Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
God exhorts all people to prepare themselves for the salvation and justice to be brought by Christ by living justly: for He will reject no one from Himself and His salvation, even if he be a stranger or a eunuch, provided he lives justly. Indeed, at verse 4, to eunuchs who keep His sabbaths and choose the things that please Him, He promises to give a place in His house and a name better than sons and daughters, and that everlasting. Finally, at verse 8, inviting Israel to Christ and the Church, He announces to the Jews their destruction by the Romans, because their pastors were dumb dogs, drunkards, shameless, and greedy.
God exhorts all to prepare themselves by living justly for the salvation and justice to be brought by Christ: for He will reject no one from Himself and His salvation, even if a foreigner or a eunuch, provided he lives justly. Indeed, in verse 4, He promises to eunuchs who shall keep His sabbaths and choose what pleases Him, that He will give them a place in His house, and a name better than sons and daughters, and that forever. Finally, in verse 8, inviting Israel to Christ and the Church, He announces to the Jews their destruction by the Romans, because their shepherds were mute dogs, drunkards, shameless, and greedy.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 56:1-12
1. "Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment and do justice, for My salvation is near to come, and My justice to be revealed. 2. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it..."
1. Thus says the Lord: Keep judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My justice to be revealed. 2. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who shall lay hold of it: keeping the sabbath from polluting it, keeping his hands from doing any evil. 3. And let not the son of the foreigner, who adheres to the Lord, say: The Lord will surely separate me from His people: And let not the Eunuch say: Behold, I am a dry tree. 4. For thus says the Lord to the Eunuchs: Those who shall keep My sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please Me, and shall hold fast My covenant. 5. I will give them in My house and within My walls a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, which shall not perish. 6. And the sons of the foreigner, who adhere to the Lord, to worship Him, and to love His name, to be His servants: everyone who keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and holds fast My covenant. 7. I will bring them to My holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in My house of prayer: their holocausts and their victims shall be pleasing to Me upon My altar: for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 8. The Lord God says, who gathers the dispersed of Israel: I will still gather to him his gathered ones. 9. All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts of the forest. 10. His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams. 11. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, every one after his own covetousness, from the first even to the last. 12. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it shall be as today, so also tomorrow, and much more.
Verse 1: 1. KEEP JUDGMENT. — Until now he has treated of the grace and happiness of the New Testament under the Messiah: now the...
1. KEEP JUDGMENT. — Until now he has treated of the grace and happiness of the New Testament under the Messiah: now the Prophet, in the manner of John the Baptist, runs before Him, and admonishes all those who will then be living, that they should prepare themselves for His now imminent coming and salvation, by keeping judgment, that is, by doing justice, or that which is fair and just in every matter. Whence St. John the Baptist drew his sermon, saying: "Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The axe is already laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bring forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire," Matthew chapter 3, verse 10. "Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man," Luke chapter 3, verse 14.
FOR MY SALVATION IS NEAR. — "Salvation," that is, the Savior; that is: Behold, Christ is at hand, who will save you. Whence, secondly, your salvation through Christ is imminent; for the Savior Christ, coming, will give it to you. AND MY JUSTICE. — "Justice," that is, Christ the justifier; secondly, "justice," that is, faithfulness; that is: I shall now faithfully fulfill those things which I promised concerning Christ; thirdly, "justice," that is, justification; that is: I shall now through Christ free you from sins, justify you, and bestow grace and glory upon you. All these tend to the same thing: for God's promise concerning Christ was none other than our justification and salvation through Him.
Verse 2: 2. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO DOES THIS — who does judgment and justice, as was said above. For "man," the Hebrew has אנוש...
2. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO DOES THIS — who does judgment and justice, as was said above. For "man," the Hebrew has אנוש enos, that is, wretched and of a desperate life; that is: O wretched man! O son of Adam! Though you be the heir of Adam's mortality, labor, and miseries, yet you shall be happy and blessed if you shall do judgment, and shall lay hold of it, that is, hold it firmly and retain it constantly. For this is the Hebrew חזק chasac. For thus we must hold onto Christian justice, lest it pass us by; and retain it, lest we abandon it under any persecution or temptation whatsoever. So Forerius.
KEEPING THE SABBATH FROM POLLUTING IT. — Under the sabbath, understand by synecdoche the observance of the whole law, especially of the first table, which concerns religion and the worship of God. For the sabbath signifies this, since it was entirely dedicated to rest from labors and to the worship of God. Likewise, the laws of the second table, which prescribe the justice owed to one's neighbor, he designates when he adds: KEEPING HIS HANDS FROM DOING ANY (that is, any at all) EVIL — that is: Whoever shall keep the laws of the first and second table, he shall be blessed and worthy of the Gospel, namely, one whom Christ shall adopt as a faithful friend, indeed a son. He mentions the sabbath because among the Jews the religion of the sabbath was supreme, the highest sanctity; whence by it he signifies the supreme sanctity with which the faithful ought to worship God, by both interior and exterior acts, namely, sacrifices, feasts, hymns, adoration, praises, rites, etc. Secondly, because the sabbath signifies the Lord's Day and the feasts of Christians, on which, by ceasing from servile work, and much more from what is dishonest and base, and by devoting ourselves to piety and prayer, we ought to worship God. In a similar way Zechariah says, chapter 14, verse 16: "They shall go up (the Gentiles converted to Christ) from year to year (every year, that is, continually), to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles." That is, mystically living as pilgrims and wayfarers in this world, with their minds fixed on the heavenly fatherland and city. The type, or figure, is used for the thing figured. See Canon XXI. In like manner, the sabbath here mystically signifies spiritual rest from vices and sins, as Theodoret notes.
Verse 3: 3. AND LET NOT THE SON OF THE FOREIGNER SAY — that is: Moses excluded the Gentiles from his Synagogue and commonwealth,...
3. AND LET NOT THE SON OF THE FOREIGNER SAY — that is: Moses excluded the Gentiles from his Synagogue and commonwealth, Deuteronomy 23:3 and 8, and chapter 7:1 and following; but Christ will exclude no one from His Church. Therefore let not the Gentile born of a Gentile say: I am not of the seed of Abraham, to whom Christ was promised, and therefore Christ does not pertain to me: for in Christ and the Church "there is no distinction of Jew and Greek," Romans 10:12; but of the faithful and the unfaithful. For Christ shall not have regard to birth and blood, but to religion, sanctity, and virtues, and whoever adheres to the Lord through faith, hope, and charity, and binds himself to Him in baptism, He shall receive as His own and shall admit to the rights and privileges of His Church. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret.
Note: For "adheres," the Hebrew has נלוה nilva, that is, he joins, binds, pledges himself to "the Lord." From nilva, Levi and the Levites are so called, as if to say: bound and pledged to the Lord. So all Christians, like Levites, have in baptism pledged themselves to Christ and to His religion and worship.
AND LET NOT THE EUNUCH SAY — that is: Moses excluded eunuchs from the assembly and temple of his people, from ministries and public offices; for thus he decreed, Deuteronomy 23:1: "A eunuch whose testicles have been crushed or cut off and whose member has been severed shall not enter the Church of the Lord." Whence eunuchs, as well as the barren in the old law, were considered virtually infamous and a disgrace among the Jews, and were not counted in the census or enrolled in families, because they were unfit to propagate the seed of Israel. But Christ admits eunuchs, and any persons whatsoever, however lowly, maimed, weak, and wretched, to His Church; indeed, as He Himself says, Luke chapter 7, verse 22: "The poor have the Gospel preached to them." Again, in the eunuch, he signifies the Gentile people, who were eunuchs, that is, barren of piety, religion, and good works; that is: Let not the Gentile say: I have hitherto been barren, and therefore I am unfit and unworthy of the Church of Christ; because, if he believes in Christ, Christ will make him fruitful in graces and virtues. This is what he said in chapter 54, verse 1: "Give praise, O barren one, who does not bear, etc., because many are the children of the desolate, more than of her who has a husband." Again, "let not the eunuch say," that is, the celibate and the virgin: "I am a dry tree," that is, I am barren and childless. Whence it follows:
4 and 5. FOR THUS SAYS THE LORD TO THE EUNUCHS: THOSE WHO SHALL KEEP MY SABBATHS (who shall worship God holily and shall be true worshippers of God, as I said at verse 2), I WILL GIVE THEM IN MY HOUSE AND WITHIN MY WALLS A PLACE. — Literally he speaks of natural eunuchs and the castrated, as I said; but under these he symbolically understands voluntary and spiritual eunuchs (for that he rises to them will soon be evident), "who have made themselves" eunuchs by the resolve or vow of celibacy "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven," as Christ says, alluding to this passage, Matthew 19:12. For to such God here promises in the Church and in heaven a name more glorious and more lasting than they could have from children. So explain St. Jerome, Cyril, St. Augustine, in his book On Holy Virginity, chapter 24, and book XIV Against Faustus, last chapter; St. Basil, book On True Virginity; Ambrose, Exhortation to Virgins; Gregory, III part of the Pastoral, chapter 29; Rupert and others. And Forerius proves this at length here.
First, from the word נלוה nilva, which, though it belongs to all Christians in part, yet fully belongs only to the celibate and Religious state; for Religious and Clerics are like Levites, bound to the service of God and the temple, and have devoted themselves entirely to His worship. Hence they are "a dry tree," that is, without offspring and progeny.
Second, from "those who shall keep My sabbaths." For the celibate, such as monks and nuns, above all Christians celebrate a perpetual sabbath to God, since they spend nights and days in psalmody, prayer, meditation, and reading of Sacred Scripture, as Philo, Eusebius, and St. Jerome relate that the Essenes, their forebears, used to do.
Third, from the word "shall choose." For who choose more those things that please God than the Religious, who embrace not only the precepts but also the counsels of God, who with Mary have chosen the better part? Whence "shall choose" signifies that celibacy is a matter of counsel, not of precept; and therefore, in place of a reward, an eternal name is given to it.
Fourth, from what follows: "And shall hold fast My covenant." For who in the Church of God fortify themselves with stricter discipline lest they violate even the least things of God's covenant, if not true monks, who for this purpose enter into a new and voluntary covenant with God, when through their vows of profession they bind themselves to Him, and as it were enter into a spiritual marriage with Him? For this is their state, this their profession, this their holy institute, of which the Prophet speaks. If any one of them should violate this and live disgracefully, this is the fault of the man, not of the institute; and by this he incurs upon himself a heavier damnation in proportion to the holier state he stains, and he brands it with ignominy and disgrace among the laity.
The Prophet names these spiritual eunuchs above other followers of Christ, because their virtue of celibacy and virginity is lofty and heroic, and surpasses all the forces of nature; for it completely conquers lust, to which corrupt nature most vehemently stimulates and drives man. Whence even the Gentiles, even in the time of the Apostles, marveled at this virtue above others in Christians. For this is what St. Peter says, 1 Peter 4:4: "In which they wonder that you run not with them into the same confusion of dissipation." For, as St. Basil teaches, in his book On True Virginity, near the beginning: "As a magnet draws iron, so Agnes draws the male by her own virtue." Wherefore in the same place, near the end, he teaches that a virgin ought mystically to keep the sabbath, as Isaiah says here: "The sabbath," he says, "is understood not in working, but in the cessation of work. He wishes therefore the virgin to keep sabbath, so that she may keep her virginity
not by working, but without the motion of work, may keep her integrity inviolable. A virgin, he says, is like an image of God formed on earth from soul and body. Let her therefore mystically keep sabbath: let her not move foot, nor hand, nor eye, nor any other member whatsoever, nor even her mind, to corrupt her natural beauty; but let her stand firm, like a solid and noble image of the divine Majesty, always and continually standing upon the rock in every likeness and every deed; lest anyone, creeping in through the eyes, or through the ears, or through any other sense, either disturb the divine images in the soul, or, having confused the original forms, most wickedly and licentiously engrave his own upon them;" and again further on: "If you desire virginity to remain inviolable with you and in you, celebrate a perpetual sabbath, that is, remain what you were born. Do not move your hand to touch a man, nor fold what is unfolded, nor bind what is loosed, nor corrupt your inviolate members by joining them to members of the other sex; but remain what you are in the chamber of your heart, and seek nothing more. Keep sabbath within yourself, doing nothing that would dissolve what exists in you by nature."
This [merely literal] meaning is heretical and colder than a eunuch, and therefore rejected and condemned by the Fathers cited at verse 4. In his accustomed manner, therefore, the Prophet rises from natural eunuchs to spiritual ones, that is, the celibate, the continent, and virgins. To these, therefore, if they shall live holily, if they shall keep their covenant and vows, if they shall keep the sabbath, that is, the worship of the Lord, God promises that He will give a name better than they could have from sons and daughters, had they begotten them.
You will ask, what is this "name?" I answer, first, "name," that is, memory, fame, and glory; for this is what children procure for their parents. Whence in Scripture children are called their parents' "name, glory, crown, life, and lamp;" for children make the memory of their parents shine: hence through children, the immortality of the family name is sought, and often acquired, by parents.
Second, "name," that is, a more illustrious and more lasting offspring and progeny. Thus the woman of Tekoa said to David, 2 Samuel 14:7: "They seek to extinguish my spark (my son) that is left, so that there should not remain a name for my husband," that is, posterity, which would preserve her husband's name and memory. Thus the name of God is Christ the Son of God: the name of Julius is the son of Julius. Whence Martial, book VI, thus sings of the son of Domitian: "Be born, O name promised to Dardanian Iulus, true offspring of the gods: be born, great boy." See our Martin de Roa, book III of Singulars, chapter 11.
Tertullian beautifully begins his book On Modesty thus: "Modesty is the flower of morals, the honor of bodies, the ornament of the sexes, the integrity of blood, the guarantee of lineage, the foundation of sanctity, the presupposition of every good mind; although rare, and not easily perfected, and scarcely perpetual, nevertheless it will remain to some extent in the world, if nature has laid the groundwork, if discipline has persuaded, if censure has restrained." But excessive love and honor of modesty drove Tertullian into the error of thinking that adulterers and fornicators, even though penitent, should not be received back into the Church: for he tries to persuade this throughout the entire book. And St. Cyprian, in his book On the Dress of Virgins, following his master Tertullian, says: "It is the flower of the Church's offspring, the beauty and ornament of spiritual grace, a joyful disposition, the complete and uncorrupted work of praise and honor, the image of God corresponding to the holiness of the Lord, the more illustrious portion of the flock of Christ. Through them, and in them, the glorious fecundity of Mother Church rejoices and abundantly flourishes." And St. Ambrose, book On the Instruction of Virgins, chapter 15: "Sacred virgins," he says, "are especially the lilies of Christ, whose virginity is splendid and immaculate." And chapter 18: "A virgin who is not subject to a man but to God alone is a royal court." And in his book On Virginity: "Virginity summoned from heaven what it might imitate on earth. And not undeservedly did she seek for herself a manner of living in heaven, who found for herself a spouse in heaven, passing beyond the clouds, the air, the Angels, and the stars,
Verse 5: 5. I WILL GIVE THEM IN MY HOUSE AND WITHIN MY WALLS A PLACE — an honored and first place, so that they may be honored...
5. I WILL GIVE THEM IN MY HOUSE AND WITHIN MY WALLS A PLACE — an honored and first place, so that they may be honored even by kings and princes. Likewise, in heaven among the Angels I will give virgins an illustrious place, as St. Basil says, whom I shall cite shortly. Whence for "place" the Hebrew has יד iad, that is, hand, that is, a separated and selected portion, lot, rank, and place. So Vatablus and Forerius.
Second, Sanchez: I will give them a hand, that is, he says, I will help them, defend and strengthen them, so that against the assaults of the flesh, the world, and the devil, they may stand bravely for chastity and keep it inviolate. For this promise of help is like a reward, which wonderfully encourages the celibate in their resolution, when they reflect that they are especially the care and concern of God, and are continually helped and protected by Him, indeed surrounded by the walls of God. For what are the enclosures of monasteries if not the walls of God?
Third, the same Sanchez: I will give them a hand, that is, he says, I will enter into a covenant and spiritual marriage with them. For this is customarily done when those making a covenant, like bridegroom and bride, mutually give and receive each other's hand. For those who, in order to be free for God alone and to devote themselves entirely to His will, have renounced all worldly pleasures and loves, in turn win for themselves all the love of God, and by Him are led into the bridal chamber of the purest intimacy and delights.
AND A NAME BETTER (that is, "than," for this is the Hebrew מן min, comparative) THAN SONS AND DAUGHTERS: I WILL GIVE THEM AN EVERLASTING NAME, WHICH SHALL NOT PERISH. — Peter Martyr thinks that these things are promised to natural eunuchs: for he denies that spiritual eunuchs are superior to the married, so as to deserve and obtain a better name. For he, following his errors, teaches that virginity is not superior to marriage.
she found the Word of God in the very bosom of the Father, and drew Him in with her whole heart." And book III, letter 15: "What shall I say of how great is the glory of virginity, which deserved to be chosen by Christ to be also the bodily temple of God, in which the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily?"
You will ask, secondly, how do the celibate and virgins obtain both of these names? I answer: they obtain the first, because from the virtue of virginity and religion they acquire a greater name than from an abundance and excellence of children; for virtue perpetuates and immortalizes a name more than offspring does, especially since offspring is often degenerate, which makes the entire progeny execrable and disgraceful, says St. Basil; and indeed there is no family lasting through several centuries that does not have more children in hell than in heaven. Even the pagan Epaminondas, the first and last prince of the Thebans, recognized this. For he himself remained celibate, so that he might be wholly free for the commonwealth and its defense and expansion: and when many urged him to marry, so that he might propagate his offspring and name, he replied: "In place of offspring, I leave the victory of Leuctra," which will be immortal. Whence Agesilaus, king of the Lacedaemonians, deservedly seeing him, though his enemy, proceeding magnificently in battle, exclaimed: "O magnificent man!" Plutarch is the witness, in his Life.
Add this: children and all families, by their mortal condition, fail with the passage of time, leaving their line entirely without a name, says St. Basil. But the celibate and virgins, as the same author says, "receive the nature of the Angels and perpetual dignity of succession, being themselves sufficient for themselves in eternal life in place of the succession of offspring." The celibate therefore obtain a much greater and more lasting name in the Church, that is, in heaven and on earth: St. Basil, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, Benedict, Bernard, Dominic, Francis, and their followers. Likewise St. Catherine, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia (whose body here in Rome is preserved incorrupt after 1300 years, and therefore her church gleams with marble and eighty silver lamps, always burning), St. Agatha, St. Dorothy, St. Febronia, St. Flavia Domitilla, St. Clare, and innumerable other virgins, whose name and memory are celebrated with churches, monasteries, disciples and posterity, feasts, images, histories, praises, hymns, litanies, and other ways. And deservedly so; for, as the Wise Man says, chapter 4, verse 1: "O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! For its memory is immortal; because it is known both with God and with men, and crowned forever it triumphs."
Again, virginity is an angelic virtue, and virgins are earthly angels and heavenly humans, as St. Augustine, St. Gregory of Nazianzus — who calls "virginity" "the rival of angelic glory" — St. Bernard, and others teach. See what was said at 1 Corinthians 7:25 and following. "Virginal integrity," says St. Augustine, On Virginity, chapter 13, "is an angelic portion, and in corruptible flesh the contemplation of perpetual incorruption." Wherefore our Viegas, on Revelation 14, Commentary II, section 6, number 4, expounds this passage thus: "I will give a name better than sons," that is, better than the Angels. For "sons" here designates all the elect; and undoubtedly virgins too are sons, and should not have been contrasted with sons. And so when a better place and name than sons is promised to virgins, they seem to be preferred to the Angels. And deservedly so: because in Angels, virginity as a virtue cannot be found; in this respect virgins surpass the Angels. For this reason the angel did not permit himself to be adored by John, Revelation 19:10, saying: "Do not do it, for I am your fellow servant," as if to say: We are equal in virginity: I am a virgin by nature, you by virtue; therefore on equal and like terms we serve God our prince in the heavenly court.
So Viegas, piously and mystically rather than properly and literally: for that "sons" here does not mean Angels is clear, because he adds, "and daughters:" and it is established that among the Angels there is no sex, nor daughters or females.
Again, virgins obtain a greater name: because virginity above other virtues adorns and illustrates the whole person. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 85 on the Song of Songs: "Nothing is clearer than this light, nothing more glorious than this testimony, whose truth shines in the mind, and the mind sees itself in truth. But what kind of self does it see? A chaste, modest, timid, circumspect one, admitting absolutely nothing that would empty the glory of the attesting conscience, conscious to itself of nothing at which it would blush before the presence of truth, that would compel it to turn away its face, as if confused and repelled by the light of God. This truly, this is the beauty which above all the soul's goods delights the divine gaze." He then adds: "The body, as the image of the mind, receives this splendor of the soul breaking forth in its rays, and diffuses it through the members and senses, so that every action, word, look, gait, and laughter (if indeed there is laughter) shines from it, mixed with gravity and full of what is honorable; when, that is, the movement, gesture, and use of all limbs and senses appears serious, pure, modest, devoid of all inso-
lence and wantonness; alien to both levity and sloth, but adapted to equity and dutiful in piety." Then he concludes: "Blessed is the mind that puts on this ornament of chastity, and a certain candidacy, as it were, of heavenly innocence, which may claim for itself a glorious conformity not to the world, but to the Word, of whom it is written that He is the brightness of eternal life, the splendor and figure of the substance of God." And St. Basil, in his book On True Virginity: "The sacred virgin," he says, "shall show herself such in both her dress, her gait, and her whole bodily movement: that whoever may happen to meet her, as if looking upon a living image of God, may bow their faces in reverence and in admiration of her holiness, and, reminded of honorable virtue, may carry away a chaste and sober mind. Let them venerate, I say, the sight of the virgin, and, as I have said, as before a divine image,
let them reverently give way from the path." And further on: "The spouse of the Lord, since she cannot escape His gaze, nor His ears, nor His presence, does all things under His eyes. Wherefore a virgin must know that if she speaks anything in private, she speaks in the ears of her Spouse; if she does anything in private, He carefully watches it; if she thinks anything, He knows and has explored it in the very movement of the heart sooner than she, etc. As if therefore in the presence of the Spouse, who watches and hears all things, a virgin shall conduct herself in all things. Therefore she shall first reverence herself and her conscience, even if she is very much alone; then the guardian Angel standing beside her: let her know that she is a living vessel of Christ. To such, in place of a human name, I will give the immortal name of the Angels, that they may have the most beautiful part of heaven to dwell in, and the most distinguished place among the Angels, and an indelible name for the splendor of their excellent virtue." These and many more things St. Basil says throughout that book.
Wherefore St. Augustine, in his book On Virginity, holds that the "name" here signifies the proper glory by which virgins are distinguished from other Saints, just as people are distinguished by their names. Hence in Revelation 14:4, it is said of them: "These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes: for they are virgins." And verse 3: "And they sang as it were a new canticle; and no one could sing the canticle but those hundred and forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth." By this canticle, therefore, as also by the name, they are distinguished from others. This name, therefore, signifies the glory and joy proper to virgins, which shall be, says St. Augustine, "the joy of the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for the sake of Christ." This name, therefore, is the aureola of virgins.
Second, the "name," that is, the offspring of celibacy and virginity, are sons and daughters — not of the flesh, but of the spirit, and they are many and varied. The a priori reason is that virgins are brides betrothed to God and married to Christ, as I taught at 2 Corinthians 11:2. But these nuptials and this marriage with God cannot be sterile and unfruitful: the offspring of this marriage are therefore spiritual, not corporeal: namely, first, works of piety, devotion, and virtue, understanding of Sacred Scripture, says St. Bernard in the passage cited, books written or published, etc.
Again, St. Bernard piously writes to his sister, a virgin, in On the Way of Living Well, chapter 22: "But you, my beloved sister in Christ, do not say: Behold, I am a dry tree; do not say: Behold, I am a fruitless tree: because, if you love and fear Christ your Spouse as you ought, you have seven sons. The first son is modesty, the second patience, the third sobriety, the fourth temperance, the fifth charity, the sixth humility, the seventh chastity. Behold, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, without pain from an uncorrupted womb you have borne seven sons to Christ, so that what is written may be fulfilled in you: 'Because the barren woman has borne seven.' These sons, whom you have begotten for Jesus Christ your Spouse, you must nourish, cherish, nurse, refresh, strengthen, and discipline."
Second, works of almsgiving and other offices of charity, to which an unmarried virgin can devote herself, whose cares are not consumed by a family. Third, holy examples, by which they lead many to the service of Christ, and thus bear them for God, says St. Jerome.
Thus St. Cecilia led Valerian her husband, Tiburtius her brother-in-law, and others, not only to the faith of Christ, but also to virginity and martyrdom along with herself. Whence the Church sings of her: "Lord Jesus Christ, sower of chaste counsel, receive the fruits of the seeds which You have sown in Cecilia." And: "Cecilia Your handmaid, O Lord, has served You like an industrious bee."
Thus St. Constantia, daughter of Constantine the Great, by her prayers, counsels, and examples, led the two daughters of Gallicanus to the faith, to chastity and holiness: and through Saints John and Paul, her eunuchs, she converted Gallicanus himself, her betrothed, to Christ, to chastity and poverty, and contempt of the world, and to undergoing martyrdom for it, as the Life of Saints John and Paul, June 26, records.
Thus Saints Julian and Basilissa, spouses and virgins, begot innumerable persons for Christ — he men, she women — as their admirable Life on January 9 records. We read similar things of others. Indeed even today we see zeal for individual souls being bestowed by God upon pious and devout virgins, and they win many for Christ, so that in place of the earthly children whom they have scorned, they may offer spiritual ones to God, lest they be barren, but may compensate carnal barrenness with spiritual fecundity.
Wherefore St. Marcellina, sister of St. Ambrose, when she received the veil of virginity from Pope Liberius in Rome, in the basilica of St. Peter, on Christmas Day itself, heard from him: "You have chosen good nuptials, O virgin!" Hear St. Ambrose writing and narrating this to her, book III on Virgins, at the beginning: "He (Liberius), when on the Birthday of the Savior at the Apostle Peter's you were to mark your profession of virginity also with a change of garment (for on what better day than that on which the Virgin acquired her posterity?) and with many maidens of God also standing by, who were vying with each other for your company, said: 'Good nuptials, daughter, you have desired. You see how great a crowd has assembled for the Birthday of your Spouse, and no one goes away unfed? This is He who, when invited to a wedding, changed water into wine. Upon you too He shall confer the pure sacrament of virginity,'" etc.
And so it happened. For Marcellina converted her house here in Rome into a monastery, which still exists between the Capitol and the Fish Market, holy and celebrated with a perpetual succession of virgins.
Fourth, St. Augustine affirms that the very joys of virgins are the children of chastity. For she lacks bodily children, but in place of children she bears joys, in place of a daughter she begets cheerfulness of soul. Hear him in book VIII of the Confessions, chapter 11: "Continence itself," he says, "is by no means barren; but a fruitful mother of children, of joys, from You as her husband, O Lord."
Fifth, the Blessed Virgin, mother and sister of virgins, bore the most noble and most fruitful offspring, namely Christ the Son of God, who begot innumerable sons for God and heaven. Hence St. Ambrose, book III, letter 25: "A Virgin," he says, "bore the salvation of the world, a Virgin brought forth the life of all. Therefore virginity, which profited all in Christ, should not be alone. A Virgin bore Him whom this world cannot contain or sustain." And in his book On the Instruction of Virgins, chapter 14: "In the womb of the Virgin," he says, "a heap of wheat and the grace of the lily flower were sprouting together: for both a grain of wheat was sprouting and a lily. But because from one grain of wheat a heap was made, that prophetic word was fulfilled: 'And the valleys shall abound with grain'; because that grain having died, brought forth much fruit," John 12:24. Here therefore this is true: "Nor was any mother more fruitful than your parent, who alone gave so many blessings through her one act of giving birth."
Finally, the bodily offspring of virgins are not their own, but those of others, namely of married people in that region: for God brings it about that where many virgins exist and dedicate themselves to God, there married women are more fertile. And He gives this as a kind of compensation for virginity, both to the virgins themselves and to the commonwealth. St. Ambrose teaches this against the Gentiles, who thought that the Roman Empire's supply of human offspring was being exhausted by the celibacy of Christians, book III On Virgins, as if from certain experience: "If anyone," he says, "thinks that the human race is diminished by the consecration of virgins, let him consider that where there are few virgins, there are also fewer people; where the practice of virginity is more frequent, there the number of people is also greater. Learn how many the Church of Alexandria, and of the whole East and Africa, was accustomed to consecrate every year. Fewer people are born here than virgins are consecrated there. From the practice of the whole world, therefore, virginity is not considered useless, especially since through a Virgin salvation came to make the Roman world fruitful." Thus God repaid Anna with five other children for Samuel, whom she had offered to Him.
Let parents note this, and when they have sons or daughters who wish to dedicate themselves to God and chastity, let them not resist but rejoice, and congratulate both them and themselves, and let them hope with certainty that God will provide them with other offspring and will bless them in their goods and family.
The Wise Man alludes to this passage of Isaiah in chapter 3, verse 13, when he says: "Happy is the barren and undefiled woman, who has not known a sinful bed: she shall have fruit (that is, a reward, or offspring, so Peter Nannius) in the visitation (in Greek, visitation, namely on the day of judgment) of holy souls; and the eunuch, who has not wrought iniquity with his hands: for the chosen gift of faith (that is, the reward of faithfulness) shall be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God. For the fruit of good labors is glorious."
Learn here how great the name and dignity, how great the value, merit, and reward of chastity and virginity are before God, the Angels, and the Saints. The Apostles and apostolic men knew this, who suffered martyrdom for chastity. Their leader was St. John the Baptist, who was crowned with martyrdom for rebuking the incest of Herod with Herodias. Second was St. Matthew, who, because he confirmed Iphigenia, a royal daughter consecrated to God by vow, in her holy purpose, and publicly opposed King Hyrtacus who sought her, was killed while sacrificing at the altar, and offered himself together with the Immaculate Lamb as a sacrifice to God: wherefore he is deservedly called by St. Hippolytus, in his book On the 12 Apostles, "a victim and sacrifice of virginity."
Third was St. Paul, who, when he was converting the concubines of Nero to the faith and turning them away from his debauchery, did not hesitate to draw Nero's wrath and sword upon his own neck. Fourth was St. John the virgin, a herald of virginity as well as of the faith in Asia, as is clear from Revelation 2:20 and chapter 14:1, who accordingly, cast by the foul Domitian into a vat of boiling oil, crowned the glory of martyrdom with a miracle, when he emerged from it unharmed and more vigorous. Fifth was St. Clement the Pope, who did not hesitate to consecrate Flavia Domitilla, niece of the Emperor Domitian, betrothed to Aurelian, as a virgin to God by giving her the veil, and to expose himself and all the Christians to the fury of Domitian. What politically prudent person would not have said this was an imprudent act and decision? But, prudent in God, he knew how much God held virgins in esteem, and how much He valued Martyrs for virginity's sake. He knew that he and his people were the care of God; he knew it was the part of a brave and heroic man not to yield to threats and death, especially those directed against so precious a gem as virginity. For it is better to lose one's life than one's own or another's virginity.
Sixth was St. Caius the Pope, a relative of the Emperor Diocletian, who, because he confirmed Susanna his niece, betrothed by Diocletian to Maximian his co-ruler of the empire, in her resolve of virginity, and encouraged her to undergo martyrdom for it, was slain together with her by Maximian, crowning the laurel of virginity with the purple of martyrdom.
Now what name do those heroines obtain in heaven and on earth, and will obtain for all eternity — St. Cecilia, St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Dorothy, St. Agatha, and innumerable others — who held virginity dearer than life, and for its sake offered themselves as sacrifices to God?
Verse 6: 6. AND THE SONS OF THE FOREIGNER — Gentiles. He repeats and confirms what he said at verse 3. THE SABBATH — that is,...
6. AND THE SONS OF THE FOREIGNER — Gentiles. He repeats and confirms what he said at verse 3. THE SABBATH — that is, the worship of God, as I said at verse 2. HOLDING FAST THE COVENANT — observing the conditions of the covenant, namely my laws and commandments.
Verse 7: 7. TO MY HOLY MOUNTAIN — to Zion, that is, to the Church. See what was said at chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. I WILL MAKE...
7. TO MY HOLY MOUNTAIN — to Zion, that is, to the Church. See what was said at chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. I WILL MAKE THEM JOYFUL IN MY HOUSE OF PRAYER. — The Jews went joyfully to the temple as to the house of the Lord, and there, exulting, they prayed, sang, and played psalms on all musical instruments, and from the victims offered to God they feasted before the Lord. Hence David says, Psalm 121: "I rejoiced at the things
that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord." Greater is the joy of Christians in their temples: for there is the house of prayer and the house of God, in which God really and bodily dwells in the Eucharist, so that He may hear face to face and grant the prayers of those praying, and console and gladden them — not only the Jews, but all nations and peoples. There, therefore, devout persons, conversing familiarly with God, draw out long and pleasant hours. This, therefore, is what God signifies here: namely, that the joy and delights of Christians shall be in the house of prayer, in which they converse with God, and therefore He declares that His house shall be a house of prayer.
Note: The Church is a "house of prayer," because in it one ought to transact nothing other than the cause and business of the soul with God, namely, to ask from God pardon for sins, victory over vices, strength and increase of virtues, constancy in temptations, progress and perseverance in grace and virtues, a happy death, salvation, and beatitude.
Second, Sanchez not badly says, "of prayer," that is, of an oratory, or temple. But the meaning amounts to the same: for an oratory is directed to prayer, and is named from it. Hence among both the Greeks and the Latins, a church is called proseucha: because in it proseuche, that is, prayer, takes place.
Morally, see here what reverence must be shown to churches, and how vain conversations, wanderings, buying and selling, shameful looks and thoughts must be kept away from them. St. Chrysostom says truly, Homily 36 on 1 Corinthians: "The church," he says, "is not a barber shop, nor a perfumery, nor a workshop of the marketplace; but the place of Angels, the place of Archangels, the palace of God, heaven itself. Here nothing but holy things should be heard." More sharply in Homily 40 to the People: "That a thunderbolt is not hurled, not only upon them, but also upon us — is this not to be wondered at? For these things are worthy of a thunderbolt. The King is present, He reviews His army; you stand laughing under His eyes, and do you despise laughter?" Indeed, Christ Himself, Matthew 21:13, casting out the sellers and buyers from the temple, said: "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer': but you have made it a den of thieves." See what was said at Leviticus 9, at the end of the chapter.
THEIR HOLOCAUSTS. — "Holocausts," properly so called, of Christians are the sacrifices of the Eucharist. For these are offered to God not only by the Jews, as in the old law, but also by the Gentiles. For from the Gentiles have been constituted Pontiffs and priests. "Holocausts" in a metaphorical and mystical sense are praises, prayers, hymns, and any works of virtue. For these are the calves of the lips, and sacrifices of praise, which all the faithful offer to God. So St. Jerome.
Verse 8: 8. WHO GATHERS THE DISPERSED OF ISRAEL. (Forerius takes Israel properly to mean the Jews. For he is speaking of them in...
8. WHO GATHERS THE DISPERSED OF ISRAEL. (Forerius takes Israel properly to mean the Jews. For he is speaking of them in what follows; that is: Do not think, O Jews, that when I call foreigners, that is, the Gentiles, to the Church, you are excluded from it: for the Church shall be yours as much as the Gentiles'; wherefore, just as the Gentiles, so also I shall gather you, dispersed throughout the whole world, to it. Whence he adds): I WILL STILL GATHER TO HIM (namely, to Israel) HIS GATHERED ONES — that is, his people and children. For these are the sons of the synagogue, that is, of the congregation, and therefore are called his gathered ones. Now "his gathered ones," that is, those to be gathered to him, or those who in God's foreknowledge and predestination have been elected, called, and gathered to it. This is what Luke says, Acts chapter 13, verse 48: "And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." Sanchez, however, mystically takes Israel to mean any of the faithful.
St. Jerome favors this, who says St. John alludes to this passage when he says, chapter 11, verse 51: "That Jesus was to die for the nation (His own), and not only for the nation, but that He might gather into one the children of God, who were dispersed (among the Gentiles);" and St. Peter, when he writes, 1 Peter 1:1: "To the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia," etc. For the Gentiles are called the dispersion, that is, the dispersed, both because, having been gathered together in the building of the tower of Babel, they were dispersed by God throughout all regions of the world; and because they are contrasted with the Jews, who were the synagogue and congregation of God gathered in Judea and the temple of Jerusalem; while on the other hand, the Gentiles, like sheep abandoned and scattered, wandered and strayed through various idols, religions, and superstitions. Hence the Jews say of Christ, John chapter 7, verse 35: "Will He go to the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?"
ALL YOU BEASTS OF THE FIELD, COME TO DEVOUR. — Many, by the beasts of the field, understand the enemies and destroyers of the Jews — the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Romans — as if He were saying: I will gather the dispersed Israelites through Christ, but first, because of their crimes, I will devastate and punish them through the Romans and other enemies. So St. Jerome, Forerius, and Hugh. Second, the Septuagint translates: All you beasts, come and eat. Whence St. Cyril thinks that the Gentiles, who were previously wild and barbarous but now converted, are here invited to the Eucharist.
But I say these things pertain to the times of Christ. For when he had said that those dispersed of Israel would be gathered by Him, and foresaw in spirit that the Scribes and Pharisees would persecute and kill Christ, and would alienate Israel from Him, and therefore, with Titus and the Romans devastating their nation and commonwealth, would destroy them, and would bring it about that Christ, having rejected the Jews, would call the Gentiles in their place; touched with deep sorrow and indignation, he suddenly and abruptly breaks forth and summons the beasts, that is, the Romans and other nations subject to them or allied with them, to punish and overthrow the Scribes and the Jews. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Adamus, Forerius, and others throughout.
Verse 10: 10. HIS WATCHMEN ARE ALL BLIND. — "Because they did not see in practice what they perceived by profession," says St....
10. HIS WATCHMEN ARE ALL BLIND. — "Because they did not see in practice what they perceived by profession," says St. Gregory, XXV Moralia, chapter 10. Here he gives the reason why the "beasts," that is, the Romans, are to be summoned by God to the destruction of Judea: namely because its watchmen, that is, the teachers of Israel, about whom he has been speaking
in verse 8, namely the Scribes and Pharisees, were blind. For they were devoted to and blinded by their own ambition, profits, and desires. Whence from the Scriptures they refused to recognize the time of the Messiah and Christ Himself, and the salvation brought by Him. Hence they were also unable to foresee and predict the evils and destruction hanging over the people; wherefore Christ, alluding to this passage, Matthew chapter 15, verse 14, calls them "blind and leaders of the blind;" although they considered themselves most sharp-sighted and lynx-eyed. Note: "all," that is, many, the majority. For not all the pastors of the Synagogue could err simultaneously; for then the whole Church would have erred, and therefore would have failed. See the Canon that St. Augustine gives, book On the Unity of the Church, chapter 12. Add that the situation of the old Synagogue is one thing, that of the Church of Christ another; for to the latter Christ promised that her faith would not fail, Luke chapter 22, verse 32, and 1 Timothy 3:15.
SEEING (that is, prophesying and announcing to the people) VAIN THINGS — that is, false things, saying: "Peace, peace, when there is no peace." Again, "vain things," that is, trivial and curious things that tickle the ears of the people but do not touch or heal their mind, heart, and vices. For thus dogs, seeing the moon move at night, thinking it is a living animal, for example a thief approaching, bark, but with a vain and empty barking: so also these men barked at the moon.
SLEEPING. — Lazy dogs are drowsy; whence if they see or hear something (for they have a keen sense of hearing), they raise their head slightly and look around; but soon they recline it again in sleep, and behave as if they had seen nothing. Such were the Scribes and Pharisees; for although they read that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, that the Magi were seeking Him, at their arrival they raised their head slightly and consulted the Scriptures; but immediately they gave themselves back to their sleep. They did the same in other matters that pertained to the salvation of the people. Thus Forerius: "The shepherd who sleeps outside the sheepfold of his flock brings no small harm upon himself. For the drowsiness of shepherds is the joy of wolves," says St. Ephrem, Treatise on the Fear of God, volume III, at the beginning. On the other hand, the Egyptians signify a good prince and ruler by a watchful dog. Hear Horus, book I, hieroglyphic 38: "They indicate a magistrate or judge by painting a dog, and next to it a royal garment." For just as a dog has the keenest and most watchful eyes, so also must a magistrate be.
DUMB DOGS. — A dog is useful for this purpose alone: to bark, and by barking to indicate and ward off thieves. But if it is mute and silent, either by nature or disease, or by a morsel thrown into its mouth by a thief, it is useless, indeed harmful: both because it is voracious by nature, and because the master rests secure in its watchfulness and barking; otherwise he would watch against thieves himself or through others. So the Scribes and Pharisees were dumb dogs, because they devoured the substance of their flock and people, consumed the milk, took away the wool, ate the flesh, and were otherwise useless, indeed harmful to the commonwealth, because they rose up against Christ, the Author of salvation.
Whence, secondly, Epiphanius, book III Against the Antidicomarianites, says: "dumb dogs," that is, rabid: for rabid dogs do not bark, but silently bite everyone, even their masters. For in their madness they do not recognize them, but attack and savage them just as they do strangers. Such were the Scribes and the Jews, who, as if rabid, rushed upon the Lord and their Savior Christ, and upon the Christians. Similar to this proverb are those of the ancients: "He has an ox on his tongue;" that is, corrupted by money, he is silent. For there was a coin, namely the didrachm, stamped with the image of an ox, which was therefore called an "ox." Another similar saying is: "Many owls roost under the tiles," that is, money lies hidden under the tiles and is covered by them. A servant used this expression when he was revealing his master's theft. For the Athenians used to stamp the coin they called a tetradrachm with an owl and the head of Minerva.
NOT ABLE TO BARK — because they were blocked either by obstruction, or by a morsel of gold or gifts, as he says in verse 11, or by the same sin they should have been rebuking. For how shall a doctor or preacher bark against the greedy, the lustful, the proud, etc., if he himself is greedy, lustful, and proud? For his own greed, lust, and pride shut his mouth and throat, as St. Gregory rightly teaches in his commentary on 1 Samuel, chapter 4.
Plutarch relates in his Life of Demosthenes that Demosthenes was corrupted by gold from Harpalus. The next day, he says, with his neck carefully bound with wool and bandages, he proceeded to the assembly, and when he was called upon to speak, he indicated by a nod that his voice was blocked. Thereupon witty men mocked him, saying that the orator had been seized at night not by quinsy, but by "silver-quinsy" (argentangina). Thus many today suffer from silver-quinsy, whom it would be fitting to punish and cure with exile, just as Demosthenes was punished.
Furthermore, preachers are fittingly compared to dogs, because of many well-known analogies on both sides. Wherefore the mother of St. Bernard, when she was carrying him in her womb, seemed in dreams to see herself carrying in her womb a white puppy with a red back, and barking; whence, consulting a holy man about this, she heard from him that this vision portended that the child she was carrying would be an outstanding preacher, who with his medicinal tongue would heal the wounds of many souls, and by barking against heretics and other wicked people, would defend the Church of God. So the Life of St. Bernard records.
Verse 11: 11. MOST IMPUDENT DOGS THAT NEVER HAD ENOUGH. — He called these dogs mute: now he calls them most impudent, both...
11. MOST IMPUDENT DOGS THAT NEVER HAD ENOUGH. — He called these dogs mute: now he calls them most impudent, both because, like dogs, they were brazen, insolent, and shameless; and because, as follows, their desire and gluttony was insatiable and insuppressible, and consequently their greed and rapacity as well, as is evident from verse 12. Hence, consequently, their hatred of Christ, who exposed these vices of theirs, was shameless and inexplicable, says Theodoret.
The impudence of a dog is well known, and its shameless voracity, by which it so stuffs itself with food that it must relieve its overburdened stomach by vomiting, and then immediately foully reabsorbs what it has vomited: such also were some among these shepherds, who would vomit in order to gorge themselves again, as he said in chapter 28, verse 8.
Thus Diogenes, because of his freedom of criticism and because of the shamelessness with which, like a dog, he publicly practiced sexual acts, was called a Cynic, that is, doglike, and a dog. Aristippus the philosopher and disciple of Socrates, seeing Diogenes washing his vegetables, approached and said: "If Diogenes knew how to use kings, he would not eat raw vegetables." Diogenes retorted: "If Aristippus had learned to be content with vegetables, he would not be a royal dog," that is, he would not flatter King Dionysius in order to get food from his court. So Laertius, book II, chapter 8.
The same Diogenes, when asked: "What is best?" answered: "Freedom." Alexander the Great asked him: "Did he fear him?" Then Diogenes: "What are you? Good or bad?" Alexander replied: "Good." "Who then," said Diogenes, "fears what is good?" He proved the king was not to be feared, unless he professed himself to be evil. So Laertius, book VI, chapter 2.
Again Alexander asked: "Was there anything he desired or sought from him?" He answered: "Nothing, except that you not take away with your shadow the sunlight which nature gave me." The same Diogenes used to say: "For health one needs either faithful friends or harsh enemies, because the former admonish and the latter rebuke and reprove." The same man used to call orators, who were held in the highest esteem among the Athenians, "servants of the mob," because they were compelled to speak to please and to servilely flatter the stupid multitude.
The same man, when asked why he was commonly called a dog, said: "Because I fawn on those who give, bark at those who do not give, and also bite the wicked." The same man, when asked whose citizen he was, said: Kosmopolites, that is, "citizen of the world," who is at home everywhere, and therefore fears exile from no one. The same man, living in a barrel, when Alexander said he wanted to help him because he said he needed many things, replied: "Which of us needs more? I, who desire nothing beyond a wallet and a cloak, or you, who, not content with your ancestral kingdom, expose yourself to so many dangers in order to rule more widely, so much so that the whole world scarcely seems sufficient for your ambition?"
The same man, when someone said: "Many people mock you, O Diogenes!" replied: "And perhaps donkeys mock them." When the other added: "But they don't care about donkeys," he said: "Neither do I care about them." He attributed mockery to donkeys because they sometimes bare their teeth and present the appearance of mockery. The same man, when asked: "What kind of dog are you?" — for there are various kinds of dogs: hunting dogs, bird dogs, guard dogs for sheep and buildings, and lapdogs — answered wittily: "When hungry, I am a Maltese; when full, a Molossian;" meaning that when craving food he would fawn, when sated he would bite. These and many more things Laertius records about Diogenes. You see therefore in Diogenes, as in a mirror, what dogs are like: now barking freely, now fawning, now shameless.
Most excellently, St. Ambrose addressed Rufinus, the master of the court, who was trying to persuade Theodosius that he would easily obtain pardon for the massacre of Thessalonica and entry into the church: "You seem to me, Rufinus," he said, "to imitate the impudence of dogs. For although the massacre was carried out through your persuasion, you have so brazened your face that you feel neither shame nor regret for having raged with such fury against the image of God." When Rufinus insisted and earnestly begged for pardon, saying the Emperor would shortly follow, St. Ambrose, inflamed with divine zeal, said: "I, Rufinus, declare that I shall bar him from the entrance of the sacred vestibule: and if he shall have changed his rule into tyranny, I shall willingly accept death." He said it and did it, and by his constancy broke the spirit of the Emperor.
THE SHEPHERDS THEMSELVES KNEW NO UNDERSTANDING. — Forerius rightly takes the shepherds to mean princes and civil magistrates; for the Prophet turns from the ecclesiastical leaders to these, and taxes their avarice and drunkenness: for from this was born their folly, contrary to the political wisdom that is most necessary for government; whence Solomon asked for it from God and obtained it, 1 Kings 3:11. Others, however, take shepherds to mean the Scribes and Priests, against whom he has been speaking up to now.
ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE INTO THEIR OWN WAY (wherever their avarice, gluttony, and its companion lust dragged them, by which they allowed themselves to be governed like cattle, as follows).
Verse 12: 12. COME, LET US TAKE WINE. — This is a mimesis, of which see Canon XVII. For it is the voice of the shepherds, that...
12. COME, LET US TAKE WINE. — This is a mimesis, of which see Canon XVII. For it is the voice of the shepherds, that is, of the Scribes. For those profligates here exhort each other to banquets and drinking, and say: "Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness," that is, with wine or intoxicating drink, as I said at verse 2, chapter 35.
Note: Nothing is so contrary to the watchfulness of shepherds as satiety and drunkenness; for these bring sleep, torpor, and stupor to both body and mind. Whence even masters who keep dogs for watchfulness take care that they not be sated; for when sated they grow torpid and fall asleep; but they see to it that they eat without reaching satiety.
AND IT SHALL BE AS TODAY, SO ALSO TOMORROW, AND MUCH MORE. — The obstinacy and progress of the shepherds in drunkenness and the other vices already mentioned is noted. These, therefore, are the seven vices of the watchmen and shepherds that the Prophet taxes here: first, blindness and ignorance; second, mute sloth; third, idleness and laziness; fourth, gluttony; fifth, following their own will with contempt of the laws, and the dominion of desire; sixth, insatiable avarice; seventh, obstinacy.
Let Bishops, Pastors, and Priests, as well as princes and magistrates, beware lest these things find a place or take hold in the Clergy of Christ or in the commonwealth. For if these things occupy them, what is to be hoped for their flock? Therefore drunkenness or lust in a common person is a simple sin; in a priest and magistrate it is manifold, because it offends many and drags them along with him into the same pit and ruin. Therefore St. Peter gravely admonishes the Pastors of the Church, 1 Peter, chapter 5,
verse 2: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it not by constraint, but willingly, according to God: not for filthy lucre's sake, but voluntarily: not as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart. And when the Prince of Shepherds shall appear, you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory." But more must be said on this subject at Ezekiel chapter 34.