Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Prophet had taught, at the end of the preceding chapter, that the penitent Jews, the just and pious, would return from Babylon and would have peace in Judea, but not the impious: for there is no peace for the impious. Now he teaches that the justice and piety of the just does not consist so much in bodily fasting and the celebration of feasts and external ceremonies; as the Jews falsely believed (who murmured against God, that although they did these things, they were nevertheless oppressed by so many calamities), but rather in interior piety, abstinence from vices, mercy and charity. Therefore these things concern the Jews before Christ, as is evident from Zechariah VII, who cites much from this chapter; equally however, indeed all the more, they pertain to Christians: for their justice must be greater and purer than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, as Christ teaches. The occasion of this discourse and prophecy concerning fasting was that the Jews, after the city was destroyed by the Chaldeans, in order to propitiate the Deity, instituted a fast of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months, as is evident from Zechariah VIII. Hence they wondered and murmured that God did not hear them, nor end the Babylonian captivity, nor restore the promised peace: to whom Zechariah responds the same as Isaiah does here. The Jews did the same in the devastation under Titus, and they do so even now. For they place all holiness, and the power of propitiating the Deity so that He may send them the Messiah, in fasting. Hence also that Pharisee, arrogating holiness to himself, said: I fast twice a week, Luke XVIII, verse 12.
The Prophet is therefore commanded to cry out with a trumpet-like voice that the fasting of the Jews, mixed and contaminated with mercilessness and injustice, namely with quarrels, contentions and fights, does not please God. Then, at verse 6, he teaches what true fasting is, pleasing to God, namely to fast from iniquity, to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, etc. For fasting was instituted for the sake of these things. Finally, at verse 8, if they do this, he promises them justice, health, illumination, etc., at verse 12, that in them the deserts of ages will be built up, and at verse 14: Then, he says, you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. Moreover, from verse 8 onward he rises to the Christians: for they rather than the Jews accomplished those things which I have described: and therefore they received from God, in preference to the Jews, the promises so ample that were just mentioned.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 58:1-14
1. Cry out, do not cease, raise your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their crimes, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2. For they seek me day after day, and desire to know my ways: as a nation that has done justice, and has not forsaken the judgment of its God: they ask me for judgments of justice: they desire to approach God. 3. Why have we fasted, and you have not regarded it: we have humbled our souls, and you have not known it? Behold, on the day of your fast your own will is found, and
you exact payment from all your debtors. 4. Behold, you fast for quarrels and contentions, and you strike with the fist impiously. Do not fast as you have until this day, so that your cry may be heard on high. 5. Is such the fast that I have chosen, for a man to afflict his soul for a day? Is it to twist one's head like a ring, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? 6. Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen: loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress: set free those who are crushed, and break every burden. 7. Break your bread for the hungry, and bring the needy and homeless into your house: when you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh. 8. Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall speedily arise, and your justice shall go before your face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather you up. 9. Then you shall call, and the Lord will hear: you shall cry out, and He will say: Behold, I am here, if you take away the chain from your midst, and cease to point the finger, and to speak what is useless. 10. When you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, your light shall rise in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday. 11. And the Lord will give you rest always, and will fill your soul with splendors, and will deliver your bones, and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters shall not fail. 12. And the deserts of ages shall be built up in you: you shall raise up the foundations of generation after generation: and you shall be called the repairer of the breach, turning paths to rest. 13. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own will on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy day of the Lord glorious, and glorify Him while you do not follow your own ways, and your own will is not found, so as to speak a word: 14. then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will lift you up above the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Verse 1: CRY OUT. — In Hebrew it is: Cry out in the throat. That is, as the Septuagint has it: Cry out with strength...
1. CRY OUT. — In Hebrew it is: Cry out in the throat. That is, as the Septuagint has it: Cry out with strength, do not spare your throat and your voice.
RAISE YOUR VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET. — That is to say: Cry out with a strained, resonant, strong and almost trumpet-like voice. Otherwise Sanchez says: Sound the trumpet like a herald, to summon the people together; then with a resonant voice set forth my edicts to them (for so does the herald of princes), namely "announce to my people their crimes." Let preachers note this, that they are not little flutes modulating sounds for pleasure and applause; but trumpets, sounding the battle cry to arms, to the war that must be continually waged against sins and concupiscences. Let them hear St. Augustine, sermon 106 On the Seasons: "Raise your voice like a trumpet. We are therefore commanded to cry out, and to cry out vehemently. 'Do not spare,' he says, that is, spare not the sinner's iniquity, lest by keeping silent you become guilty, and while you consider his modesty, you do not consult his health, and lest the wounds which you could have cut away by crying out, you nourish to become worse by keeping silent. Know that the trumpet is not usually for entertainment, but for terror: not so much for offering delight, as for striking fear." See what follows. In a similar way Hosea sounds forth, V, 8: "Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah;" and Joel, II, 1: "Sound the trumpet in Zion, cry aloud on my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble: for the day of the Lord comes;" and verse 15: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call an assembly," etc. Again, Hosea VIII, 1: Let the trumpet be in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant.
Verse 2: FOR THEY SEEK ME DAY AFTER DAY, AND DESIRE TO KNOW MY WAYS. — First, that is to say: They pretend to seek G...
2. FOR THEY SEEK ME DAY AFTER DAY, AND DESIRE TO KNOW MY WAYS. — First, that is to say: They pretend to seek God, and God's will, to aim at it, and to be eager about how to fulfill it, and how they might please Him more. Second, that is to say: They inquire into my counsels and decrees, and their reasons; such as about the coming of the Messiah, why it is delayed? Why does God permit His people to be detained in Babylon and to suffer indignities, etc.? So Forerius. Whence thirdly, aptly Cyril and Sanchez say: They summon me to court: for they allege their own justice, and accuse my ways, that is, my counsels, of unfaithfulness and injustice, because I do not give them the promised peace and goods; for they seek and say daily: "Why have we fasted, and you have not regarded it?" Such hypocrites exist even today, who while outwardly simulating holiness, always complain that they are badly treated: for since they are attached in spirit to earthly goods, they unjustly resent that these are not abundantly distributed to them, as to the just, either by God, or by the rulers of the state: but the truly just and pious, anxious only about the loss of eternal things, so compose their affairs that, since they consider themselves unworthy of the very air they breathe, they always meditate on eternity and true happiness, and reckon all their accounts on this matter. For true justice, when it does all that God has commanded, says: "We are unprofitable servants. Do not enter into judgment with your servant; for no living man shall be justified in your sight. From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord," etc., says Forerius.
AND HAS NOT FORSAKEN THE JUDGMENT OF ITS GOD. — He calls "judgment" the just and fair law which God by His law
prescribed and sanctioned. Such are those today who, though they live impurely and impiously, yet speak so piously and inquire about the soul's union with God, about perfect love, about the sublimity of the contemplative life, about the summit of perfection, that they appear to be almost angels.
THEY ASK ME FOR JUDGMENTS OF JUSTICE. — That is to say: They wish to know how just God's judgments are, that He Himself should give them an account of them, and justify Himself; for they seem to them to be unjust: for He permits us, who are His worshippers and just, to be oppressed by unbelievers and the impious. So these foolish and arrogant people.
THEY DESIRE TO APPROACH GOD. — Not so that they may draw near to Him through holiness and purity; but so that they may argue with Him, examine His judgments, and contend as if in a tribunal, and dethrone Him from heaven, and remove Him from the governance of the world.
Verse 3: WE HAVE HUMBLED OUR SOULS. — That is, we have fasted, as preceded. For the Hebrews call fasting the humilia...
3. WE HAVE HUMBLED OUR SOULS. — That is, we have fasted, as preceded. For the Hebrews call fasting the humiliation or affliction of the soul. First, because the end and fruit of fasting is that the flesh, humbled, may be subject to the spirit. Second, because fasting humbles, punishes and tames the wantonness of the flesh. Thus David says, Psalm XXXIV, 13: "I humbled my soul with fasting;" Leviticus XVI, 29: "In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls," that is, you shall fast. Third, because to fasting they added the hair shirt, which afflicts; and they sprinkled themselves with ashes, which humbles, as we do at the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday. For Judith did this, chapter VIII, verse 6. Hence Isaiah also adds, verse 5: "And to spread sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast?"
AND YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN IT. — That is to say: You seem not to regard them, not to care, indeed to ignore them, because you do not reward them as is fitting. You see here that the Jews placed their holiness in external fasting. Hence Christ also rebukes the Scribes, Matthew XXIII, who preferred external piety in fasting and sacrifices, but neglected interior charity and mercy. Such exist also today among Christians.
BEHOLD, ON THE DAY OF YOUR FAST YOUR OWN WILL IS FOUND. — In Hebrew chephets means that which pleases, which in Scripture is called desire, concupiscence, will of the flesh, self-will, etc. That is to say: You fast from food, and you mortify the flesh; but meanwhile you indulge the desire of the mind, for example avarice, pride, anger, impurity, and other vices of the flesh, for the cutting away of which fasting was instituted. For, to pass over other things, you compel your poor debtors harshly and inhumanely to pay what they owe, even when they are unable to pay. Whose cry therefore ascends to me. Hence the Gloss here says: He who exacts from one who has not, does violence to God. Second, in the time of fasting you engage in quarrels, contentions, fights and beatings. So also today we find some people, while they fast, to be more choleric and impatient. For fasting sharpens bile in choleric people, but they ought to tame it; whereas worldly people, who do not know what the mortification of passions is,
Morally, note here that the kind of fasting Christians should practice in Lent and at other times is described. Namely, first, that the mind should fast from vices as much as from food, say St. Jerome, Cyril, and Procopius. For the end of fasting is that the body may be humbled and made subject to the soul, the soul to reason, reason to virtue and the spirit, the spirit to God; if you do not attain this end, you employ the means of fasting in vain, just as in vain a sick person takes medicine if he does not abstain from harmful things, says St. Chrysostom in his 8th homily on Genesis I, and St. Leo, sermon 4 on Lent: "The sum of our fasting," he says, "does not consist in abstinence from food alone, nor is food fruitfully withdrawn from the body, unless the mind is recalled from iniquity and the tongue is restrained from slander." And St. Bernard, sermon 3 On Lenten Fasting: "If the palate alone has sinned," he says, "let it alone fast, and that suffices; but if the other members too have sinned, why should they not also fast? Let the eye therefore fast from curious gazes and all wantonness, etc. Let the ear, itching with vice, fast from gossip and rumors. Let the tongue fast from detraction and murmuring, etc. Let the hand fast from idle gestures, etc. But much more let the soul itself fast from vices and from its own self-will. For without this fasting, the rest are rejected by the Lord, as it is written: Because on the days of your fasts your own wills are found." The fasting of the body, therefore, must be seasoned with the fasting of the soul, and abstinence from sins. This is what the Lord says in Joel I, 14: "Sanctify a fast." For, as St. Gregory says in homily 16 on the Gospels: "To sanctify a fast is to show an abstinence of the flesh worthy of God by joining other good works to it. Let anger cease, let quarrels be curbed. For in vain is the flesh worn down, if the spirit is not restrained from its evil pleasures, since through the Prophet the Lord says: Behold, on the days of your fasts your own wills are found." And St. Jerome, to Celantia: "What good is it," he says, "for the body to be made thin by abstinence, if the mind swells with pride? What praise will the pallor of fasting deserve, if we are livid with envy? What virtue is there in not drinking wine, and being intoxicated with anger and hatred?"
think themselves blessed if they can follow their appetites, carry out what they desire, attain what they wish, indulging their passions and satisfying them like beasts. For this reason Plato rightly condemns in the Crito that common prayer of the masses: "May God give you what you wish." On the contrary, he says, "may He never give it, but make you will what He Himself wills. For this is pure religion, if you so bind yourself to God." Therefore St. Bernard rightly exclaims here in sermon 74 on the Song of Songs: "Self-will is a great evil, which makes your good works (fasts) not good for you. Therefore those who are of this kind must be cast out from among the lilies, because he who feeds among the lilies will taste nothing at all that has been contaminated by self-will."
YOU EXACT PAYMENT FROM YOUR DEBTORS. — He charges them with false penance. For true penance (which they falsely professed through fasting and haircloth) purges the mind, and calms harmful passions, at least during the time it is in force, and induces contempt and forgetfulness of visible things: for as long as that salutary sorrow possesses the mind, those things that were formerly most dear become disgusting: the sight of children is then unpleasant; fine and costly garments are loathsome; and we regard delicacies and dishes as dung, and we sigh only for the remission of sins and divine grace, says Forerius. And St. Gregory, homily 16 on the Gospels: "He who demands back from his debtor what he has given, does something just; but it is fitting that whoever subjects himself to penance should also deny himself even what is justly his: so when we are afflicted and penitent, God forgives us what we have unjustly done, if for love of Him we also give up what is justly ours."
Verse 4: BEHOLD, YOU FAST FOR QUARRELS AND CONTENTIONS. — First, that is to say: You fast, not to mortify the flesh,...
4. BEHOLD, YOU FAST FOR QUARRELS AND CONTENTIONS. — First, that is to say: You fast, not to mortify the flesh, but so that you may have a clearer head and more ample time for more ingeniously and fully pursuing your lawsuits, and for contending in court and tribunal, and for exacting your debts. For you put these off to the time of fasting; as being idle, and equally free from business and from gluttony. For the days of fasting were almost always days of prayer, and that until evening, and the rising of the evening star, as is gathered from Judith chapter VI, 16, and St. Jerome teaches, book II Against Jovinian, and even now the Jews fast until then. And from this seems to have arisen the custom of certain Christians, that on the eve of Christmas and on certain other days, they fast until evening, until they see the evening star and the stars. Unless you prefer to say that it originated from the fact that formerly in the Church fasting was commonly observed until evening, and no lunch was eaten, but supper was taken after Vespers and all the prayers had been completed (hence now, because at fast-time lunch is eaten, Vespers are anticipated and recited before lunch); this custom was observed up to the time of St. Thomas, as he himself testifies. Moreover, they measured the evening from the appearance of the evening star and the stars; whence hungry boys frequently looked up at the sky, so that if they saw stars, they could break their fast and satisfy their hunger. So many merchants fast until evening, so that they may spend the whole day on commerce and profits. So St. Thomas, Hugo and Sanchez. This is the genuine sense.
Second, that is to say: You quarrel and contend over which of you fasts more. For you seek from fasting not God's glory but your own, and therefore vain glory. So Forerius.
YOU STRIKE WITH THE FIST IMPIOUSLY. — Your debtors, or those with whom you quarrel and contend. For fasting, because it dries, sharpens choler. It can be translated: you strike with an impious, or, as Pagninus has it, hard fist; the Hebrew translates, you strike with a fist the one condemned, namely for usury or another debt in court. Hence the Septuagint translate, you strike with the fist the humble. This striking inflicted both pain and, more importantly, disgrace upon the one struck.
SO THAT THE CRY MAY BE HEARD ON HIGH. — Which was raised aloud by those fasting and at the same time lamenting, says St. Jerome; because they raised it, not from grief and contrition of heart, but from ostentation and vainglory.
Second, "so that the cry may be heard," that is, your prayers, meaning: So that God in heaven may hear your cries and prayers. So St. Thomas, Hugo and Sanchez.
Third, and genuinely, that is to say: Do not fast as you have until this day; namely, so that your cry, while you quarrel and contend, may be heard on high: or rather, "your cry," actively, by which you compel the poor and miserable to cry out, whom you force to pay and whom you strike. For Scripture by the word "cry" signifies violence, plunder, fraud, and all those things which, when charity is violated, make those who have suffered injury and the afflicted groan and cry out. This cry penetrates heaven and the ears of God. So Forerius and Adam.
Verse 5: IS IT TO TWIST ONE'S HEAD LIKE A RING? — That is, as Vatablus translates: That a man should twist his head ...
5. IS IT TO TWIST ONE'S HEAD LIKE A RING? — That is, as Vatablus translates: That a man should twist his head as if toward the ground. And, as Forerius says: That he should bend (for this is the Hebrew caphaph) his head like a rush. For those fasting, partly from weakness, partly from penance, bowed their heads, and walked bent over, and thus bent themselves like a twig and a rush into a circle, that is, into a curve and a ring: as Ahab did, III Kings XXI, 27, and David, Psalm XXXVII, 7. But these, in order to show off their fasting, penance and humility, curved their heads almost to their shins; so that they seemed to twist it into a circle, as our translator renders it. Moreover, fasting from hunger and weakness sometimes induces dizziness in the head, especially in the weak, meaning: These simulate dizziness, and twist their head, in order to show off their fasting.
Arias contends that instead of "ring" one should read "rush" or "bulrush" (of which there are various species: one called asphodel, which the Spanish call gamon, which by metathesis seems to be the same as the Hebrew agmon), that is, a reed: for the Hebrew agmon means this. But all manuscripts read "ring," and so the Septuagint translate, and Arias himself, and so they translate Job XL, 21. For although agmon properly means a rush, it also means a ring: for a rush is easily bent into a ring, and from it rings are made. Finally, if you prefer, take "ring" here as meaning a rush-ring. Hence the Syriac translates: that he should bend his neck like a twisted cord; the Arabic: like that which is inclined.
AND TO SPREAD SACKCLOTH (that is, haircloth), AND ASHES? — With these, as symbols of penance, they adorned their fasting, as I said at verse 3.
Verse 6: IS NOT THIS RATHER THE FAST THAT I HAVE CHOSEN? (Here He assigns the conditions of the fasting pleasing to ...
6. IS NOT THIS RATHER THE FAST THAT I HAVE CHOSEN? (Here He assigns the conditions of the fasting pleasing to Him. The first condition is): LOOSE THE BONDS OF WICKEDNESS (that is, dissolve the obligations and agreements of usury, and other unjust and impious contracts, by which you have violently oppressed and exhausted others, especially the poor): UNDO THE BUNDLES THAT OPPRESS. — That is, release, forgive, tear up, or burn the bundles of deeds, of violent bonds; namely the written obligations to pay interest and other unjust contracts, by which you oppress and weigh down your neighbor and brother as with a yoke. So the Septuagint, who translate: Dissolve the bonds of violent agreements, release the contracted in remission, and tear up every unjust document. And St. Cyprian, to Quirinius chapter 1, who translates thus: Loose every knot of injustice, undo the suffocating bonds of oppressive contracts. For "deprimentes" the Hebrew is mota, that is, of shaking, that is, bundles and burdens imposed on brothers, so heavy that they compel them to stagger and sway while walking. So Vatablus.
Second, Forerius says he metaphorically calls "bundles" the interest charges, which when debtors are unable to pay, grow daily, and increase into bundles which they cannot bear; or certainly the services and labors which they imposed on them meanwhile until they paid.
Tropologically, St. Clement, in book II of the Apostolic Constitutions chapter LIII, rightly refers these words to the forgiveness of injuries: "If," he says, "you wish to be a Christian, follow the law of the Lord, dissolve every bond of iniquity: for the Lord has placed in you the power of forgiving sins committed against you, etc. But you are mindful of injury, and you retain enmity, and you come to judgment, and you nurse anger, and you obstruct your own prayers."
SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE CRUSHED. — That is, as Forerius translates, those who are battered; Vatablus, those who are oppressed both by poverty and by debt, so that they are compelled to surrender their property, whom the Spanish call chismados, meaning the broken: also by harshness and servitude, or by the prison of creditors: for He wills that these be set free, and indeed if they are unable to pay, that the debt be forgiven them. Thus Plato teaches that the most evident "sign of the best man is if he is gentle toward his own, and toward those over whom he has authority." For if you are gentle toward strangers, who can strike back at you, it is not surprising.
AND BREAK EVERY BURDEN. — The debt already mentioned is called a "burden," both because in itself it is a burden weighing down the debtor; and because it brings upon him the yoke, servitude, prison and other burdens of the creditor. Hence the Septuagint and Symmachus translate: and tear up every unjust document (bond or contract).
Mystically, St. Ambrose, Chrysostom, Justin, Basil, Hilarion, and from them Leo Castrius, say: Dissolve the bonds (that is, whatever sins) by which you have obligated yourself to the devil. Hear St. Hilarion on Psalm CXVIII: "Loose every bond, and every knot of iniquity. For if you turn aside from God's commandments, and bind yourself with these obligations of sin, you will be led away to eternal punishments with those who work iniquity." And St. Basil in the Asceticon, chapter IV: "Loose," he says, "the infirmities of the soul, and the insoluble bonds of sin, which you made with the father of sin, the devil."
Verse 7: BREAK YOUR BREAD FOR THE HUNGRY. — This is the second condition which God requires in fasting, that it may ...
7. BREAK YOUR BREAD FOR THE HUNGRY. — This is the second condition which God requires in fasting, that it may please Him; namely, that it be seasoned with piety and almsgiving, says St. Gregory in homily 16 on the Gospels, and that what is withdrawn from the belly be given to the poor; so that bread be given to the hungry, hospitality to the stranger, clothing to the naked. "Therefore," says St. Gregory, "give generously to another what you subtract from yourself, so that from what afflicts your flesh, the flesh of your needy neighbor may be restored. For each one fasts for himself alone, if the things he subtracts from himself for a time, he does not give to the poor, but keeps to offer to his belly afterwards." St. Augustine presses the point in sermon 62 On the Seasons with the word "break," and from it proves that no one, even if poor, can excuse himself from almsgiving: "He did not say," he says, "that he should give a whole loaf, since perhaps that poor man had no other; but: Break, he says, which is to say: Even if your poverty is so great that you have only one loaf, yet break even from that, and give to the poor." See the same author, sermon 50 and sermon 172, where he says: "Fulfill the duties of compassion, and you have sanctified your fasts. Nourish the bowels of the poor, and your soul will grow fat with the gifts of holiness. Clothe the naked, and your sins are covered. Strive to receive the stranger in your hospitality, so that God may also receive you in the kingdom of heaven." See also the examples which I cited at Ezekiel XVIII, 7.
AND DO NOT DESPISE YOUR OWN FLESH. — That is, as the Septuagint translate, and do not despise the members of your own family. Note the Hebraism: for "flesh" means a relative, a kinsman, both properly, one who is related; and commonly, one who is a human being; especially of the same nation and faith, for example an Israelite. For He commands that alms be given to all of these, if they are in need. And all of these are related and kin to us in Adam.
Sanchez understands the word "as" (sicut), meaning: Just as you do not despise your own flesh, so also do not despise them (the hungry, the homeless and the naked). A third interpretation is added by Forerius, which I shall indicate shortly. But the first is the most genuine. For he stimulates them to almsgiving by saying it is given to one's own flesh, that is, to kinsmen and fellow-tribesmen, so that they may provide not only for their body, but also for their soul, lest on account of poverty they be compelled to enslave themselves to unbelievers or the impious, by whom they might be drawn into unbelief and impiety. Thus we read in the Life of St. Sylvester, who was an excellent Pontiff distinguished equally in prudence and holiness, that he studiously provided for the needs of the poor, especially virgins, orphans, and fatherless children: "Lest," he would say, "they be compelled to alienate themselves from others, who while lifting up their bodies, slaughter their souls."
Verse 8: THEN SHALL YOUR LIGHT BREAK FORTH LIKE THE DAWN (in Hebrew cassachar, that is, like the aurora). — Here God...
8. THEN SHALL YOUR LIGHT BREAK FORTH LIKE THE DAWN (in Hebrew cassachar, that is, like the aurora). — Here God assigns the rewards of mercy and almsgiving. The first is light, by which Forerius and Sanchez rightly understand prosperity and happiness. For light is the symbol of this; just as night and darkness are of adversity and calamity, meaning: Then you will begin to emerge from the midst of the darkness of calamities, for example from the Babylonian captivity, into the light of freedom, joy and happiness. For just as mercilessness and inhumanity takes daylight from the earth, stirs up storms, and disturbs the whole machinery of the world, and has brought upon you, O Jews, the darkness of captivity and prison; so conversely, mercy brings day, light and peace to the world, and will restore to you the return from exile, cheerfulness, and all good things. Sanchez adds that almsgiving in the hour of death, which is dark, sorrowful and anxious, brings hope of salvation, and is like "the morning star," Apocalypse II, 28, that is, the light-bearer, which precedes and announces the coming of the sun: for so also almsgiving rouses the dying person, and shows him the light of the approaching beatific glory, and offers it for a foretaste.
Note: For "shall break forth" the Hebrew is iibbaqa, that is, it shall be cleft or split: as the sun at dawn, cleaving the clouds with its rays, breaks forth into a light that is as it were split and scattered. St. Chrysostom presses this point in homily 55 on chapter XVI of Matthew, and from it teaches that mercy from a merciful God is most readily available. "He did not say," he says, "'Your light will appear,' but 'it will be split,' to express the speed and abundance of the giver; so that we may understand that He is very eager for our salvation, and that, full of gifts, He as it were bursts forth from the eagerness of giving, since nothing can restrain the inestimable desire of God. By all of which He shows that an infinite abundance of good things is prepared for us. The morning light signifies something sudden and unexpected, that you are to be made happy before you think of it, so that good things overtake you in the morning, before you expect them."
AND YOUR HEALING SHALL SPEEDILY ARISE. — First, for "healing" Forerius translates "cure," meaning: In Babylon you are captive, O Israel, and there you are consumed by want, filth, grief, and other miseries, you are sick and wasting away. Accept the most excellent remedy and medicine: mercy. This will cure you and all your pains and infirmities. For your mercy will call forth God's mercy upon you, which will heal you. Hence the Septuagint, for "healing," translate iamata, that is, medicines or plasters. St. Jerome translates the Hebrew arucha in his Commentary, here and elsewhere, as "scar"; Vatablus, as "longevity." Almsgiving therefore is a most efficacious plaster, which brings a scar and health to all wounds and diseases, both of body and of soul, and brings longevity to the merciful, so that he may have a long life. Thus it is said of wisdom, Wisdom chapter VI, 26: "A multitude of the wise is the health of the world." And of sobriety, Ecclesiasticus XXXI, 37: "A moderate drink is health for the soul and the body."
Second, "light" and "healing" can here be taken spiritually, meaning: "Then shall break forth," that is, then grace will be poured into you from heaven, through which you will be justified and illuminated in the intellect, so that you may know what is good, what is evil; which path leads to salvation; "and healing shall arise" in the will, for you will be healed of evil passions and desires. For with a similar trope, it is said of the fear of God, Proverbs III, 8, that this fear "will be health to your navel, and irrigation to your bones." That is, if you fear God, your whole body will be healthy. For the health of the body depends chiefly on the health both of the softer parts, namely the vital organs, such as the heart, liver, spleen, which are near the navel, and of the navel itself, which connects the upper members with the lower, and through which the fetus in the womb draws nourishment from the mother and is fed; and also of the harder parts, namely the bones, which are like the foundations and pillars of our bodily house and microcosm. But the health of the bones is nourished and irrigated by the richness of the marrow; and when this fails, the bones dry up; hence follows wasting and the corruption of the person. It is a metaphor, signifying that the whole soul, and all its parts, noble and ignoble, weak and strong, for example the appetite which is like the navel, and reason which is like the bones, will be made healthy through the fear of God. So Jansenius and Cajetan, ibid.
Anagogically, St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on the Epistle to the Philippians: "This oil," he says, "of almsgiving will give you great light and brightness in the future;" and consequently eternal health and immortality.
Finally, Chrysostom, homily 53 on Matthew XVI, St. Augustine, sermon 172 On the Seasons; St. Cyprian, sermon On Almsgiving; Tertullian, book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter XXVII, instead of iamata, that is, healings or medicines, read imatia, that is, garments, by which they understand bodies. For these are like garments of the soul, meaning: Bodies here worn and exhausted by fasting, God will reform and renew in the resurrection; just as when an old garment is worn out, a new one is substituted and put on. Hear Tertullian: He "wishing the garment to be understood not as a silk one, nor a cloak, but as the flesh, proclaimed the rising of the flesh that shall rise again from the setting of death." This sense fittingly corresponds to what preceded: "When you see the naked, cover him, and do not despise your own flesh." In this sense, meaning: If you clothe the naked, God will also clothe your naked flesh, in the resurrection, with the robe of glory. But from the Hebrew and Latin it is clear that in the Septuagint one should read iamata, not imatia, although the Hebrew arucha, which properly means length, could be taken for a long garment.
AND YOUR JUSTICE SHALL GO BEFORE YOUR FACE. — First, "justice," that is, mercy. For "justice" is so taken in Daniel IV, 24, in the Hebrew, Psalm CXI, 9, Acts X, 35, and elsewhere, meaning: If you are in the darkness of sin or captivity, or calamity, especially death, almsgiving, like a torch, will go before you on the way and lead you out; and in death it will protect you before Christ the Judge, and lead you to heaven, removing all obstacles and making all things smooth. This is what Tobias says, chapter IV, verse 11: "Almsgiving delivers from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." Hence it follows:
AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHALL GATHER YOU UP. — "Glory," that is, a glorious deliverance from danger, or captivity, for example the Babylonian. Again, the Lord Himself with His glorious heavenly glory will gather you, protect you, receive you, and as the Septuagint say, surround you, and make you blessed, saying: "Enter into the joy of your Lord." So Vatablus, Sanchez and others. He alludes to Moses, who, when the rebellious Jews wanted to stone him, fled to the tabernacle, and there was protected by the glory of the Lord appearing through the cloud. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 32 on the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Almsgiving," he says, "dissolves the bonds of sins, puts darkness to flight, extinguishes fire, kills the worm, expels the gnashing of teeth. For this, the gates of heaven are opened with great confidence, and as when a queen enters, none of the doorkeepers, none of the guards who attend the gates, dares to say: Who are you? Or where are you from? But all receive her from across the way: so also mercy; for she is a queen, truly a queen, making men like God." Just as therefore the merciless and cruel are exposed to every injury, so that they must fear ruin at every step, because their iniquity and the hatred with which God pursues them goes before them; so conversely the merciful fear no injury or force, because their almsgiving and God's grace go before them. See what I said on almsgiving, Deuteronomy XIV and XV.
Second, Forerius says "shall go before," etc., meaning: In all affairs that occur, since they succeed prosperously, it will be evident that you are just. For the opinion had generally prevailed that adversities befell only the wicked, and prosperity only the just. But the former sense is more illustrious and more genuine.
Verse 9: THEN YOU SHALL CALL, AND THE LORD WILL HEAR, etc. — Not with words, but by deed showing Himself propitious ...
9. THEN YOU SHALL CALL, AND THE LORD WILL HEAR, etc. — Not with words, but by deed showing Himself propitious and beneficent to you, whereas before on account of your mercilessness He would not look at you, as you complained, verse 3. From this passage St. Cyprian, in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer, teaches that God does not hear prayers unless they are joined with pious works: "The Lord promises," he says, "to be present, and He says that He hears and protects those who loose the knots of injustice from their heart, and who give alms to the servants of God, according to His commandments, since they hear what God commands to be done, they themselves also deserve to be heard by God." And shortly before: "Let those who pray not come to God with fruitless and empty prayers: for the petition is ineffective when a barren prayer entreats God. For since every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and cast into the fire; so also speech that does not bear fruit,
cannot please God, since it is productive of no work. And therefore the divine Scripture instructs, saying, Tobit XII: Prayer with fasting and almsgiving is good. For He who on the day of judgment will render a reward for works and alms, is also today a gracious hearer to the one who comes to prayer with good works." He then proves this by the example of Cornelius the centurion, to whom the Angel said, Acts X: "Cornelius, your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God. So also Raphael, being a witness to Tobias who prayed and always worked, said: When you prayed, you and Sarah, I offered the memorial of your prayer before the brightness of God. And when you buried the dead simply, and because you did not hesitate to rise and leave your meal, etc., God sent me to heal you and Sarah your daughter-in-law."
IF YOU TAKE AWAY THE CHAIN FROM YOUR MIDST. — This chain is the burden, and the bundles that oppress (namely usury, and unjust contracts, servitudes and the burdens of the rich, by which they as it were bound and oppressed the poor), about which see verse 6. For in all these passages the same Hebrew word mota is used. So St. Cyril, Vatablus, Forerius and others. See Jeremiah chapter XXVII and XXVIII.
Mystically, St. Jerome by the chain understands sins. For these are like iron bonds, which bind the soul, and deliver and enslave the bound soul to the devil.
AND CEASE TO POINT THE FINGER. — First, Pagninus adds, toward another's property, meaning: If you cease to steal and seize the property of others. So Cyril and Procopius.
Second, Vatablus, Forerius and St. Thomas say: If you cease to threaten your neighbor with an outstretched and extended finger, and to insult him; if you cease to contend and quarrel. St. Thomas and Forerius add that to extend the finger is the gesture of one who wishes to gouge out the eyes; which is characteristic of an arrogant, angry, vengeful and violent spirit.
Third, St. Jerome, Haymo and St. Thomas believe that the extension of the finger signifies mockery and scoffing. And so it is forbidden here to slander your neighbor, and to point out individuals as it were with the finger. Hence the Chaldean translates: If you cease to nod with the finger. Even now common people mock their own by extending two fingers at someone, as if affixing horns to him, signifying that he is cuckolded, or that his wife has other lovers. So also Diogenes the Cynic, as Laertius reports, extending his middle finger at Demosthenes, accused him of shameful conduct. For in former times the middle finger was considered obscene, and to show it was a serious insult: for by it they signified that a man was soft and effeminate: hence this finger was called impudicus (obscene), of which Martial says in book II: "He showed his finger, but the obscene one," namely the middle. Conversely, to be pointed out with the second finger, which is called the index finger, was praiseworthy and honorable. So Delrio, adage 801, from Cicero, Persius and others. Thus of a bold and enticing woman it is said: "She speaks with her finger." But Democritus, as Juvenal says,
Satire 10, would indicate the rope and the gallows with his finger: When he would bid threatening Fortune to take the noose, and showed her his middle nail.
Fourth, the Septuagint translate: if you take away from yourself cheirotoniam, that is, the extension of the hand in electing a magistrate, meaning: If in electing a magistrate, you do not extend your hand for bribes, do not allow yourself to be corrupted by gifts. Again, if you are not fickle, nor lightly raise your finger to elect the unworthy, because they are relatives, friends or benefactors. Nazianzen, in his last oration On the Care of the Poor, expounds cheirotoniam as dokimasian, that is, probation, or ambiguity; by which Leo Castrius thinks avarice is denoted in those giving alms, who count on their fingers how much they have given, or indicate that they have given to them on other occasions, or that others have now distributed alms to them. Better, Nicetas on Nazianzen interprets probation as investigation, by which the rich inquire too curiously whether the poor person is truly poor, and worthy of alms. More plainly, it seems, if we interpret cheirotoniam literally as the extension of the hand or finger. For this is what the Hebrew word signifies, the Chaldean and our translator, from whom it is more likely that the Septuagint did not wish to dissent, as Delrio rightly observes in the passage already cited. Therefore the third and second senses seem most genuine.
AND TO SPEAK WHAT IS USELESS. — In Hebrew aven, that is, iniquity, namely quarrels, strife, oppression of the poor, insults and abuse. Hence the Septuagint translate, murmurings.
Verse 10: WHEN YOU POUR OUT YOUR SOUL TO THE HUNGRY. — This means the bowels of mercy, namely the most intimate feeli...
10. WHEN YOU POUR OUT YOUR SOUL TO THE HUNGRY. — This means the bowels of mercy, namely the most intimate feelings of compassion, sympathizing, pitying, and coming abundantly and generously to the aid of their misery. For this is what "you pour out" signifies. The Septuagint translate: If you give bread to the hungry from your soul, that is, from the sincere and whole affection of your soul: for God looks more at the intention of the giver than at the gift itself. "God," says St. Gregory, Moralia XXII, chapter XII, "does not weigh the gift, but the affection."
AND SATISFY THE AFFLICTED SOUL (with hunger, nakedness, grief) — with food, clothing, consolation and joy.
YOUR LIGHT SHALL RISE IN THE DARKNESS, AND YOUR DARKNESS SHALL BE AS THE NOONDAY. — That is to say: In the midst of calamities, freedom, joy and prosperity will arise for you so great as the light at noonday. Again "in the darkness," that is in the agony and in the horror of death, there will be for you consolation, and hope of salvation and light, and of eternal glory: for God will clear and dispel all fears of the soul and all troubles, all clouds. See what was said at verse 8. So Job XI, 17, says: "And as the brightness of noonday shall arise for you," that is, "when you shall think yourself consumed, you shall rise like the morning star:" where Leo the Hebrew translates: The whole time of your life will shine more serenely than the noonday. For the light of noonday is the most clear and pleasant, and produces no shadow, meaning: In like manner for you, O Job, the life that remains will be full of happiness, with no shadow of misfortune to shake or darken it.
Verse 11: AND THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU REST ALWAYS. — It can also be translated thus: God will be your perpetual rest, ...
11. AND THE LORD WILL GIVE YOU REST ALWAYS. — It can also be translated thus: God will be your perpetual rest, in whom alone you may always rest. Again thus: God will perpetually lead you on the right path of happiness and salvation, just as He led the children of Israel, guided by the pillar, through the desert into Canaan. So Forerius and Vatablus. He speaks of rest, both earthly, for example which the Jews were to have returning from Babylon to Judea; for of those going to Babylon it is said, Lamentations V, 5: "We were threatened at our necks, the weary were given no rest," and also heavenly and eternal.
AND HE WILL FILL YOUR SOUL WITH SPLENDORS. — He illustrates and reinforces what he said a little before: "Your light shall rise in the darkness." See the things said there, to which add: just as sin fills with darkness the unmerciful soul, so God's grace fills the merciful soul with everlasting splendors of grace, consolation and joy in this life, and of eternal glory in the next.
Note: For "splendors" the Hebrew is betsach sachot, that is, with the brightness of brightnesses, or the splendor of splendors, or the serenity of serenities, or the dryness of drynesses, or the ardor of ardors, that is, with the utmost ardor, dryness and splendor. For with these the Most Holy Trinity fills the mind of the merciful and the saints, when It comes to dwell in them. For It is itself a consuming fire of concupiscence, and of whatever is watery, earthly and mortal in us.
Finally, the Chaldean, Pagninus, Vatablus and Sanchez translate: He will fill in the dryness of drynesses, that is in the utmost sterility and famine, "your soul." For while the harvests of others become barren, the fields of the merciful are made fruitful by God. For this He promised, Proverbs III, 9: "From the first fruits of all your produce give to the poor, and your barns will be filled with plenty, and your wine presses will overflow with wine." And chapter XXVIII, verse 27: "He who gives to the poor will not be in want: he who despises the beggar will suffer penury."
AND HE WILL DELIVER YOUR BONES. — Vatablus translates, He will fatten your bones, that is, fill them with marrow. For by this, bones formerly dry and parched from famine are irrigated, invigorated, fattened, grow and are strengthened. Hence the Septuagint translate, your bones shall grow fat. By bones, he synecdochically understands all the members: for bones are the support and sustenance of these. Hence "bones" symbolically signify strength and fortitude, meaning: Your bones, your members, your strength, captive, crushed and emaciated in calamity, for example the Babylonian, God will deliver, strengthen and fatten.
Mystically, He will do the same for the bones, that is, for the solidity and powers of the soul: for He will free these from all the corruption of sin and vices, and will fatten them with His grace and consolation. So Procopius, Cyril and Castrius. For these understand by "bones" the powers of the soul.
Symbolically, the "bones" of the soul are the virtues: for these strengthen and support the soul, as bones do the body. These become as it were captive, when through sin, having lost God's grace and charity, they lose their spirit and life, as it were, and their supernatural state, so that they now serve not God but the devil: God liberates these, when, having shaken off the yoke of the devil through the remission of sin and grace, He restores charity to them, by which they may begin again to live for God, and to serve Him in holiness and joy. So Sanchez.
Anagogically, from the Septuagint who translate: Your bones shall spring up like grass and flourish again, and they shall inherit generation after generation; St. Cyril and Procopius take these words of the glorious resurrection of the bodies of the merciful and the blessed, to blessed immortality.
AND YOU SHALL BE LIKE A WATERED GARDEN. — That is to say: You shall be like a paradise always green with fruit and foliage; because it is continually watered by rains or springs. That is, you shall abound in fruits and goods, both bodily and spiritual. For the more you give to the poor, the more God will bestow on you, so that you always have something to give, and the fountain of your mercy will not dry up. The same thing the Apostle says, II Corinthians IX, 6: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly: and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." And verse 10: "He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for eating, will supply and multiply your seed, and will increase the fruits of your justice." See the things said there. Much more will this be so in the soul: for God, as His watered garden, will perpetually irrigate it with the water of His grace. St. Ambrose, book III, epistle 25, refers these words to the praise of fasting: for this the Prophet here commands to be seasoned with almsgiving: "Your bones," he says, "shall grow fat, and you shall be like a drunken garden. Your soul therefore grows fat, and its virtues are multiplied by the spiritual richness of fasting, and your fruits by the abundance of your mind, so that there is in you a sober drunkenness, like that cup, of which the Prophet says: And your inebriating cup, how excellent it is!"
AND LIKE A SPRING OF WATER, WHOSE WATERS SHALL NOT FAIL. — Aptly the merciful person is compared to a spring: for just as a spring generously shares its water with all, and as it were pours out its bowels, and yet does not fail, but always receives as much as it sends out; so the almsgiver receives more from God than he distributes to the poor. For just as water flows to the spring, milk to the breasts that are suckled; so the gifts and goods of God flow to almsgivers, say St. Basil and Clement, Paedagogus III chapter VII. For "shall not fail" the Hebrew is, do not lie, that is, they do not deceive, they do not fail, but endure. For in heat and drought, many springs dry up, and disappoint their owners who are thirsty and gaping for water; but the spring of mercy is a faithful spring, which in every need of others does not fail, but makes those who share abound in goods, by which they may satisfy their own and others' hunger and thirst.
Therefore consider: first, the greenness; second, the stateliness; third, the fertility; fourth, the variety; fifth, the abundance of waters; sixth, the all-round pleasantness and beauty of a watered garden, for example of the earthly paradise; and transfer these to the body, wealth and spirit of the merciful person, and you will see how happy his lot is.
Relevant here is the fable of the most fruitful field, which, being neither hedged nor enclosed, abundantly fed and satisfied both its master and everyone else: but after it came into the hands of a greedy master who, putting a hedge around it, excluded others, it produced only enough fruit for the master alone. The master was astonished, and consulting the oracle, heard: "The field now serves you alone; why do you demand so much?" Similarly, if someone encloses the waters of a spring with a wall, the waters do not flow out, but secretly escape elsewhere; so it will happen to you and your goods, if you greedily keep them and lock them in a chest. The riches of the greedy are therefore deceitful and lying, but those of the merciful are faithful and constant. So Forerius.
Verse 12: AND THE DESERTS OF AGES SHALL BE BUILT UP IN YOU (or by you). — Namely houses, or your cities and provinces...
12. AND THE DESERTS OF AGES SHALL BE BUILT UP IN YOU (or by you). — Namely houses, or your cities and provinces, deserted for many ages, both of houses and of inhabitants, and thus as if dead: for inhabitants and houses are like the blood and life of cities and regions.
YOU SHALL RAISE UP THE FOUNDATIONS OF GENERATION AFTER GENERATION (that is, of many generations and ages). — That is to say: You shall restore and rebuild cities and houses, ruined for many ages, whose foundations alone, buried in the ground, remained. Here God promises the merciful ample offspring and family; so that it will be necessary to rebuild deserted cities and houses, so that his descendants may have a place to dwell: just as conversely, when offspring and inhabitants fail, houses and cities also fail and collapse, meaning: The merciful will not only have the permanence of offspring and family like a spring; but also expansion, so that they spread and multiply in every direction.
Now first, the Hebrews, as St. Jerome, St. Thomas, Vatablus and Forerius attest, refer these words to the restoration of Judea and Jerusalem, desolate for 70 years, by Zerubbabel. Sanchez adds that "the foundations of generation after generation" means Jerusalem, because it was founded before many generations, in the age of Melchizedek. This sense is rather cold; yet the Prophet alludes to it, and presupposes it as a historical base. But beneath it, as under a type, second, he looks at something higher concerning the Church of Christ; for he soars to it, according to Song of Songs IV, especially because from chapter XL to the end of the book, he speaks almost entirely of Christ and the Church, meaning: O faithful, O Church, if you devote yourself to works of mercy, the piety, faith and holiness of the ancient fathers, long since collapsed, will be restored in you, as "the foundations of generation after generation;" that is, as the Septuagint say, for a very long time, indeed forever in heaven: O Christ, O Apostles, O Christians, if you shall be men of mercy (as I know you will be), you will restore the old Church, that is, the collapsed Synagogue, and will cause the faith of Abraham, the hope of Isaac, the charity of Jacob, the innocence of Abel, the chastity of Joseph, the meekness of Moses, the fortitude of David, the patience of Job, etc., to return and flourish again in it, which virtues had long since seemed abolished and removed from the world. So St. Jerome, Hugo and others.
Here belongs the exposition of Procopius and St. Augustine on Psalms CX and CXI, who by the deserts of ages understand the ruin of mankind in the first parent Adam, by whose sin all our goods became ruinous and fell. Hence Procopius says: "The ruins of your soul, made in Adam, will be rebuilt, and restored with heavenly discipline; you shall build yourself up with heavenly teachings; you shall hedge yourself with Christ as a wall," that is, so that you may become a temple of God. For Isaiah speaks as much of the soul as of the Church, as of a city or temple once devastated, now restored and fortified. And so although he speaks properly of the restoration of the Synagogue and the Church, nevertheless he consequently speaks also of the repair of each individual soul: for through this the other is accomplished.
Much more does he speak of the institution, or reform of states and Orders, both ecclesiastical and religious: for these are the supports and foundations of the Church. Such builders of the Church and of religion were St. Basil, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Anthony, St. Dominic, St. Francis; of whom accordingly St. Bonaventure relates that when he had sought the confirmation of his Order from Pope Innocent III, and the latter had at first rejected him; yet at last he received him kindly, and confirmed the Order, because in a dream the man he had rejected appeared to be supporting the collapsing Lateran basilica. So St. Francis of Paola, the founder of the Order of Minims, about to build a small church, was commanded in a dream to build it much larger, because he was to propagate his Order widely, and through it to restore the Church. Such, in almost every century, were either the founders or the reformers of Religious Orders, whom God in His provident mercy raised up both for the Church and for the Orders themselves, to restore them to their original splendor and fervor.
Note here that God raised up for this purpose men who were of great mercy and charity. For such men are required for this work, who are moved by intimate compassion for the ruin of discipline, the decline of religion, and the perishing of souls. For this compassion generates in them an immense zeal for reform, which, like a leader, goes before them to this work, and constantly overcomes all contradictions, obstacles and difficulties. Hence St. Peter, before he heard from Christ: "Feed my sheep," was asked by Him three times: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" John chapter XXI, 15.
Thomas Bozius extends this further, in tome II of De Notis Ecclesiae, sign 88, to cities and churches built by Christians in formerly deserted places. For he teaches there that lands previously uninhabitable were made habitable and populous through Christianity. Thus he shows from Tacitus, Strabo, Seneca and Herodian that Germany, which now as a Christian land has so many and such great cities, was uncultivated before Christ, and in many places a desert. He teaches the same of Britain, namely that it did not have in paganism even a hundredth part of the cities, fields, and their fruits which it now possesses. He teaches the same of Poland, Prussia, Livonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Gothland, Ireland, the Azores, the Canary Islands, and the Indies both West and East. See the same author, sign 73, at the end, book XV, where among other things he adds at the end: "Indeed to the vast regions of the Indies it was granted that they be freed from the greatest storms and earthquakes through the Eucharist, preserved in temples erected by the establishment of the worship of Christ: as Gonzalus of Oviedo, chapter X of the General History, and Lopez, book III, chapter VI, attest." The cause of this change is twofold: The first is God's favor and blessing; the second is that the Christian faith polishes not only the spirit but also reason, civil life and human nature, and makes men shrewd, industrious, hard-working, as well as sociable, civil and humane, so that they build cities and states, cultivate fields, practice the mechanical arts, etc. Just as therefore in Paradise, on account of Adam's faith and innocence, God blessed him and the whole earth; so He also blessed the same, on account of the holiness of the second Adam, namely Christ and Christians. The Sibyl predicted this very thing, as recorded by Lactantius, book VII, when she sang thus:
And then indeed God will give great joy to mankind: For the earth, and the trees, and the innumerable flocks of the earth Will give true fruit to men, Of the sweetest wine and honey, and of bright milk, And of wheat, which is the best of all things for men.
And in Virgil, Eclogue IV:
Gradually the field will grow golden with soft grain, And the blushing grape will hang from uncultivated thorns, And the hard oaks will sweat dewy honey.
Anagogically, "the foundations of ages" are the heavenly mansions and seats, from which the angels once fell, and became demons. For their ruins, deserted and vacant for so many ages, will be filled up and repaired by almsgivers and holy men. So Sanchez.
Finally, our Jerome Prado takes these words of bodily construction, meaning: You shall restore the buildings of the Church, whether ruined by infidels, or by heretics, or collapsed through the negligence or avarice of the inhabitants, or by some other cause: whose foundations, that is, substructures, alone remain, and have stood alone for many ages.
AND YOU SHALL BE CALLED THE REPAIRER OF THE BREACH, TURNING PATHS TO REST. — "You shall be called," that is, you shall be, so that you may rightly be so called. Historically, he alludes to and signifies the walls of Jerusalem (for it is often called a vineyard, whose walls are hedges), which were broken by the Chaldeans, so that paths through them into the city lay open to all, even animals and men, and which were restored by Nehemiah and others; so that with the paths blocked, the city was now safe from the enemy, and lived in peace. Hence Forerius and Vatablus translate: You shall be called the one who blocks the breach, or who hedges the fracture, or the restorer of the ruin, restoring to quiet the paths (which led to the breach in the wall). For he who repairs ruins turns away the paths that led to the ruins and breaches; and so restores to quiet both the paths and the citizens and inhabitants: for he makes it so that no one, especially an enemy, may tread those paths and invade the citizens. Again, by this quiet, he signifies that these blockages will last forever, and will not be like those which vine-dressers make in vineyards, and farmers in fields. For travelers break these down again, and travel by the same paths. So Forerius: "Turning paths to rest" therefore means the same as the one who blocks and destroys the paths through which beasts and enemies entered to devastate the vineyards and houses, and therefore the author of quiet. These words could also, with Sanchez, be taken literally of the vineyards of Judea, whose hedges, torn down by the Chaldeans, were restored by the Jews returning from Babylon. But parabolically, under the vineyards of Judea and Jerusalem, he understands the vineyards, that is, the Churches of Christ, meaning: You shall be and shall be called the builder of hedges, that is, the one who hedges and fortifies the Church, and blocks the approaches through which the devil and vices were breaking in; and thus preventing the unity or discipline of the Church from being relaxed, and restoring the ancient simplicity and integrity of faith, as a wall. So from St. Ambrose, Castrius and Procopius, who by these hedges understand heavenly doctrine and the fear of God. For when restless pride, gluttony, envy, and every concupiscence are suppressed and shut out, the Church and its faithful are restored to quiet.
Therefore the builder of hedges should be the Prelate and preacher, who ought to hedge the consciences of the people with the thorns of threats of death, judgment and hell, says Haymo. For the sinner is like a common road, through which anger, lust, gluttony, and all vices, like wild beasts, pass and rage with impunity, says St. Cyril, because he lacks this hedge.
Such builders of hedges were and are the restorers of religious discipline, and specifically of cloister. For this, as the Council of Trent and experience itself teach, is the hedge and wall of religion, so much so that if anyone wishes to restore collapsed discipline in some monastery or college, he must above all restore cloister and silence. For with these restored, the rest is easily repaired. Such a builder of hedges was St. Romuald, who at the age of twenty embraced the Order of St. Benedict, then becoming an anchorite, founded the Order of the Camaldolese, and spent almost a hundred years in it: for he died at the age of 120, in the year of Christ's birth 1027. In these years, by his wonderful austerity, solitude, prayer and holiness and zeal, so that he seemed not so much an earthly man as a heavenly angel; he reformed the monasteries of St. Benedict in Italy and France, built very many new ones, founded many of his Order, filled hermitages with hermits; so much so that Peter Orseolo, Duke of Venice, and many other most noble men, ran to him eagerly, and embraced the monastic or eremitic life: so that the whole world seemed to be illuminated and renewed by the rays of his virtues, and to be living a golden age, as Blessed Peter Damian the Cardinal, his follower and intimate friend, recounts in his Life.
Moreover, how acceptable these are to God, and how He loves and protects them, He has often declared by miracles. One most illustrious one is related by St. Peter the Venerable, who flourished in the year of Christ 1100, book I of Miracles, chapter XXII: The nuns, he says, of Marcigny, enclosed in their salutary cloister, and (so to speak) buried in a life-giving burial, await for their present confinement an eternal breadth: for their tomb, a blessed resurrection. Hence they chose rather to die than to go out, to perish than to cross the threshold of their appointed door. This became apparent when in the surrounding village houses, a fire broke out at a certain time by accident. For when Hugo, Archbishop of Lyon, urged them, indeed commanded them under obedience, to go out, and not to allow themselves to be burned; one of them, of the highest nobility and way of life, named Guisla, whom he himself had seen many times, inflamed by the Spirit and by faith, replied: "Father, the fear of God and the command of our Abbess, that we might escape the eternal fire, enclosed us within these limits which you see, to remain until death. Hence it is in no way possible that under any necessity we should cross, even by a single footstep, the bounds of penance fixed for us; unless we are released by him who in the name of the Lord enclosed us in this place. Therefore, my lord, please do not enjoin upon us what we are not permitted to do; but just as you command us to flee the fire, so rather, armed with the power of Christ our Lord, command the fire to flee from us." The Archbishop, stupefied at this woman's faith, and himself suddenly filled with faith, went outside, and gazing at the flames, with his face bathed in tears, said: "In the name of the Lord, and through the merit of the faith of this woman who has just spoken, depart, pestilent fire, from the dwellings of the handmaids of God, and presume no longer to cause any damage." When these words had been spoken by the Bishop (as those who saw it testified to me), suddenly the immensity of the flames, restrained by an invisible power, as if blocked by an iron wall, was unable to proceed further.
St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, as Sulpicius Severus has it, Dialogue II On His Life, chapter XIII, once passing by the little field of a certain virgin, in which she had been living for many years in modesty, removed from the sight of all men, having heard of her faith and virtue, turned aside to honor with a religious visit a maiden of such illustrious merit. But she did not relax the bonds of her most firm resolution even at the thought of Martin. So the blessed man, having received through some woman a praiseworthy excuse, departed happy from the door of her who had not given herself to be seen or greeted. O glorious virgin, who did not permit herself to be seen even by so great a man! The Bishop, however, did not take that refusal as an insult to himself, but magnifying her virtue along with her excuse, praised the example, unusual at least in those regions. So far Sulpicius.
Violante, Queen of Aragon, as Peter Ranzano relates in the Life of St. Vincent, book II, chapter IX, wife of King John, moved by a certain feminine curiosity, desired to enter the cell of the man of God, so that she might see what kind of place it was in which he prayed, what kind of bed in which he rested. And since she could not obtain this from the blessed man (for it seemed wrong to him that women should enter the cells of the servants of God); she, indignant, ordered the door of the cell to be opened by force. And immediately entering the places she desired to see, she saw them indeed, but the man of God, who was inside, neither she nor those who accompanied her could see. She therefore inquires from the Brothers, whom she found in the cell, where blessed Vincent was. They respond that he was before her eyes: and they say they are greatly amazed that she does not see him, since he was in an open place, where he could be seen by all. After they said this to the queen, turning to the man of God Vincent: "What is the reason," they say, "best Father, that you do not rise for the queen who has come to you? Nor do you address her?" But he said: "Do you not know, my sons, that it was never permitted by us that women be introduced into our cells? And although this woman is a queen, yet I did not permit her to enter, lest I become a respecter of persons. And because she committed this violence, daring to enter against my will; therefore as long as she remains in this place, it will happen by a divine miracle that her eyes will be held, so that although I am before her, she can never see me." Hearing this, the queen immediately departed: and Vincent followed her. Seeing him, she was wonderfully humbled before him, and asked pardon for what she had done. To whom Blessed Vincent said: "If you had not sinned through womanly ignorance, you certainly would not have committed so great a violence against me with impunity; for God is the avenger of injuries inflicted on His servants. Therefore from now on take care that you commit nothing of this kind against the servants of God." After many conversations between them, the queen departed.
St. Fiacre, an Irishman, as his Life of August 24 relates, living in a monastery he had built, having been accused of sorcery by a woman visiting the monastery on account of an illustrious miracle he had performed, prayed: "May no woman henceforth enter the precincts of this place unpunished." Therefore from that time, a certain divine power forbade the female sex from entering the monastery, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and no woman set foot there with impunity. For a certain wealthy matron, who had forced her maidservant by her own hand into the monastery, to test what she had heard, was deprived of one eye, while the servant was unharmed, since she had been unable to resist her mistress's force and compulsion. A similar punishment overtook a woman who boldly entered the monastery of St. Calais, as is related in his Life.
These therefore are the builders of hedges and those who turn paths to quiet; these are they who avert the wrath of God, and win His favor. Hence for "builder of hedges," Aquila translates: paraphraktisma choles, that is, one who opposes himself to the raging wrath of God; Symmachus, one who sets up a wall against the falling; "such as were Moses, and Aaron, and Samuel, who withstood the wrath of the Lord, and as if building a wall, set a limit to His indignation. He will turn the paths to quiet, so that the wrath of God may by no means rage; but the Lord may be appeased toward them, and all the paths of indignation may be at rest," says St. Jerome.
Verse 13: IF YOU TURN AWAY YOUR FOOT FROM THE SABBATH. — "From the Sabbath," that is, from transgressing the Sabbath....
13. IF YOU TURN AWAY YOUR FOOT FROM THE SABBATH. — "From the Sabbath," that is, from transgressing the Sabbath. See Canon XVII. "Your foot," because on the Sabbath a long journey, and every servile work, done with feet or hands, was forbidden.
Mystically, by the foot is signified the affection and concupiscence; for by these the soul is moved, as the body by feet.
It is a synecdoche: for by the Sabbath he understands all feast days, the entire religion and worship of God, namely the law of the first table; just as in verse 10, he designated the law of the second table by "mercy" and its works, meaning: Do not think that the observance of the second table suffices, and that God wants mercy only, not sacrifice: behold, here I likewise impress upon you the Sabbath, the law of the first table and the worship of God. In a similar way, in chapter LVI, verse 1 and 2, he signified the whole law, both of the second and first table, by "justice" and "the Sabbath." Hence explaining, he adds: And "if you turn away" (for this must be repeated here by zeugma) "from doing your own will on my holy day." For the Sabbath is called the holy day of God, because it was dedicated to His worship; just as the remaining days can be called the profane days of men, because they were permitted and given for their profane occupations, meaning: If on the Sabbath you not only rest from work, but also do not follow your own will and concupiscences, indulging in gluttony and pleasure, but devote yourself to prayer, preaching, reading, meditation; if you do not profane the Sabbath by following your will, that is, the caprice of your passions; but as from work, so equally observe from vices a sabbath, that is, leisure and rest.
AND CALL THE SABBATH A DELIGHT (that is, to be delicately and tenderly observed, or "a delight," that is, a source of delights, both yours and the Lord's; because God will take great delight (for this is what the Hebrew oneg means) from the religious worship of Himself on the Sabbath), AND THE HOLY DAY OF THE LORD GLORIOUS (as if to say: If you call, esteem and honor the Sabbath as a holy day, dedicated to the glory and glorification of the Lord. Let us learn from this that on the Sabbath, that is, on Sunday, we should not seek our own glory, by walking pompously and dressing ourselves splendidly; but God's: and let this be glorious for us, that the glory of God is celebrated through us and through others, and let us be eager to promote it. And this, O faithful one, O Christian, you will do), WHILE YOU DO NOT
FOLLOW YOUR OWN WAYS (that is, your habitual acts, habits and vices) AND YOUR OWN WILL IS NOT FOUND, — so as to fill your gluttony and concupiscence; but so that you may be wholly free for knowing, loving and fulfilling the will of God. For this reason God forbade the Jews to cook food on the Sabbath, both so that they would not be distracted from divine things by cooking; and so that food cooked the day before would be less tasty and more insipid, and thus would not provoke gluttony, but the mind, thought and whole soul would be directed to God and His worship; for when we renounce the pleasures of the flesh, we make ourselves fit for tasting heavenly and divine pleasures. So Forerius.
Again St. Cyril says: "Submissive, tractable and compliant habits provide a tender rest on the Sabbath, and a spiritual sabbatism." Therefore he calls it a tender, or delicate Sabbath, one that is observed by a tender, that is, flexible and obedient mind. Hence in Song of Songs I, 9, it is said to the bride: "Your neck (is flexible and compliant) like jewels," which are made of pliant gold, and follow in all things the goldsmith's guiding and bending. So Theodoret, and from him Sanchez. St. Cyril adds: "Therefore those who wish to be approved by God must vigorously and energetically fight against their own will, so as to follow and fulfill the divine will."
SO AS TO SPEAK A WORD, — namely, one which "is useless," as he said at verse 9, meaning: If on the Sabbath you abstain from vain, ridiculous, trifling, slanderous, mocking, wanton, obscene and quarrelsome conversations, as the Septuagint translate. For to these the leisure of the Sabbath invites carnal men, and these are often discussed on the Sabbath, that is, on Sundays and Feast days, even among Christians.
Verse 14: THEN YOU SHALL DELIGHT IN THE LORD. — He here promises three rewards to those who observe the Sabbath and w...
14. THEN YOU SHALL DELIGHT IN THE LORD. — He here promises three rewards to those who observe the Sabbath and worship God: the first, that they shall have great spiritual delight, and, as the Septuagint say, confidence in God. In Hebrew, for "you shall delight" there is the same word oneg which was in verse 13, meaning: If on the Sabbath you withdraw yourself from the delights of the flesh, God will give you His own delights, far greater, namely, for carnal He will give spiritual, for temporal eternal, for human divine. For our soul cannot be without delight; but if it does not have one, it seeks another: therefore God, indulging this natural inclination, offers His own to it, if it rejects the earthly. Having experienced this, David sang: "My soul refused to be comforted; I remembered God, and was delighted;" and: "My heart and my flesh rejoiced in the living God. For when the spirit is tasted, all flesh loses its savor." Just as a king's son, raised rustically among country folk, if returning to the court he tastes its delights, he disdains all rustic pleasures.
AND I WILL LIFT YOU UP (Vatablus, I will make you ride, or carry you) ABOVE THE HEIGHTS OF THE EARTH. — This is the second reward. By "heights" Sanchez understands the richness of the land, promised to the Jews; for land, if it is elevated, abounds in vineyards and fruits. Hence the Septuagint translate: He will raise you above the good things of the earth. But these august words and promises of God look at something higher and more august: namely, the heights of heaven, which are the land and seat, not of the dying, but of the living. Yet I confess there is an allusion to what Moses said to the Jews: "He set him upon the high land, that he might eat the fruits of the fields, that he might suck honey from the rock, and oil from the hardest stone, butter," etc., Deuteronomy XXXII, 13.
But beneath these He understands spiritual and far greater things, and the Prophet promises them to the faithful and to the worshippers of Christ, meaning: If you worship God and honor His feasts, God will lift you up on high, so that with your mind fixed on God and heaven, with a great spirit you may despise this point of earth and all earthly things, whether prosperous or adverse; whether honors or contempt; whether riches and delights, or poverty; and after death, in soul, and at last in body as well, He will really transfer you to heaven.
The "heights of the earth" therefore are the highest and heavenly land, of which St. Jerome says: "The land of the meek, and the land of the living is not below, but above." Hear St. Gregory, Moralia XXXI, chapter XIX: "It is the mark of the elect," he says, "that through the certainty of hope they know they have already arrived at the heights, so that they see all things that pass away as beneath them, and so they trample on everything that stands out in the world with the love of eternity. For hence it is that the Lord says through the Prophet to the soul that follows Him: I will lift you up above the heights of the earth. For there are, as it were, certain lower things of the earth: losses, insults, poverty, abjection, which even the lovers of this world, while walking along the plain of the broad way, never cease to trample on by avoiding them. But the heights of the earth are the gains of possessions, the flattery of subjects, the abundance of riches, the honor and loftiness of dignities; which, whoever still walks through base desires, esteems as high in the very fact that he thinks them great. But if once the heart is fixed on heavenly things, immediately it is seen how lowly are the things that seemed lofty." Then he compares such persons to eagles, which nest in high places, such as St. Paul was, saying: "Our citizenship is in heaven." See what was said there.
For just as pearls, although they originate in the sea, yet have more kinship with heaven, whose color, whiteness, light and beauty they represent in their own way, so that they seem to be heavenly; so just men, who with lofty spirits cultivate divine studies and works on earth, depend more on heaven than on earth, and are more heavenly than earthly: because they are citizens of heaven, and guests and pilgrims on earth. Hence, established in heaven as on a high mountain, they look down on all things that are here below on earth, as things of exile, and enjoying God and the goods of God with blessed minds, they disdain to look at earthly things, or to think about them: just as a country maiden, chosen by the king as his bride on account of her beauty, enjoying his table and company, disdains to think about her former countryside and rustics.
How great a good this loftiness of mind is, and how great a reward of virtue, even the pagans saw, though from afar and through a shadow. Seneca, epistle 27: "Look around for some good that will last," he says, "but there is none except what the mind finds for itself from itself; virtue alone provides perpetual, secure joy: even if something stands in the way, it intervenes like clouds, which are borne below and never overcome the day." For, as the same says, epistle 58: "The mind of the wise man is of the same quality as the state of the world above the moon," namely, as another says: A perpetual serenity violated by no cloud. "For that upper and more orderly part of the world is neither compressed into cloud, nor driven into storm, nor spun into a whirlwind; it is free from all tumult. In the same way the lofty mind is always quiet, and placed in a calm station, modest, venerable and composed." Hence, as he says, epistle 120: "He never groaned at misfortunes, never complained of his fate;" and epistle 92: "What is the happy life? Security and perpetual tranquility." This is what St. Ambrose teaches, book I of Offices, chapter II: "Divine Scripture," he says, "placed the happy life in the knowledge of the divine, and in the fruit of good works;" and chapter III: "Innocence and knowledge make one happy;" and in the whole of chapter IV, he teaches that blessedness is acquired through pains and hardships, by the example of Moses, Daniel, Paul, and other Saints. The same elsewhere: "Tranquility of conscience and security of innocence make the happy life." See the same, book I On the Happy Life, chapter VII and following. On this loftiness of mind, which conquers all passions and circumstances, and is the parent of the happy life, Cicero discourses at length in his five books of Tusculan Disputations, and in paradoxes II, V and VI, and at the end of Tusculan II. He says: "If we do all things for the sake of avoiding shame and attaining honor, we may despise not only the stings of pain, but even the thunderbolts of fortune." The same elsewhere: "Then," he says, "that inestimable good will arise (from virtue): the repose of a mind placed in safety and its sublimity, and, terrors having been expelled, great and immovable joy from the knowledge of truth, and the affability and expansiveness of the mind, in which it will delight not as in goods, but as in things sprung from the good." Hence the Stoics derived their famous paradox: "The wise man is happy even amid torments; because unconquered from on high he looks upon his pains;" and, as Cicero says: "He despises the entire kingdom of fortune. So Epicurus," says Seneca, epistle 92, "when about to die, said: I am spending this happiest and last day, while difficulty of urination tormented him on one side, and on the other the insatiable pain of an ulcerated stomach." Therefore, as the same says elsewhere: "Even if the body itself, full of good conscience, should be dripping (in torture), the fire will please him, through which good faith will shine forth." St. Ambrose agrees, book On Jacob, chapter VII: "The wise man," he says, "is not broken by bodily pains, nor harassed by disadvantages; but even in afflictions he remains happy; because not
in the delight of the body does the blessedness of life consist, but in a conscience pure from every stain of sin." Hence that apatheia of the wise man, not of nature, but of virtue and of a lofty mind. For granted that he feels the pains of nature, yet the mind and virtue, overcoming them and sustaining them unconquered, as it were does not feel them.
Thus St. Tiburtius the Martyr, walking on burning coals, exulted as if he were walking on roses. Thus St. Lawrence, roasted on a gridiron, exulted in spirit, so that he even mocked the tyrant Decius. Thus St. Vincent, amid continual torments, always rising higher in spirit, drove Dacian to astonishment, and almost to madness. Thus Anthony, when he had received the most humble letters from the Emperor Constantine, as if from a son to a father, and his companions made much of this, said: "It should not seem a great thing that kings of this world send letters to the servants of God; for although they seem to have somewhat more power, yet the nature of all is the same, and the same is the condition of living and dying. But this truly is great, that God has sent His letters, that is, the law indicating His will, to us, and has spoken to us through His Son."
St. Columban, coming to the court of Theodoric, king of France; when the king arranged for a supper to be served to him with royal pomp and a long train of servants, he himself turned away in face and voice, saying: "The Most High rejects the gifts of the impious, and it is unworthy that the mouths of the servants of God should be polluted with the food of one who wages unjust war against them." So his Life relates.
St. Gregory, book I of the Register, epistle 5, speaking of himself, when he was still a monk and not yet Pope: "Desiring nothing in this world," he says, "fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to be standing on a certain summit of things, so that I believed what I had learned from the Prophet by the Lord's promise to be fully fulfilled in me: I will lift you up above the heights of the earth," etc.
Such was the loftiness of spirit, and the resulting freedom of reproof, of Moses against Pharaoh, Nathan against David, Elijah against Ahab, Elisha against Joram, Isaiah against Manasseh, Jeremiah against Zedekiah. Give us, O Lord, these spirits, lift us above the heights of the earth, "that amid worldly vanities and vicissitudes, our hearts may be fixed where true joys are." For, as St. Cyprian says, book II, epistle 2 to Donatus: "There is one peaceful and faithful tranquility, one solid, firm and perpetual security, if anyone, extracted from the tempests of this restless world, established in the station of a saving harbor, raises his eyes from earth to heaven; and admitted to the Lord's gift, and now in mind close to his God, he glories that whatever among others seems lofty and great in human affairs lies beneath his conscience. He can no longer desire anything, no longer wish for anything from the world, who is greater than the world;" and shortly after: "After the soul, looking at heaven, has recognized its Author, it is higher than the sun, and more sublime than all earthly power; it begins to be what it believes itself to be."
AND I WILL FEED YOU WITH THE INHERITANCE OF JACOB YOUR FATHER. — This is the third reward of the Sabbath and the worship of God, meaning: I will give you those signal goods which I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, namely the delights and riches of heavenly grace and the virtues; and then of glory and eternal happiness in heaven. For the Church militant begins and tends toward the Church triumphant. He alludes to the land promised to the Jews: for to this He brought back from Babylon those who hoped in Him and worshipped Him, meaning: Not this Jewish land, but one far higher, namely the land of the living, will I give you, and there I will feed you with those banquets which "neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man." So St. Jerome, Cyril and Procopius. Now to confirm these things, and fix them more deeply in the mind of each, he adds the customary seal of the Prophets, saying: "For the mouth of the Lord (which can neither be deceived nor deceive) has spoken."
St. Bernard says brilliantly, sermon 21 on the Song of Songs: "You shall be," he says, "amid the adverse and prosperous changes of mutable times, holding a certain image of eternity, namely this inviolable and unshaken equanimity of a constant mind, blessing the Lord at all times, when you have begun to renew and reform yourself in that ancient and distinguished likeness of the eternal God, in whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration. For as He Himself is, so also shall you be in this world, neither timid in adversity, nor dissolute in prosperity." The same St. Bernard then adds that man is renewed to this primeval image of God, "when he considers it unworthy of himself to be conformed to this passing world, being more eager to be reformed (according to Paul's teaching) in the newness of his mind into that likeness in which he knows he was created; and through this also compelling, as is fitting, this world, which was made for his sake, in turn to be marvelously conformed to him: when all things begin to work together for his good, as if in their proper and natural form, casting off their degenerate appearance, recognizing their lord, for whose service they were created. Hence I judge that that saying which the Only-begotten spoke about Himself (John XII), namely that if He were lifted up from the earth, He would draw all things to Himself, can also be common to all His brothers: to those, that is, whom the Father foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth (I say boldly), will draw all things to myself. For I do not rashly claim for myself the words of Him whose likeness I put on in myself." Thus therefore God exalts His own, so that each one may also rule over all created things as a kind of little god: if indeed he has been lifted up from the earth; that is, if by despising the earth and all earthly things, he has risen above them.
You see here, O Christian, how great the rewards are that God has appointed for mercy and piety! If the world has anything to compare with these, let it be loved; if not, why do we hesitate? Certainly, when I examine these words, and at the same time look around, and see how few there are who delight in the Lord, and being lifted above the clouds dwell in heaven; then I plainly understand that very few are those who are truly merciful, and worshippers of the true God; for I know that the mouth of the Lord speaks and promises true things through the Prophet. This therefore is to be mourned and lamented, says Forerius.
Symbolically, Christ feeds us with Himself in the Eucharist. For this is His inheritance, left by testament to the Church, which, as St. Bernard says, sermon On the Lord's Supper, is "Jesus, sweet, Jesus delightful, endowed with every virtue, adorned with every beauty; sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, fairer in form than the sons of men; with whose sweetness the Angels are inebriated, whose beauty the sun and moon admire. He, so great and so mighty, said to His disciples, and through them to all His faithful: Abide in me, and I will abide in you." Wherefore he exclaims: "O how great the sublimity, O the authority of such great sublimity, that man should dwell with Angels, that earth and dust should be raised to the heavens, that man should be lifted from the dung of beasts, and gathered into the company of Angels, nay that the creature should remain in the Creator, the made in the Maker, the redeemed in the Redeemer, the servant in the Lord, the sinner in the Just One, the one made from clay in Him who made all things from nothing, the transitory in the Eternal, the wretched in the supremely Blessed; indeed in Him who makes all blessed things blessed, and sanctifies all holy things, who is the truth and the life, and the everlasting glory, the joy of the world, the delight of heaven, the sweetness of paradise, blessed eternity, and eternal blessedness, namely Christ the Lord Jesus!"