so named from its rosy flower and laurel leaf: for ῥόδον is rose and δάφνη is laurel. It is also called rhododendron, as if a tree-like rose, or nerium, "evergreen in foliage," says Pliny, book XVI, chapter 20, "resembling the rose, shrubby in its stems, it is poison to beasts of burden, goats, and sheep. Yet the same is a remedy for man against the venom of serpents." Just as the oleander is harmful to beasts but beneficial to humans, so what brings danger to fools -- such as adversity, abundance of things, and knowledge -- wisdom and the wise person turns to their own good and salvation.
But the Greek and Latin consistently have terebinth. It alludes to the terebinth under which Jacob buried and covered up the idols, Genesis 35, which prefigured Christ: for Christ buried and abolished idols and idolatry; and from His body flowed the most precious terebinthine resin, when the Sacraments of the new law were instituted by Him, and abundant grace was placed in them, which does not cease to flow to us all things necessary for salvation.
23. "I LIKE A VINE BORE FRUIT (that is, put forth buds, as the Greek has) OF SWEET FRAGRANCE: AND MY FLOWERS ARE FRUITS OF HONOR AND DIGNITY." -- For "dignity" the Greek has πλούτου, that is, of riches: thus throughout this book he calls dignity riches, just as we commonly call the wealthy "respectable" and "distinguished." The Greek of the Roman edition reads thus: I am like a vine budding forth grace, and my flowers are fruits of glory and riches. The Complutensian edition instead of χάριν, that is, grace, reads εὐωδίαν, that is, sweet fragrance, which is how our Latin translator reads it. The Zurich version: I like a vine sent forth a fragrant grace, and my flowers are fruits of glory and riches. The Syriac: I am like a vine adorned with beauty, and my fronds are fronds of splendor and grace.
Wisdom compares herself to a vine, first, in εὐωδίᾳ, that is, in flower and sweetness of fragrance. For the vine when it blooms breathes out a sweet fragrance: so also wisdom makes herself pleasing, lovable, delightful, and enjoyable to all; and by this means she delights, refreshes, and attracts all to herself. Second, in fruit, namely because just as the flowers of the vine quickly produce fruit, that is, the grape, which is the most honored and noblest of fruits, as well as the most distinguished and most valuable -- for from the grape is pressed sweet, abundant, and generous wine of great price. Whence that admonition of Alcaeus: "Plant no other tree before the vine," which Athenaeus cites; and that verse of the Poet:
"Vine, best part of the lands, jewel of the countryside, You are the first glory of autumn, its first honor."
So also wisdom brings forth the noblest fruits, namely honor, glory, and riches, both spiritual and corporal, which she explains when she adds: "I am the mother of fair love," etc. Moreover, the same are the fruits and flowers of wisdom, because in her the same thing is both savory and blooming, both useful and beautiful. Hear Rabanus: "What," he says, "is expressed by this vine, if not He Himself, who says to His disciples in the Gospel: I am the true vine, and you are the branches? The liquor of this vine gladdens the hearts of men, when by drinking His Blood, they joyfully praise the venerable Sacrament of their redemption. This vine bore fruit of sweet fragrance, when throughout the whole world the fame of the Gospel preaching was spread; and its flowers are fruits of honor and dignity, because the delight and beauty of all virtues daily blossoms and shines forth by His gift among the crowds of believers." See what I said about the vine and its analogies with wisdom and holiness at Ezekiel 15:2. For this reason, a fruitful vine appeared in a vision to Saint Ephrem the Syrian, a contemporary of Saint Basil, signifying his wisdom, abundance, and sweetness of speaking and writing, as his Life relates at the beginning of his works.
Mystically, the vine is the Mother of God, who brought forth the most precious grape, namely Christ, from whom, pressed in the winepress of the Cross, red wine was expressed, which inebriates all the faithful. Thus Damascene, Oration 1 On the Nativity: "The most fruitful vine (the Mother of God) sprouted from Anna, and brought forth the sweetest grape, pouring nectar for mortals unto eternal life." And Saint Ildephonsus, Sermon 1 On the Assumption: "The Mother of the Lord," he says, "like a vine bore fruit of sweet fragrance, and brought forth for all nations fruits of dignity and grace." She therefore, like a vine, brought forth the grape and wine, namely Christ, which gladdens God and men, Judges 9. Whence Saint Bernard, Sermon 4 on the Salve Regina, thus addresses the Mother of God: "The wine has failed in our casks -- wine, namely, that gladdens the heart of man, of which the Prophet says it makes virgins flourish; of this wine you are the cupbearer, you are the standard-bearer: the royal standards come forth in us, with you acting on our behalf. The cup of pure wine is in your hand -- in your hand, in your power -- pure wine of divine love. How glorious is this intoxicating cup! It inebriates unto contempt of the world; it warms, because it makes fervent; it sharpens, because it instructs; it makes bold against adversity, strong and invincible against flesh, world, and demons; forgetful, namely of the things that are behind, and stretched forward to what is ahead; discerning, because it instructs unto justice; drowsy toward temporal things and weary of them, but inclined and ready to contemplate invisible things. Through you we hope for bread, which strengthens the heart of man, of which Scripture says: Man ate the bread of Angels.
Thus far Saint Bernard, speaking of the wine of divine love, which the mother of fair love obtains for her children.
The flowers of this vine are "fruits of honor and dignity"; because Blessed Mary's virginity and humility, like flowers, brought forth a fruit of infinite honor, namely the God-man, who in the Eucharist is "the wheat of the elect and the wine that makes virgins flourish," Zechariah chapter 9. Again, when it is said of this vine: "And my flowers are fruits of honor and dignity," by these words is signified the Mother of God's virginity, at once undefiled and fruitful. For this virginity so delights in dignity that it not only rejects the pleasures of the flesh that are contrary to reason -- which is the office of chastity -- but does not even admit the lawful ones within the use of marriage. Wherefore this supreme dignity of virginity is rightly joined to honor, because it makes people so worthy of honor as to render them very like the angels themselves. Furthermore, because the flower is the symbol of virginity, just as fruit can be the symbol of fecundity. When therefore "the flowers (of the Mother of God) are called fruits of honor" and "of dignity," by these words her fruitful virginity and her virginal fecundity, which deserve every honor and are conspicuous for every dignity, are displayed. For in trees, flowers cannot exist at the same time as fruits, which spring from them and into which the flowers themselves pass; rather, when the fruit bursts forth, the flower falls; and as long as the flowers flourish, the fruits have not yet come. So too in other women, virginity and fecundity cannot coexist at the same time. But in the Mother of God alone, beyond all the course of nature, these two things are found united. Wherefore she alone can rightly say that her flowers are at the same time her fruits; for someone elegantly wrote:
"Childbirth and integrity, long at odds, In the Virgin's bosom hold a covenant of peace."
This is what Saint Bernard, amazed, proclaims in Homily 2 on the Missus est: "Such a birth was fitting for God, that He should not be born except of a virgin: such a delivery was fitting for a virgin, that she should bear none but God." Wherefore Saint Augustine exclaims, Sermon 9 On the Birthday of the Lord, which is 13 On the Seasons: "O wonders, O marvels! The laws of nature are changed: in a man God is born; a virgin is made pregnant without a man; the Word of God weds one who knows no man; she is made at once mother and virgin; made a mother, but uncorrupted; a virgin having a Son, knowing no man; ever closed, but not unfruitful. For He alone was born without sin, whom not the concupiscence of the flesh, but the obedience of the mind, conceived without the embrace of a man."
Fifth Part of the Chapter:
Wisdom Sets Forth Her Fruits
24. "I AM THE MOTHER OF FAIR LOVE, AND OF FEAR, AND OF KNOWLEDGE, AND OF HOLY HOPE." -- For "knowledge" the manuscript codex of Monte Amiata reads "greatness"; and so it is read in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, in the chapter at Compline. Perhaps some scribe, instead of agnitionis (knowledge), wrote the abbreviation agnitis; which another copyist, not understanding it, thought a letter had been omitted by error, and wrote magnitudinis (greatness) -- for half-learned people have corrupted many such things. For the true reading is agnitionis: for thus the other Greek and Latin codices consistently read, both manuscript and printed, as do Rabanus, Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, Jansenius, and other interpreters. The Zurich version translates: I am the mother of fair charity, of religion, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.
Wisdom here explains her fruits, which she produces in her disciples, and assigns four of them. The first is fair love: for there is shameful and enticing love contrary to it, such as the love of fornicators and lovers of the world -- whence the Greek is καλῆς, which means both good and beautiful. The second is fear, that is, reverence, worship, and devotion toward God. The third is knowledge, in Greek γνῶσις, that is, cognition, science, understanding -- namely, by which we fully know God and heavenly and divine things. The fourth is holy hope, by which we hope from God with certainty for every good, namely all grace and glory. Moreover, these four are rightly subordinated to one another. For from the love of God is born reverence and worship of Him; from reverence follows a fuller knowledge of Him; from knowledge is born a greater hope and confidence.
Wherefore, when Blessed Henry Suso, servant of eternal Wisdom, heard these words of Ecclesiasticus read aloud, burning with desire for mystical union with her, he was rapt in ecstasy and saw her in the likeness of a maiden, then in the likeness of an elegant youth, shining in a pillar of cloud upon an ivory throne, radiant with the splendor of the sun. "Her crown was eternity, her garment felicity, her speech sweetness, her embrace all satisfaction." And she said to him: "Give me, my son, your heart." So the author of his Life reports, chapter 4. Hear Rabanus: "The Wisdom of God," he says, "(which is Christ), is the mother of fair love and the origin of all virtues; for by His grace there is generated in the hearts of the elect the affection of true charity, salutary fear, understanding of spiritual knowledge, and hope of eternal life and future joy. Without Him we also have nothing good: since every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights. He is the fountain of life, and in His light we shall see light. Of whom Paul also says: By the grace of God I am what I am." Palacius notes that the word "mother" signifies the pains of Christ, by which He on the Cross gave birth to these virtues -- that is, He merited that they would be granted to us by the Father.
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin is the mother of fair love. For, as Saint Bonaventure says in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter 6, referring to that text of Isaiah 11: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from his root, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, etc.: "Whoever," he says, "desires to obtain the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, let him seek the flower of the Holy Spirit in the rod: for through the rod we reach the flower, through the flower we reach the Spirit resting in Him; through Mary we approach Christ, and through Christ we find the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore Saint Bernard, addressing Mary, says: Through you may we have access to the Son, O blessed finder of grace, mother of life, mother of salvation, that through you He may receive us, who through you was given to us." Thus Bonaventure. Hence in the Litanies the Blessed Virgin is called and invoked as the City of Refuge. So the Saints have fled to her in every tribulation. The Church indeed, in the Salve Regina, calls her our hope: "And our hope, hail." So Saint Bernard, in the sermon On the Aqueduct: "Little children," he says, "she is the sinners' ladder, she is my greatest confidence, she is the whole reason for my hope." Concerning Saint Francis, Saint Bonaventure in his Life, chapter 9: "Trusting," he says, "in the Mother of the Lord after Christ above all, he appointed her the advocate for himself and his own."
Saint Ephrem, pouring out prayers to the Virgin, adds much to the same effect. Saint Damascene, Oration 1 On the Dormition: "We too," he says, "sit before you today, O Lady, mistress -- and again I will say, mistress -- Mother of God and Virgin, binding our souls to your hope as to a most firm anchor, dedicating and consecrating to you our mind, soul, body, and finally our entire selves, honoring you as much as we can with psalms and spiritual hymns." Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, in his Oration On the Presentation of the Mother of God, at the end: "Surely," he says, "O Lady, Mother of God, surely my refuge, my life and defense, my arms and glory, my hope and strength: grant me that I too may enjoy the inexpressible and incomprehensible blessings that are yours, in heavenly perseverance. For you have, I know well, power concurrent with your will, since you are the Mother of the Most High, and therefore I dare. Do not then deprive me of my expectation, O undefiled Lady, who beyond all reason fulfills the expectation of all.
You who gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ."
25. "IN ME IS ALL GRACE OF THE WAY AND OF TRUTH, IN ME IS ALL HOPE OF LIFE AND OF VIRTUE." -- For "virtue" the Zurich version translates "protection"; others, "vigor and strength": for this is what the Hebrew chail means, which our translator usually renders as "virtue." Whence Emmanuel Sa: "Of virtue," he says, that is, of fortitude: for virtue is named from vir (man), because it is manly and masculine. Rabanus, Jansenius, and others, instead of "way" read "life," and understand it as the life of grace; then, when "life" follows, they understand the life of glory, as if to say: Through me is obtained all grace, both that which consists in a good life and that which lies in the knowledge of truth. Through me is held all hope, both that which concerns obtaining eternal life and that which concerns possessing virtue, which is necessary for attaining eternal life. But the Roman-corrected Bible in the former place reads "way" instead of "life"; and it is a hendiadys: the way of truth, that is, the way to truth, as if to say: In me is the grace of showing and teaching every way and means by which one goes and arrives at truth and the true life, both of grace and of glory, according to that saying of Christ, who alluded to this: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," John 14.
Palacius puts it differently, as if to say: I have within me all the graces of the way, of truth, and of life, so that no one can possess them except through me. Wisdom therefore has every good pertaining to this age, which is the way; and to the future, which is truth -- so that no one should hope for the life of grace or of glory, nor even for virtue (which bears the perfect name of virtue) except from the gift of wisdom.
Moreover, hear about this all-embracing grace of wisdom from Blessed Henry Suso, servant of eternal Wisdom, in his Dialogue, chapter 7: "In you," he says, "beauty is infinitely lovable, grace marvelously fair, speech joined with good manners, nobility with virtue, riches with power, inner freedom united with outward radiance. And beyond these, what I have never found anywhere in the whole world: the full power and capacity to perfectly fulfill every wish, every desire, and the will of a heart that truly loves, however thirsty it may be. The more perfectly you are known, the more fervently you are loved; the more familiar anyone is with you, the more lovable they find you. Ah, what an immense, inexhaustible, most pure good you are! I beg you, all mortals, to consider how miserably deceived are those who bestow their love on anything else. Depart far from me, most foolish and most vain lovers: never approach me. This one alone have I chosen as the beloved of my heart, who alone fills and satisfies my heart, soul, desires, affections, and all my powers with intimate love, and never perishes." Then, breathing toward her with all his affection, and addressing her: "If only, Lord Jesus, I could inscribe You on my heart, if only into the very marrow of my heart and soul I could engrave You in golden letters, so that no passage of time could efface or abolish You! Alas, wretch that I am! Alas, how unhappy I am! that I did not dedicate my heart perpetually to You, occupy it with You alone. What remains to me from all my other loves, except the waste of time, words thrown to the wind, empty hands, very few good works, and a conscience burdened with vices?
Mystically, these things befit the Blessed Virgin; for, as Saint Augustine -- or whoever is the author (for it is not Saint Augustine) -- says in Sermon 20 On the Birthday of the Lord to the Brothers in the Desert: "Therefore Mary was chosen as mother, and preferred above all creatures, enriched with all graces, filled in her womb with every virtue and holiness, so that from the most pure mother a most pure Son would be born: and just as in heaven the Son has an immortal and eternal Father, so on earth He would have a mother free from all corruption." Saint Gregory, book I on 1 Kings, chapter 1: "By the name of this mountain," he says, "the most blessed ever-virgin Mary, Mother of God, can be designated: for she was indeed a mountain, who surpassed all the height of every chosen creature by the dignity of her election. Was not Mary a lofty mountain, who, in order to attain the conception of the eternal Word, raised the summit of her merits above all the choirs of Angels up to the throne of the Deity? For Isaiah, prophesying of this mountain's most excellent dignity, says: In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, Isaiah 2. Indeed she was a mountain on the top of mountains, because the height of Mary shone above all the Saints." To this Albert the Great adds, in his Homily on the Missus est: "God called the gatherings of waters seas (maria), but the place of all graces is called Mary (Maria)." And Saint Bonaventure in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter 3 and following: "Mary," he says, "is called the sea on account of the abundance and fullness of graces; whence it is written in Ecclesiastes 1: All rivers enter the sea, just as all the charisms of the saints enter into Mary." And shortly after: "Whence she herself can most fittingly say that verse of Ecclesiasticus 24: In me is all hope of the way and of truth, in me is all hope of life and of virtue." Saint Thomas, Opuscule 8, proving that the Blessed Virgin is full of grace, which she pours out by helping others: "In every work of virtue," he says, "you can have her as a helper, and therefore she herself says," Ecclesiasticus chapter 24: In me is all hope of life and of virtue. Again Saint Bonaventure in the Mirror, chapter 6, proving the fullness of grace of the Mother of God, especially the gifts of the Holy Spirit: "Mary," he says, "can say with gladness that verse of Ecclesiasticus: In me is all grace of life and of truth, for she is the mother of Him whom we read to be full of grace and truth. And what wonder if in that rod there is such an abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in whose flower the Holy Spirit rested with such an abundance of gifts? For Mary is that rod, and the Son of Mary is that flower of whom it is said in Isaiah: A rod shall come forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise from his root, and there shall rest upon Him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and He shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. In this flower there is a wondrous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, from which a wondrous influence flows into the whole Church, so that the blessed Evangelist John says: From His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. If therefore from this flower such great grace overflows into the whole garden, how much more into the very rod of this flower, into Mary herself! Let Mary therefore say with confidence: In me is all grace of life and of truth." Thus Bonaventure.
The Blessed Virgin therefore is our Pandora, that is, the gracious mother of every gift, of whom Tertullian in his book On the Soldier's Crown says: "If there was any Pandora (whom Hesiod mentions as the first of women), this head was first crowned by the Graces, since she is endowed by all, whence the name Pandora." Saint Irenaeus also mentions Pandora in Against Heresies: "When they say," he says, "that the Savior was made from all the Aeons, with all depositing their flower in Him, they bring nothing new beyond the Pandora of Hesiod." Fulgentius also mentions her in his Mythology. This crown of all graces, therefore, is owed by every right to the Christian Pandora, namely, the Blessed Virgin. Wherefore by Saint Ephrem, in his Oration on the Praises of the Virgin, she is called "the hope of the despairing, the helper of sinners, the consolation of the world, the gate of heaven."
The Greek and the Syriac omit this verse, but instead of it the Complutensian and some others have this: I give, together with all my children, eternal (praises) to those things which are said by Him; the Zurich version: I give eternal (or eternal fruits) to my children, to whom God has commanded all together.
26. "COME OVER TO ME, ALL YOU WHO DESIRE ME, AND BE FILLED WITH MY FRUITS." -- This is the epilogue. For Wisdom, after recounting her benefits and fruits, concludes by urging all to come to her, and thus partake of them: for she calls her fruits "generations," that is, things born from herself, which in Greek are called γεννήματα, in Hebrew tebua, as if to say: All you whom the love of me has touched by God's gift, come over to me; satiate yourselves with my sweetest fruits, for elsewhere you will find no satisfaction, according to that saying of Christ to the Samaritan woman, John 4: "Whoever drinks of this water that I shall give him shall never thirst." Hence the Zurich version: Come to me, all who desire me, and see to it that you are filled with my fruits. Note the word "be filled," as if to say: The meager fruits that the world gives do not satisfy, do not fill the appetite, but rather excite and irritate it; but my fruits are generous and ample, being divine (for God alone fills the soul), and they fill and satisfy every desire and appetite. Hence the Syriac: Turn to me, all who desire me, and from my finest fruits you will take pleasure. Hear Rabanus: "With a mother's affection Wisdom admonishes her children to hasten to her, to be enriched by her gift and refreshed by her help. Such also is that testimony of the Gospel, by which the Savior mercifully exhorts the laboring to come to Him: Come, He says, to Me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you; and likewise: He who thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, and from his belly shall flow living waters." So Saint Ephrem, treatise On the Fear of the Lord, treatise 1, page 69, relates that Wisdom appeared to him in a vision -- namely Christ, in glory -- and invited him to surrender himself entirely to her, leaving behind the vanity of the world.
Mystically, in like manner the Blessed Virgin revealed herself to Saint Bridget, as she herself relates in book 6 of the Revelations, chapter 10, and said: "I am the Queen of Heaven, I am the Mother of mercy, I am the joy of the just and the entrance of sinners to God. There is no punishment in the fire of purgatory that is not more lenient on my account and lighter to bear than it otherwise would be. There is no one so accursed who, as long as he lives, lacks my mercy, because on my account he is tempted less severely by demons than he otherwise would be. There is no one so alienated from God, unless he is utterly accursed, who, if he invokes me, will not return to God and receive mercy." God revealed the same to Saint Catherine of Siena: "To Mary," He said, "the glorious mother of My only-begotten Son, it has been granted by My goodness, out of reverence for the incarnate Word, that whoever, even a sinner, has recourse to her with devout veneration, shall in no way be deceived by the infernal demon: for she has been chosen by Me, prepared and placed as the sweetest bait for catching souls, and especially the souls of sinners."
Whence Saint Ephrem, in the Praises of the Blessed Virgin, thus greets her: "Hope of the despairing, through you we have been reconciled to Christ, my God, your Son. You are the only advocate and helper of sinners and those destitute of aid. You are the safest harbor of the shipwrecked, the consolation of the world, the most renowned liberator of those imprisoned. You are the protector of orphans, the redeemer of captives, the exultation of the sick, and the salvation of all. You are the support of monks and solitaries, and the hope of those in the world. You are the glory, crown, and joy of virgins. You are the gladness of the world." And again: "For you are our harbor and guardian, our loving helper." And further: "Hail, helper of those in peril, and joyful freedom, fountain of grace and consolation. Hail, refuge and shelter of sinners. Hail, propitiation of the weary. Hail, hope of all the upright afflicted by adverse fortunes, sweet solace and protection of converts. Hail, queen and patron of men and women alike. Hail, our consoler, who have calmed sorrows, alleviated the troubles of the oppressed, and removed all oppressions. Hail, key of the heavenly kingdom. Hail, safest harbor for those sailing in this life. Hail, firm salvation of all Christians who sincerely and truly have recourse to you. Hail, our renowned protection and glory."
Wisely Saint Augustine, in his book On Catechizing the Unlearned: "So much," he says, "does a benevolent attitude toward the listener avail, that as we speak and they learn, we dwell in one another; and thus they and what they hear they speak, as it were, in us, and we in them learn in a certain way what we teach. Does this not usually happen when we show certain spacious and beautiful places, whether of cities or of fields, which we ourselves often passed by without any pleasure, to those who had never seen them before, so that our delight is renewed in their delight of novelty, and our knowledge is perfected -- how much more we," etc.
Moreover, Saint Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Genesis: "The divine utterances are like a fountain gushing with generous and perennial streams. Even those who lived before us drew waters from it with their powers, and likewise those who will come after us will attempt the same, nor will they be able to exhaust the whole, but rather in the meanwhile the rivers increase and grow. For this is the nature of spiritual streams: that spiritual grace gushes forth all the more, the more it is drawn from it." Again, the same Saint Chrysostom, Homily 55 to the People: "Imitating these riches," he says, "the saints themselves hover about the flowery groves of the sacred volumes, and pluck from them whatever is sweet and honeyed. And if you wish to test their mouths, you will see them uttering such things -- all mild and pleasant, and full of the sweetness of spiritual fragrance. Those mouths can utter no shameful word, nothing scurrilous, nothing harsh and bitter, but all things worthy of the heavens themselves."
Finally, Peter of Celle, in his treatise On Conscience, beautifully teaches that wisdom is like a vein of blood, which must from time to time be opened so that blood may flow out and flow in: "By the lancet," he says, "of the urgency of those who ask me and wish to be taught by me, the vein of the heart is cut, and from every quarter I have summoned the living blood of the veins of all meditation, so that the heart might lend or emit from the blood of refined learning what would suffice for the speaker, and keep for itself that by which it might live. For then something is usefully spoken or written, when from its treatment both one's own life is corrected and another's conscience is no less instructed. Nor should one believe that the vein of the heart is always perniciously drained whenever it is cut; rather, through the outpouring of charity it flows more conveniently and more freely."
27 and 28. "FOR MY SPIRIT IS SWEETER THAN HONEY, AND MY INHERITANCE IS ABOVE HONEY AND THE HONEYCOMB: MY MEMORY IS UNTO THE GENERATIONS OF AGES." -- So the Roman edition; others less correctly read "in the generation of ages." For "spirit" the Greek has μνημόσυνον, that is, memory, or rather memorial. Whence the Greek reads thus: for my memorial is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance is above the honeycomb; the Zurich version: for my memory is sweeter than honey, and my possession more pleasing than the honeycombed honey. Now by memory, or memorial, the Syriac understands doctrine; for it translates thus: because my doctrine is sweeter than honey, and for those who inherit me it is sweeter than the honeycomb.
Second, Jansenius understands it as the law dictated by wisdom: for μνημόσυνον means memorial and pledge, which is left for the preservation of memory,
Such a memorial is the law, left by the Wisdom of God to the faithful as an inheritance, that is, as a perpetual possession. And so the same is said here as in Psalm 118:103: "How sweet are Your words to my palate, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" And Psalm 18:11: "More to be desired than gold and many precious stones, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb."
Third, more plainly and sublimely, Rabanus, and from him the Gloss: "The memory of the Wisdom of God," he says, "shall endure unto the generation of all ages; because Angels praise her, Archangels extol her, Prophets foretell her, Apostles proclaim her, and the whole army of heavenly powers, and the infinite multitude of holy souls adore and glorify her forever." And this eternal memory Wisdom communicates to her followers, when she bestows on them eternity of name and fame, according to that verse: "The just shall be in everlasting remembrance," Psalm 111:7. Whence Palacius explains it thus, as if to say: There shall be no age in which among pious people there shall not be a remembrance of me. From Adam to the end of the world, divine Wisdom has had and will have her lovers, who say: "Your name and Your memorial are the desire of the soul." For to those holy patriarchs Wisdom appeared in human form; to Christians she appeared in true flesh. Therefore both the former and the latter hold the memory of Christ in the desire of their soul.
Moreover, the "spirit" of Wisdom is understood, first, by Rabanus as the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from Wisdom begotten, that is, from the Son equally as from the Father, as if to say: The Holy Spirit, whom Christ will send into the world, is sweeter than honey; because the love of God, which is poured through Him into the hearts of the elect, is of incomparable sweetness. Second, the Gloss: The spirit, it says, that is, the tasting of my goodness, is sweeter than honey, because no bodily delight equals it. Third, others say, as if: The spirit that Wisdom breathes upon her followers is not austere and harsh, but kind, gentle, and sweet beyond honey; whence the wise, that is, the saints, are meek, kind, affable, and sweet in words and in all their dealings.
Fourth, and most authentically, Jansenius: "Wisdom," he says, "attributes to herself a spirit, just as above a soul was attributed to her. By the name of spirit she signifies her own nature, which through the doctrine of the law and wondrous works breathes a sweet fragrance among men. In the same way it is said in Wisdom 12: O how good and sweet, Lord, is Your Spirit! which is to be understood not only of the Holy Spirit, but can also be said to the Holy Spirit Himself: O Lord, how sweet is Your Spirit!" This is what Christ, who is incarnate Wisdom, says alluding to this passage, Matthew 11:29: "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light."
Christ therefore, and God, is by Himself and by His nature honey; but we, embittering Him by our sins, compel Him to be venom and gall for us, according to that text of Hosea 14:1: "Let Samaria perish, because she has provoked her God to bitterness." Where Saint Jerome from Symmachus says: "She will repent," he says, "that she turned the sweetest God into bitterness" -- namely, from a father into a judge, from a benefactor into a chastiser.
Finally, the "inheritance," that is, the possession and treasure of Wisdom, which she communicates to her followers, is grace and glory, or holiness and felicity. This is sweeter than the honeycomb, because holiness entirely quiets the appetite, says the Gloss; and eternal felicity is most sweet: "For the heavenly inheritance," says Rabanus, "which is granted to the saints in the knowledge and love of God, when they shall see Him face to face and delight in His right hand forever, is inexpressible and beyond estimation, because it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him," 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Therefore Wisdom gives the reasons and enticements of her invitation: that her spirit is most sweet, her inheritance and possession likewise most sweet, and her memory is eternal.
Saint Bernard, Sermon 2 On Saint Andrew, holds him up as an example, for whom this spirit of Jesus "made the cross and death," he says, "not only not burdensome, but even desirable and altogether delightful. For My spirit (says the Lord) is sweeter than honey, so that not even the bitterest bitterness of death can prevail against its sweetness. What will that sweetness not temper, which makes even death most sweet? What harshness can resist that anointing, which makes even death most gentle? When He gives (it says) sleep to His beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord. What trouble does that joy not drive away, which makes even death itself most joyful? Let us seek this spirit, brothers; let us apply ourselves with all diligence to deserve to have this spirit, or rather, that we may have more abundantly the one we already have. For whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His."
The symbol of this was the riddle of Samson: "From the eater came forth food, and from the strong came forth sweetness," when, namely, he found honey in the mouth of the lion he had killed, Judges 14:14. The Greek text has: from the sad, or from sadness and labor, "came forth sweetness." So thorns produce roses, brambles produce grapes, thistles produce figs. Indeed: "To the victor is given the hidden manna; and what was hard to suffer is sweet to remember."
Most sweet therefore is the spirit, most sweet also the name of Jesus, who is our wisdom, and He bestows these three things upon us. Hear Saint Bernard, in his Sentences: "And what is more the life of hearts than my God Jesus? He is truly loving and lovable, and everything that is of Him truly is, since He Himself is none other than Truth itself. Who is a faithful and true friend love, unless indeed it be that by which truth is loved? I am in possession of reason, capable of truth; but would that I were not, if love should fail me! I am not safe from the axe, if I am found without it. Truly He is to be loved most earnestly by me, through whom I live and am wise -- if I am not ungrateful and unworthy. He is plainly worthy of death who refuses to live for You, Lord Jesus, and is dead; and he who does not savor You is foolish; and he who cares to exist except for You, counts for nothing and is nothing. For Your own sake, O God, You have made all things; and he who wishes to exist for himself and not for You begins to be nothing among all things. For these reasons, then, I love You as much as I can; but there is something that moves me more, urges me more, inflames me more; above all things, I say, what makes You lovable to me, good Jesus, is the chalice which You drank -- the work of our redemption. This indeed easily claims all our love entirely for itself; this is what more sweetly attracts our devotion, more justly demands it, more tightly binds it, and more vehemently affects it."
Hence the Church invokes her: "Hail, Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail." Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 4 On the Assumption: "Who," he says, "can investigate the length and breadth, the height and depth of your mercy, O Blessed One? For its length comes to the aid of all who invoke her even to the last day. Its breadth fills the whole earth, so that your mercy too may fill all the land. Likewise its height found the restoration of the heavenly city, and its depth obtained redemption for those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death." And earlier the same St. Bernard had said: "Let him be silent about your mercy, O Blessed Virgin, if there is anyone who, having invoked you in his needs, remembers that you were found wanting. We indeed, your little servants, rejoice with you in your other virtues, but in this rather for ourselves; we praise your virginity, we admire your humility; but mercy tastes sweeter to the wretched, we embrace mercy more dearly, remember it more often, invoke it more frequently." The same St. Bernard, in his sermon on the text "A great sign," says that the sinner may fear to approach God, who is a consuming fire, lest, just as wax melts before the face of fire, so he himself might perish before the face of God. And shortly after: "Why," he says, "should human frailty tremble to approach Mary? There is nothing harsh in her, nothing terrible; she is entirely gentle, offering milk and wool to all." And further on: "All things that pertain to her are full of piety and grace; they are full of gentleness and mercy. In short, she has been made all things to all, and by her most abundant charity has made herself a debtor to the wise and the foolish alike; she opens the bosom of mercy to all, that from her fullness all may receive." Again Damascene, Oration 2 On the Assumption of the Virgin, says that the Mother of God "is an inexhaustible ocean of joy, the sole obliteration of sorrow, a remedy driving pain from every breast." If therefore you are sad, invoke the Blessed Virgin; she herself will communicate her joys to you. Wherefore St. Agnes, appearing to St. Bridget (as recorded in Book IV of the Revelations, ch. 11) and recounting to her the praises of the Mother of God, left this conclusion to be drawn: "Just as by the sun both heavenly and earthly things are illuminated and set ablaze, so from the sweetness of Mary there is no one who does not, through her, if it is sought, experience her compassion." In her therefore is fulfilled that saying of Proverbs 31: "The law of clemency is on her tongue." Hence St. Ambrose calls St. Mary manna; for thus he says on Psalm 21, at the end: "Indeed rather," he says, "I would call Mary herself manna, because she is delicate and radiant, gentle and a virgin, who, coming as it were from heaven, poured forth to all the peoples of the Churches a food sweeter than honey; whoever has neglected to eat or consume it will not be able to have life in himself, just as the Lord Himself says: 'Unless one has eaten My flesh,'" etc.
Finally, the memory of the Blessed Virgin endures through the generations of ages, because it lasts through all ages, not only among Christians, but also among unbelievers and the Saracens. For in their Quran many illustrious praises are given to her, and among other things, that she is the virgin and mother of Christ, the greatest and wisest Prophet, and that Angels greeted her saying: "O Mary, God has chosen you above all women, and you will conceive the Word of God; you are the most pure virgin," etc.
In the anagogical sense, St. Bernard, in the treatise On Loving God, after the beginning, says: "'My memorial is in the generation of ages'; he says this because, as long as the present age is seen to endure, in which generation comes and generation passes away, consolation from memory will not fail the elect, to whom the full refreshment of presence is not yet granted. Hence it is written: 'They shall pour forth the memory of the abundance of Your sweetness,' without doubt those whom he had said a little earlier: 'Generation and generation shall praise Your works.' Memory therefore in the generation of ages, presence in the kingdom of heaven. By the latter the elect already assumed are glorified; by the former the generation still on pilgrimage is meanwhile consoled." Then he adds who are capable of this good, and who are not. "But it matters," he says, "which generation draws comfort from the remembrance of God. For not the crooked and perverse generation, to which it is said: 'Woe to you, rich, who have your consolation'; but that which can truly say: 'My soul refused to be comforted.' From this we plainly believe, if it has added what follows: 'I remembered God and was delighted.' For it is just that those whom present things do not delight should have ready at hand the memory of things to come; and that those who scorn to be consoled by any abundance of passing things should be delighted by the remembrance of eternity. And this is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who seek not their own things but the face of the God of Jacob. For those who seek and sigh for God's presence, meanwhile the sweet memory is at hand -- not, however, one by which they are satisfied, but by which they hunger all the more for that by which they will be satisfied. This very thing the Food Himself testifies about Himself, saying thus: 'He who eats Me will still hunger,' and he who has been fed by Him says: 'I shall be satisfied when Your glory shall appear.' Blessed even now, however, are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for one day they themselves, and no others, shall be satisfied. Woe to you, crooked and perverse generation; woe to you, foolish and senseless people, who loathe even the memory and dread the presence."
Mystically, the spirit of the Blessed Virgin is most sweet. Furthermore, just as the statement 'they who eat Me shall yet hunger' is literally true of Christ, whom we eat in the Eucharist and yet hunger for again and long to eat again, so the same can equally be said literally of the Blessed Virgin. This is marvelous but true. For as often as we eat the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, so often do we in the same really eat the flesh of the Blessed Virgin, because the flesh of Christ is the flesh of the Blessed Virgin. Indeed, the very flesh of Christ, before it was separated from the Blessed Virgin's flesh in the Incarnation and given to Christ, was the proper flesh of the Blessed Virgin, and was informed and animated by her soul. Just as, therefore, we daily hunger for the flesh of Christ in the Eucharist, so too we hunger in the same for the flesh of the Blessed Virgin, that we might imbibe and incorporate into ourselves her virginal endowments and virtues. And this is done not by priests and Religious alone, but by all Christians; for the Blessed Virgin nourishes all with her flesh, equally with Christ's flesh, in the Eucharist. And hence that love of virginity and angelic purity in those who communicate worthily and frequently. Indeed, all the faithful for this reason ought to carry the Blessed Virgin, as they carry Christ, constantly in heart, word, and deed; indeed, to pass over and be transformed into the Blessed Virgin, as iron glowing with fire passes into fire, and as bread seasoned with leaven almost migrates and passes into the leaven. Hence Christ compares Himself and His gifts to leaven, Matthew ch. 13, 33. And for this reason Christ left His flesh in the Eucharist -- at the wish, and perhaps the prayer, of the Blessed Virgin -- so that He might intimately unite and incorporate Himself to each of the faithful through all the ages of time. See here the extraordinary charity of Christ and of the Blessed Virgin toward us, so that we in turn may fix our whole heart upon Him, indeed may pass over as it were into Him, and say with St. Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am certain that neither death, nor life," etc. (Romans 8).
Verse 29: THEY THAT EAT ME SHALL YET HUNGER: AND THEY THAT DRINK ME SHALL YET THIRST.
Wisdom shows herself to be sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, because the sweetness of honey, if eaten in excess, produces disgust and nausea. But the sweetness of wisdom, the more it is tasted, the more it is desired and hungered for; and, what is marvelous, it satisfies and fills the mind, and yet the satisfied mind desires to be further satisfied and filled by it. Hence the Tigurina translates: those who eat me will hunger all the more; and those who drink me will still thirst; the Syriac has: they will thirst for me.
Note first: Wisdom, says Palacius, calls herself food and drink. Clearly, because she is eminently all things; and the pious man should believe that in this passage Wisdom was mindful of herself as she was to be in the Eucharist, in which she is truly food, truly drink. Note second: If she is truly food and drink, there is nothing beyond her that you need seek, for in these things our life is contained. Note third, a wondrous thing: Wisdom herself is both the food and the hunger; for he who eats her, hungers for her. For just as God is at once one and three, merciful and just, so wisdom at once satisfies the soul so that it seeks nothing beyond her, and yet so satisfies it that it simultaneously kindles desire and hunger for itself. Therefore there will never be satiety in heaven.
Blessed Macarius of Egypt, the disciple of St. Anthony, who flourished in the year of Christ 370, explains this statement brilliantly and devoutly throughout his entire Homily 10, speaking of men of extraordinary holiness: "Souls," he says, "that love God and truth, that perfectly desire to put on Christ in supreme faith and hope, do not much need the admonition of others, nor do they patiently endure being in any way diminished in heavenly desire or love toward the Lord; but being entirely nailed to the cross of Christ, they daily feel and recognize in themselves their spiritual advancement toward the spiritual Bridegroom. And being wounded with heavenly desire and hungering for the justice of virtues, they seek the illumination of the Holy Spirit with the utmost and insatiable eagerness." He then adds that the origin of this eagerness is heavenly light: "If perchance by the benefit of their faith they merit to attain knowledge of divine mysteries, or become partakers of the joy of heavenly grace, they do not trust in themselves, thinking themselves to be something; but the more they abound in spiritual gifts, the more vehemently and without satiety of heavenly desire they seek; and the more they have felt spiritual progress in themselves, the more they hunger and thirst for participation in and increase of grace; and the more spiritually wealthy they are, the more they consider themselves poor; and without satiety they are carried by spiritual desire toward the heavenly Bridegroom, as Scripture says: 'They that eat me shall yet hunger; and they that drink me shall yet thirst.'" Finally he adds their great gains and rewards: "Such souls, which burn with such ardent and insatiable love toward the Lord, are worthy of eternal life; wherefore they merit to be redeemed from their passions, and they receive perfect illumination and participation of the holy and hidden Spirit, and of mystical communion, in the fullness of grace. But sluggish and not at all manly souls, which do not seek such things, inwardly truly live in the flesh," etc.
The reason is the excellence of wisdom, which is so full of savor and sweetness that it can never be fully tasted without being further desired to be tasted. Hear St. Gregory, Homily 36 on the Gospel: "This, dearest brothers," he says, "is the usual difference between the delights of the body and of the heart: bodily delights, when not possessed, kindle a great desire for themselves; but when they are eagerly consumed, they immediately turn the eater to disgust through satiety. On the contrary, spiritual delights, when not possessed, are held in contempt; but when possessed, they are held in desire; and the more they are hungered for by the eater, the more they are consumed by the one who hungers. In the former, appetite pleases but experience displeases; in the latter, appetite is of little account, and experience pleases more. In the former, appetite generates satiety, and satiety generates disgust; but in the latter, appetite generates satiety, and satiety generates appetite. For spiritual delights increase appetite in the mind while they satisfy, because the more their savor is perceived, the more fully is known that which is to be loved more eagerly. And therefore when not possessed, they cannot be loved, because their savor is unknown. Hence the Psalmist admonishes us, saying in Psalm 33: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet,' as if to say: You do not know His sweetness if you have not tasted it at all; but touch the food of life with the palate of the heart, that by testing His sweetness you may be able to love Him."
Hunger, therefore, is the best disposition and preparation for acquiring wisdom. Wisdom herself taught this to Blessed Henry Suso, as he himself recounts in his Dialogue, ch. 23: "Spiritual hunger," she says, "and present or actual (as they call it) devotion will move you to receive Me more than mere habit. The soul, in the dwelling-place or enclosure of a life withdrawn to heavenly things, desiring to intimately feel and sweetly enjoy Me, must first be stripped and divested of vices, adorned with virtues, free from superfluous occupations, planted with the crimson roses of most ardent charity, and surrounded by the sweetly fragrant violets of humble self-abasement and the white lilies of inviolate purity and chastity. Let it make for Me a little bed or bridal chamber in true peace of heart, since 'in peace is My place made.' Let it clasp Me in its arms, excluding all alien and foreign love -- the kind from which I am accustomed to flee, no differently than little birds are wont to avoid the kite. Let it sing to Me the canticles of Sion, that is, of most ardent love, with the most attentive and devout praise. Then indeed I too in turn will embrace it, and, resting upon My breast, I will make it experience tranquil rest, clear and manifest contemplation, unexperienced enjoyment, a certain tasting of everlasting sweetness, and an experience of perennial blessedness. These things indeed she must keep to herself alone, saying with the Prophet: 'My secret is my own, my secret is my own.' For strangers do not feel or perceive these things. Let her therefore say with the deepest sigh of heart: 'Truly You are a hidden God; You are that hidden good which no one knows except he who receives it.'"
Tropologically, learn here that a sure sign and effect of wisdom, virtue, and progress is to always hunger and thirst for it more; because wisdom and virtue sharpen the desire for themselves, and all the more as they increase. Faustus, Bishop of Riez, applies keen stimuli to the same end from these words of Ecclesiasticus for the student of wisdom and virtue, in his Instructions to Monks, at the end: "Let us be," he says, "unfailing in the work of God on account of eternal recompense, and let us daily strive for better things. For the very eagerness of grasping, the very habit of progressing, should always urge us on to greater things; and when God sees the devotion of the soul, He will instill a more ardent affection; and the more we have burned with zeal, the more He will add to glory. He who has, it will be given to him, and he will abound. And in another place He says: 'I have placed help upon one who is mighty.' For grace is born from grace, and advances serve further advances, gains make room for gains, and merits for merits, so that the more one has begun to acquire, the more one strives to acquire; and the more eagerly one has drawn from the goods of wisdom, the more one desires to draw; just as Wisdom herself says of herself: 'They that eat me shall yet hunger.' Let us press on in our course, that our life may increase at the last. Let us seek even to the end, so that we may merit to rejoice without end." See more in our Alvarez de Paz, On the Nature of Perfection, Book III, Part II, chapters 14 and 15, Fruit 6.
Furthermore, St. Augustine, Book XV On the Trinity, ch. 2, says: "'They who eat Me,' he says, 'will still hunger; and they who drink Me will still thirst.' They eat and drink because they find; and because they hunger and thirst, they still seek. Faith seeks, understanding finds; on which account the Prophet Isaiah says in chapter 7: 'Unless you believe, you will not understand.' And again: 'The understanding still seeks Him whom it has found.' For God looked down upon the children of men, to see if there is one who understands or seeks God."
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin, the more she is loved, desired, and venerated by the faithful, the greater hunger and thirst for love, desire, and veneration of herself she arouses in them, because all the more her charity, power, and aid she shows. "To this fountain, therefore, let our thirsting soul hasten," says St. Bernard, Homily 4 on the Missus est. The same saint, in the Sermon on the Visitation, says: "She has been made all things to all (St. Mary), by her most abundant charity she has made herself a debtor to the wise and the foolish, she opens the bosom of mercy to all, that from her fullness all may receive: the captive redemption, the sick a cure, the sorrowful consolation, the sinner pardon, the just grace, the Angel joy, and finally the entire Trinity glory, the Person of the Son the substance of human flesh, so that there is none who may hide himself from His warmth."
Finally, devoutly and authentically, the same St. Bernard in his Jubilus attributes these words to Jesus Christ: They who taste You still hunger; / They who drink still thirst; / They know not how to desire / Anything but Jesus, whom they love. He explains this in detail when he adds: Jesus, beauty of the angels, / In the ear a sweet song, / In the mouth a wondrous honey, / In the heart a heavenly nectar. Hence, yearning for Him, he concludes: I desire You a thousand times, / My Jesus, when will You come? / When will You make me glad? / When will You satisfy me with Yourself?
Verse 30: HE WHO HEARS ME SHALL NOT BE CONFOUNDED: AND THEY WHO WORK IN ME (that is, who labor for me) SHALL NOT SIN.
The Tigurina has: he who hears me will fall into no disgrace whatsoever; and those who labor at it will not sin; the Syriac: he who hears me will not fall; and all his works will not suffer corruption. Here Wisdom promises her devotees a double fruit, namely that they will escape a double evil: confusion and sin. "He who hears me," she says -- that is, who listens to me, who obeys me -- will never be covered with shame; because he will do nothing of which he could be ashamed, but will accomplish all things wisely, so that he may rejoice and glory in them. Therefore he will escape the eternal confusion of the reprobate, nor will he be frustrated in his hope of obtaining heavenly glory, but will certainly attain it. "And those who work in me -- that is," says Jansenius, "who conduct their affairs through me -- will not sin" in them; but will carry out all their affairs as prudently as they will successfully. In the first clause, therefore, he promises happiness; in the second, good conduct.
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin grants both of these to her worshippers and those devoted to her, as is clear from the entire history of all ages. Therefore if anyone wishes to live free from sin and shame, if anyone wishes to secure grace and salvation for himself, if anyone desires to obtain the great gift of perseverance, let him ceaselessly implore it from God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. For he who has so great a patroness with God cannot perish and be damned -- unless one deliberately hurls himself into crimes and hell, as do certain fools who rush into their lusts with impunity, presumptuously relying on the aid of the Blessed Virgin, to whom they call themselves devout because on Saturdays they fast in her honor, recite the Rosary, or render her some similar worship. These indeed toward the Blessed Virgin are guilty of injury, both because they impiously presume upon her mercy, and because they defile, dishonor, and defame her worship with so many crimes, and therefore they are worthy of double damnation.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, in the Sermon On the Seven Gifts, says: "Let us work in Wisdom, which says: 'They who work in me shall not sin'; for the field is the world, says Truth. Let us dig in it; a hidden treasure lies concealed; let us dig it out; for it is wisdom that is drawn from hidden places. We all seek her, we all desire her; but he seeks in vain who seeks in his bed, nor is she found in the land of those living softly. It is a bed, and there you seek a giant; it is yours, and there you hope to find Him who always ignores lodgings. 'If you seek,' He says, 'seek, be converted, and come.' You ask, from where? From your bed. You ask, from what should you turn? 'Turn away,' He says, 'from your pleasures.'"
Verse 31: THEY WHO EXPLAIN ME SHALL HAVE LIFE ETERNAL.
The Tigurina has: my interpreters will attain eternal life -- unless they obscure by wicked deeds the wisdom they explain in words. Indeed it seems difficult and rare that the interpreter of Sacred Scripture should be so rebellious in spirit as to resist the truth he continually interprets, especially since Wisdom is so gracious that she almost constantly calls her expositors to herself, says Palacius. This sentence is now absent from the Greek and Syriac. Wisdom has reviewed and promised rewards to the disciple who hears wisdom in the preceding verse; now she assigns the reward to the teacher and interpreter, namely the one who seeks and celebrates not himself and his own glory, but the praise of Wisdom and of God. The reward is life and eternal glory, because, as Daniel says in chapter 12: "Those who are learned shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who instruct many to justice shall shine like stars for all eternity." For, as St. Bernard says, Sermon 39 on the Song of Songs: "The spirit of Wisdom is gracious, and the gracious and diligent teacher pleases her -- one who so desires to satisfy the studious that he does not refuse to accommodate the slower. In short, 'They who explain me shall have eternal life,' says Wisdom herself. From which reward indeed I would not wish to be defrauded."
Sixth Part of the Chapter: Wisdom Teaches That She Is Contained in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and Is to Be Sought from Them; but More So from Christ, Who Fulfilled the Sayings of Moses and the Prophets; Hence She Compares the Full and Perfect Wisdom of Christ to Abundant Rivers: the Pishon, Tigris, Euphrates, Jordan, Gihon, and Even the Sea.
Verses 32 and 33: ALL THESE THINGS ARE THE BOOK OF LIFE, AND THE COVENANT OF THE MOST HIGH, AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH. MOSES COMMANDED THE LAW IN PRECEPTS OF JUSTICE, AND AN INHERITANCE TO THE HOUSE OF JACOB, AND PROMISES TO ISRAEL.
Jansenius judges that these and the following words are not the words of Wisdom, but of Sirach who here interjects, and explains and confirms the words of Wisdom; but nothing prevents us from taking them as the words of Wisdom, who here continues to speak and shows where and in which books she has been handed down, and therefore in the same books she is to be read and sought out. For below in verse 40, Wisdom continues speaking and says: "I, Wisdom, poured forth rivers." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: All these things which you have heard said by me in my own praise -- understand: the book of life contains, transmits, and provides them -- that is, the book of the law (the Pentateuch of Moses) and of the Prophets, which is called the Book of Life because, if you observe it, you will attain eternal life. The same is called the Covenant of God, because it contains His final and supreme will and pact with mankind, and it is itself the knowledge of truth -- namely of the true God, the true faith and religion, true salvation, true virtue, which is the one way to attaining salvation. The book, I say, of the law, which "Moses commanded," giving "precepts of justice" -- that is, just, indeed most just precepts -- which were to be like a perpetual inheritance for Israel, and would promise and provide them a fertile inheritance and stable possession of Judea in this life, and in the future the eternal paradise of the heavenly kingdom of God. Hence the Greek text briefly reads: all these things (understand: are contained in, or are) the book of the covenant of God Most High; the law which Moses commanded us, and gave us as an inheritance (to be possessed by hereditary right) in the synagogues of Jacob.
Others, however, supply not the verb "are" but "contains," with nearly the same meaning. Hence the Syriac: all these things, he says, are written in the book of the covenant of the Lord; the law which Moses commanded me is the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. Hence that saying of the royal Psalmist in Psalm 118: "My (hereditary) portion, O Lord, I said, is to keep Your law."
After this verse, the Greek, the Complutensian, and the Tigurina add this: do not grow weary of being strong in the Lord (Tigurina: do not grow slack in acting boldly with the Lord), that He in turn may strengthen you. Cling to Him; the Lord Almighty alone is God, and there is no other Savior besides Him. But the Greek corrected at Rome, the Syriac, and all the Latin versions omit this.
Verses 34 and 35: HE APPOINTED DAVID HIS SERVANT TO RAISE UP FROM HIM A MOST MIGHTY KING, SITTING ON THE THRONE OF HONOR FOREVER. WHO FILLS UP WISDOM LIKE THE PISHON, AND LIKE THE TIGRIS IN THE DAYS OF NEW FRUITS.
From Moses as the type, he passes to Christ as the antitype. For since he said that wisdom is contained and described in the law of Moses and the Prophets, lest anyone should think that one must stop at them as though at the goal and terminus and the fullness of wisdom, he adds that through Moses and the Prophets one must press forward to Christ, who is the end of the law and the Prophets. For Christ alone brought and taught to the world the full and perfect wisdom that was only foreshadowed by Moses and the Prophets, according to that saying of John 1:17: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God: the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." The former verse is now absent from the Greek and Syriac; but that it once existed in the Greek is clear from our Translator, who read it in his copy, as Jansenius acknowledges in this place.
The meaning is, as if to say: God Most High, who gave the Old Testament and the law through Moses, "appointed" -- that is, established and ordained -- to raise up from the seed of David the Messiah, "a most mighty king" and eternal legislator of the New Testament and the new law, and teacher of a new wisdom. "Who" -- namely Christ -- "fills" (in the Greek it is "filling," that is, He will fill -- that is, He will fully pour forth and make "wisdom" abound), just as the "Pishon" and "Tigris" abound with waters "in the days of new things," that is, of new fruits emerging and ripening -- namely in springtime -- and He will hand over that wisdom full and perfect to the Church and to Christians, through which He will produce the most excellent Doctors, Theologians, Confessors, Pontiffs, Martyrs, Virgins, and faithful outstanding and perfect in all wisdom, that is, in virtue and holiness. Hence it is clear that these words do not apply to Solomon but to Christ; for even though Solomon was the wisest of mortals, yet compared to Christ he was foolish. Hence also his kingdom was not eternal but of brief duration and perishable; but the kingdom of Christ is eternal, as is said here. Palacius notes that these words properly apply to Pentecost; for at Pentecost Christ sent the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, so that He might pour forth His wisdom and spirit upon them abundantly like a river -- indeed, so that He might make them as it were streams of wisdom that would flood the entire world. Hence He appeared to them in the form of tongues of fire, Acts ch. 2. He alludes to the etymology of the Pishon; for Pishon in Hebrew means the same as multitude, abundance, exuberance, from the root pus, that is, to flourish, multiply, abound.
Note first: Up to this point Wisdom has compared herself to the most beautiful trees, resins, spices, and flowers; now, in the incarnate Word -- namely Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, both begotten and incarnate -- she compares herself to the most excellent and sacred rivers, namely the four rivers of Paradise, by which she was mystically represented. For just as those rivers overflow with water, so Christ overflows with grace; and just as those rivers irrigate and fertilize Paradise, so Christ irrigates and fertilizes the Church. Again, just as those rivers flow toward the four parts of the world, so the wisdom of Christ pervaded and watered the four quarters of the globe. Third, the four rivers, says Ambrose in his book On Paradise, and St. Augustine, Book XIII of the City of God, ch. 21, and Rabanus and Lyranus, represent the four Gospels, in which the wisdom of Christ is recorded and which have occupied the four regions of the world.
Note second: To fill wisdom means to contain wisdom in its fullness; likewise to give, teach, and pour it forth in fullness, like the Pishon, which is so full of waters that it overflows with its fullness and pours it forth upon the neighboring fields. This is a Hebraism.
Third, the Tigris fills with waters "in the days of new things," that is, while new fruits are growing, which is in March and spring, because then the snows frozen during winter melt and flow into the Tigris.
Fourth, who the Tigris and Euphrates are is well known; about the Pishon and Gihon there is doubt. St. Jerome, Josephus, Epiphanius, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, Isidore, Rabanus, the Gloss, and many others generally judge that the Pishon is the Ganges, "which flows around the land of Havilah," as is said in Genesis 2:11. But because it is hard to believe that Paradise would have encompassed so vast a region, hence Pererius, Oleaster, Eugubinus, Vatablus, and others plausibly opine that the Pishon and the Gihon are two rivers that are born from the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris when these divide again and flow apart. See what I have discussed on this question in Genesis 2:8.
Verse 36: WHO FILLS UP UNDERSTANDING LIKE THE EUPHRATES: WHO MULTIPLIES LIKE THE JORDAN IN THE TIME OF HARVEST.
That is to say, Christ fills up -- that is, He brings forth and produces a full and perfect understanding, just as the Euphrates brings forth and pours out its full waters. Likewise He "multiplies" -- that is, by much teaching He pours forth understanding and wisdom, just as "the Jordan at harvest time" overflows with waters. He joins the Jordan to the four sacred rivers of Paradise because it too is sacred -- from the Holy Land which it flows through, and from the miraculous crossing of the Hebrews through it on dry foot under the leadership of Joshua; likewise from the habitation of Elijah, Elisha, and the Prophets, and of St. John the Baptist, who baptized the Jews in the Jordan, and indeed Christ Himself. Furthermore, the Jordan, for the same reason as the Tigris, overflows at harvest time -- namely because the snows melted by the heat on the neighboring mountains send an abundance of water into the Jordan. For he calls the time of harvest March and spring, since in Nisan -- that is, March -- in Judea, being a warm region, the first fruits ripen.
Symbolically, the Jordan is a type of Baptism, by which we are illuminated and endowed with the faith and wisdom of Christ. So Rabanus.
Verse 37: Who sends forth discipline like light, and stands by like the Gihon in the day of vintage.
He mixes the sun and light with the rivers, because what the sun is in heaven, that is what a river is on earth -- namely the eye of the earth. For just as the sun spreads light that illuminates, warms, and fertilizes the earth, so also a river spreads streams of water that irrigate, drench, and fertilize the earth. Hence the Hebrews signify these two by one and the same word: for nahar means both "to illuminate" and "to flow together"; hence ner is a lamp, nahar is a river into which waters flow together.
Furthermore, most fittingly is the wisdom of Christ compared to light and the sun, because He Himself is the sun of wisdom, grace, and justice, who sends His rays upon all men.
AND STANDING BY LIKE THE GIHON. -- "Standing by" properly signifies that Christ stands by us with the abundance of His wisdom and grace, ready to pour it out upon us, if we present Him a vessel capable of receiving it -- namely a heart empty of other things. Just as the Gihon, swelling, stands by the fields with its abundance of waters to pour it out upon them, unless some wall or other obstacle opposes it.
St. Epiphanius, St. Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Theodoret, Josephus, Damascene, Isidore, Rabanus, and others generally teach that the Gihon is the Nile. Furthermore, it is clear that the Nile overflows in summer after the harvest, which in Egypt occurs in May; and then, partly by flooding and partly by depositing silt, it fertilizes and enriches Egypt. Furthermore, Wisdom aptly compares herself to the Nile. For Egypt draws all its fertility and prosperity from the Nile, just as human beings draw theirs from wisdom.
Tropologically, the Paradise of delight is the wise and holy soul, which is watered by four rivers: the Ganges, that is, prudence; the Nile, that is, temperance; the Tigris, that is, fortitude; the Euphrates, that is, justice. So St. Ambrose, in his book On Paradise.
Verse 38: HE WHO FIRST PERFECTLY KNOWS HER, AND THE WEAKER SHALL NOT SEARCH HER OUT.
"Perfectly knows" -- that is, knows perfectly: it is a Graecism. The meaning is: Christ alone perfectly knows wisdom; and whoever is lesser and weaker than Christ will never fully search her out. Hence the Greek reads: neither did the first perfectly know her, nor likewise will the last search her out -- as if to say: neither the first of men who devoted himself to wisdom, nor the last who devoted or will devote himself to it, has or will fully penetrate it. This is what Baruch says in chapter 3:31: "There is no one who can know her ways, nor one who searches out her paths; but He who knows all things knows her, etc. After this He was seen on earth and conversed with men" -- having become man, so that He might teach men wisdom.
Hear Rabanus: "For truly our Lord Jesus is the author of spiritual knowledge and of saving doctrine, because He Himself first established the law through Moses, He Himself inspired the Prophets, He Himself taught the Apostles, He Himself ordained the Evangelists and preachers of the New Testament; nor is there any other full and perfect investigator and knower of the wisdom of God except He who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is one God."
Verse 39: FOR FROM THE SEA HIS THOUGHT HAS ABOUNDED, AND HIS COUNSEL FROM THE GREAT ABYSS.
He gives the reason why no one except Christ can fully know wisdom: namely because "from the sea" -- that is, more than the sea -- is the "thought" of wisdom deep and abounding, and her "counsel" surpasses the "abyss," according to that saying of Romans 11: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are His judgments and unsearchable His ways!" This is a Hebraism: for the Hebrew min, that is, "from," often means "more than," "beyond."
Verse 40: I, Wisdom, poured forth rivers.
Lest anyone should wonder and say: Why, O Wisdom, have You compared Yourself to the Euphrates, Tigris, Jordan, etc.? She responds that she has a great kinship with them; for she is the mother of rivers and has, as it were, poured forth rivers from her own womb. Add that there is a great analogy between a river and water on the one hand and wisdom on the other: for both refresh, irrigate, fertilize, and quench thirst.
She says therefore: I, Wisdom, compared Myself in Christ (who is the eternal Wisdom of the Father) to rivers, because I, like a fountain, poured forth rivers -- both bodily and properly so-called (for God through Me as His idea and wisdom created all things in order and wisely); and even more, spiritual and metaphorical rivers -- for I poured forth rivers, that is, an abundance of wisdom and graces upon the faithful and the Church in every age of the world. So Rabanus: "Christ," he says, "is Wisdom, and He poured forth into the world rivers of Evangelical doctrine, which most abundantly refresh and satisfy the eager minds of the elect."
Verse 41: I AM LIKE A CHANNEL OF IMMENSE WATER FROM A RIVER: I AM LIKE A DIORYX OF A RIVER, AND LIKE AN AQUEDUCT I WENT FORTH FROM PARADISE.
She gives the reason for what she said: "I poured forth rivers" -- namely because I Myself am the primordial river and the channel of immense water from the river; through Me, therefore, all other things -- both rivers and all creatures whatsoever -- have flowed forth from God the Creator. For dioryx is a Greek word, signifying a channel, stream, or trench into which a river is diverted. I am like a channel diverted from that great divine river, and like an aqueduct I went forth from the heavenly and divine Paradise, from which all rivers arise, just as from the earthly Paradise those four most famous rivers arose, namely the Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates.
This passage can be understood of the uncreated essential wisdom, common to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; of the uncreated notional Wisdom proper to the Son; of incarnate Wisdom, namely Christ as man; and of created wisdom communicated to creatures. Mystically, the channel, dioryx, and aqueduct of the divine river is the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. For the Blessed Virgin as an aqueduct received divine wisdom, and the very Person of the Word, so that she might give birth to Him and pour Him forth into mankind.
Hear also St. Bernard, in his sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, which he titles On the Aqueduct: "Consider more deeply with what great devotion He wished Mary to be honored by us, He who placed the fullness of all good in Mary: so that accordingly, if there is any hope in us, if any grace, if any salvation, we should know it overflows from her, who ascended abounding in delights. Take away this solar body that illuminates the world -- where is daylight? Take away Mary, this star of the sea -- what is left but enveloping darkness and the shadow of death and the densest gloom? Therefore with all the marrow of our hearts let us venerate this Mary: for such is the will of Him who willed that we should have everything through Mary."
Verse 42: I SAID: I WILL WATER MY GARDEN OF PLANTINGS, AND I WILL DRENCH THE FRUIT OF MY MEADOW.
As if to say: I, Wisdom, will water with My law and doctrine the Church, that is, the assembly of the faithful, which like a garden bed and garden of a just and holy people I have chosen and taken upon Myself from the whole world to cultivate, so that in it I may plant every kind of virtue, and all the ranks and degrees of the just, which may bring forth various fruits of wisdom and holiness. That they may do this, they need the continual watering of wisdom, that is, of God's illumination, impulse, and grace: for without this they would remain dry, withered, and barren of themselves; but so that they may do this abundantly and copiously, I will not only water but also drench them with My wisdom and grace.
Mystically, apply these things to the Blessed Virgin; hence Rupert the Abbot, book 4 on the Song of Songs: "An enclosed garden, my sister, my spouse, the Mother of God. Behold a new Paradise, new plantings, which the one and same planter of the ancient Paradise planted, the Lord God."
Verse 43: AND BEHOLD, MY CHANNEL BECAME ABUNDANT, AND MY RIVER DREW NEAR TO THE SEA.
As if to say: That trench or aqueduct, which at first was narrow and small, gradually grew so much that the trench became an abundant river, indeed seemed to be a sea. This was especially fulfilled when God's wisdom, that is, the law, faith, and religion, which at first was confined to Judea alone, in the time of Christ through the preaching of the Apostles poured itself forth into all nations and made them Christian. O ineffable thing! exclaims Palacius: the Gospel teaching was flowing, and in it in a certain way the Spirit and Christ: all the forces of demons, emperors, soldiers, and the whole world stretched out to oppose this flow; yet, despite all of them, just as the sea surrounds and encompasses the whole earth, so the Christian life and Christ Himself encompassed the whole world; since "their sound has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world," Psalm 18.
Mystically, the grace which the Blessed Virgin received in the first instant of her conception, over 72 years, during which through continuous acts proportioned to grace she constantly increased it and continually doubled it, grew as if into immensity, so that Mary could truly be called and was a sea of graces.
Verse 44: BECAUSE I ILLUMINATE DOCTRINE LIKE THE DAWN FOR ALL, AND I WILL DECLARE IT EVEN TO THE DISTANT.
As if to say: Just as the light of dawn, after the darkness of night is at first small, but gradually increases until noon and the brightest light; so also I, Wisdom, gradually "illuminate" all, that is, I bring forth My light and spread Myself more and more, until even into the distant, that is, the most remote nations, I pour Myself forth and enlighten them; as we see has been done in this age, and is done daily in China, Japan, and all of the East and West Indies. Palacius notes that Gospel teaching is called the aurora, not the noon, both because it is obscure -- for it is believed by faith, not seen with the eyes; and because it is mixed with the darkness of persecutions and tribulations; and because it gradually increases like the dawn.
Verse 45: I WILL PENETRATE ALL THE LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH, AND I WILL LOOK UPON ALL WHO SLEEP, AND I WILL ENLIGHTEN ALL WHO HOPE IN THE LORD.
These are the words of Wisdom, as if to say: So much has My dioryx and aqueduct grown into a river, indeed into a sea; so much has the light of My dawn grown to noon, that I not only enlighten all nations dwelling on the surface of the earth, but also penetrate the lowest parts of the earth; and there I look upon and visit all who sleep, that is, the dead; and indeed I look upon the damned with a terrible countenance and strike them with fear and confirm their damnation; but the pious who hope in the Lord I will enlighten, that is, I will flood them with the light of My knowledge, namely the revelation of Christ born, suffered, and rising, and thence with the consolation of redemption and salvation accomplished through Him. This passage was most perfectly fulfilled when Christ, who is the incarnate Wisdom of the Father, dying on the cross, descended to limbo and gifted the fathers with the knowledge of Himself, indeed with the sight of both His humanity and His divinity; and so He consoled them, indeed made them blessed, and on the third day led them with Himself to earth, and on the fortieth day, ascending into heaven, led them in triumph.
It is more probable that Christ descended substantially only to limbo, but virtually and effectively, that is, as to efficacy, descended to the place of children and of the damned. Again, from the words "I will enlighten all who hope in the Lord," many probably think that Christ gave to all souls existing in Purgatory the first and full jubilee, and freed all from their punishments, and led them with Himself to heaven in triumph.
Tropologically, Rabanus says: Wisdom, namely Christ, "looks upon the lower parts of the earth, since He searches the hearts and thoughts of the carnal; He looks upon all who sleep, who slumber either in the sleep of ignorance or in the torpor of negligence; and He enlightens with right faith and knowledge those who hope in God; since whoever hopes in God is blessed."
Verse 46: I WILL YET POUR FORTH DOCTRINE LIKE PROPHECY, AND I WILL LEAVE IT TO THOSE WHO SEEK WISDOM; AND I WILL NOT CEASE IN THEIR OFFSPRING EVEN TO THE HOLY AGE.
This verse can be understood as spoken both by Wisdom and by Sirach. By Wisdom, because she continues to speak here and explains what was said in verse 44. By Sirach, because he himself seems to resume his own speech and pave the way for new teachings of wisdom in the next chapter. Jansenius explains: "When he says that he will bring forth doctrine like prophecy, he means that he will deliver divine teaching that is certain and solid, and which was not devised by human ingenuity but divinely revealed. When he says he will leave it for the generations of ages, he means he will leave it in writing for posterity. And he will not cease, that is, he will persevere always through the doctrine written by him, for the offspring of those who seek wisdom, even to the holy age, that is, to the future age, where human doctrine will no longer be needed; but that saying through Jeremiah will be fulfilled: 'A man shall no longer teach his neighbor. For all shall know Me, from the greatest to the least,'" Jeremiah 31.
Note that the holy age is what the future age is called: for the present is not holy, because "the whole world lies in wickedness," 1 John 5. But blessed eternity, into which nothing defiled enters, is the holy age. Let teachers and writers therefore remember that they teach and write not for time, but for eternity.
Verse 47: SEE THAT I HAVE NOT LABORED FOR MYSELF ALONE, BUT FOR ALL WHO SEEK THE TRUTH.
As if to say: See from these things that I have said and written so extensively up to now, and will hereafter say and write, that I have not devoted myself and attended only to myself, but have also labored and taken counsel for others, so that by my example other wise men may do the same, and not consider it sufficient if they themselves are wise, but also share their wisdom with others by teaching and writing. Hence Rabanus: "The ecclesiastical teacher, by writing and teaching the words of God, labors not only for himself but also for others; because he labors for himself for eternal reward and rest; but for others for true salvation and perpetual repose; hence in Daniel chapter 12 it is written: 'Those who are learned shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who instruct many to justice shall shine like stars for all eternity.'"
Furthermore, Palacius, taking these words as spoken by Wisdom, namely Christ, explains thus: "No greater exclamation could almost have been uttered by Wisdom: O mortals, I came into the world; oh, how I labored in it! I labored moreover for the glory of the Father, and for your benefit, if you seek the truth; do not then bring it about that I am frustrated in My purpose, and you in so great a benefit to yourselves."