Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
This chapter is similar to the preceding one, and of the same argument: for it continues prophesying the reprobation of the Jews; and the calling, propagation, glory, and happiness of the Church of the Gentiles. Wherefore first, God rejects the temple and sacrifices of the Jews, because they spurned Him who called them, and He threatens them with confusion and disaster. Then, verse 7, He foretells the birth and numerous offspring of the Church, to which He promises the breasts of consolation, peace, delights, and the glory of the nations. Third, verse 15, He passes to the last judgment, and says that God will come in fire and whirlwind, to judge and slay idolaters and the impious. Fourth, verse 19, He recapitulates what has been said throughout the whole book about the mission of the Apostles to the nations, that they may announce to them the glory of God and of Christ; and He foretells that they will come to Christ and the Church in great number and joy, easily and conveniently, and that from among them priests and Levites will be chosen, who will persevere forever. Finally, verse 23, He says they will have a perpetual feast and joy, and that they will see the corpses of the impious, whose worm shall not die, and whose fire shall not be extinguished.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 66:1-24
1. Thus says the Lord: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What is this house that you would build for Me? And what is this place of My rest? 2. My hand made all these things, and all these things came into being, says the Lord; but to whom shall I look, except to the poor and humble one, contrite in spirit, and who trembles at My words? 3. He who sacrifices an ox is like one who kills a man; he who slaughters a sheep is like one who breaks a dog's neck; he who offers an oblation is like one who offers swine's blood; he who burns incense is like one who blesses an idol. They have chosen all these things in their own ways, and their soul has delighted in their abominations. 4. Therefore I also will choose their mockeries, and I will bring upon them what they feared; because I called, and there was none who answered; I spoke, and they did not hear; and they did evil in My sight, and chose what I did not will. 5. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: your brothers who hate you and cast you out for My name's sake have said: "Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see your joy"; but they themselves shall be confounded. 6. A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord rendering retribution to His enemies. 7. Before she was in labor, she brought forth; before her pangs came, she brought forth a male child. 8. Who has ever heard such a thing? And who has seen anything like this? Shall the earth bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born all at once? For Zion was in labor and brought forth her children. 9. Shall I, who make others give birth, not give birth Myself, says the Lord? If I, who grant generation to the rest, shall I be barren, says the Lord your God? 10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, 11. that you may suck and be filled from the breast of her consolation; that you may drink deeply and delight in the abundance of all her glory. 12. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will turn toward her like a river of peace, and like an overflowing torrent the glory of the nations, which you shall drink; you shall be carried at the breast, and upon the knees they shall caress you. 13. As a mother caresses her child, so I will comfort you, and in Jerusalem you shall be comforted. 14. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, and He shall be indignant against His enemies. 15. For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His fury in indignation, and His rebuke in flames of fire; 16. for in fire the Lord will judge, and with His sword against all flesh, and those slain by the Lord shall be multiplied, 17. those who sanctified themselves and thought themselves clean in gardens behind the door within, who ate swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse — they shall be consumed together, says the Lord. 18. But I know their works and their thoughts; I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory. 19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those of them who have been saved to the nations — to the sea, to Africa and Lydia, those who draw the bow; to Italy and Greece, to distant islands, to those who have not heard of Me and have not seen My glory. And they shall announce My glory to the nations, 20. and they shall bring all your brothers from all nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and in wagons, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. 21. And I will take from among them priests and Levites, says the Lord. 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I am making, stand before Me, says the Lord, so shall your seed and your name stand. 23. And it shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath; all flesh shall come to worship before My face, says the Lord. 24. And they shall go out and see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; and they shall be a spectacle unto all flesh.
Verse 1: 1. "Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool." — Foolishly Peter Martyr, book I Against Gardiner,...
1. "Heaven is My throne, and earth My footstool." — Foolishly Peter Martyr, book I Against Gardiner, part I, argues from this: God is in heaven, therefore He is not in the Eucharist: "He must therefore be sought in heaven," he says, "not in a temple or pyx, unless we wish the throne of God and heaven to be contained in a pyx." Foolishly, I say, for God is indeed in heaven; but He is not confined there, for He is also on earth, in the air, and everywhere.
For the sense of the Prophet, then, note: Lest we understand the holy mountain mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter to be Zion; and again, lest we take what Isaiah said from chapter XL up to this point about the destruction of Jerusalem, its rebuilding, and the glory of Zion, in a carnal sense with the Jews, as referring to the earthly and Jewish Zion and Jerusalem — for this reason God removes and demolishes this opinion, and teaches that He will reject it, and in its place will adopt for Himself the Church of the Gentiles. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: You, O Jews, think that I am devoted to your Zion and its temple, and that I am fixed to it as to My throne, so that I cannot be torn from it; and therefore you glory in it, you think it will be unconquered and eternal, you cover your crimes with it, and think yourselves invincible, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. You are deceived, you err by the whole breadth of heaven, wretched and dull men. For I am an omnipotent and immense spirit; therefore I am not contained by a place, nor do I delight in one; and to show this, I will abolish Zion with its temple and sacrifices. For I fill heaven and earth, indeed I surpass them, and extend Myself further through the immense spaces of the void. The whole heaven is but a tiny throne for Me, on which I show My glory and royal, indeed divine, magnificence to the Angels and the Blessed; the whole earth is for Me like a small footstool (He speaks of Himself as if a man and king, sitting on a throne, using anthropopathism); moreover, I delight in a spirit that is contrite and obedient, and, as the Septuagint has it, humble and quiet. So St. Jerome, St. Cyril, Procopius. Therefore Theodoret and Ambrose on Psalm XXX teach from this passage that the humble and meek are the temple of God, in which Christ, the true Solomon, who is our peace, rests. Hence St. Gregory, V Moral. XXX: "When He said 'humble,'" he says, "He immediately added 'quiet.' If therefore one thus removes the quiet of the mind, he closes his dwelling to the Holy Spirit."
St. Hilary asks, in his book On the Trinity: If heaven is the throne of God, and earth His footstool, how then is it said elsewhere that God contains heaven in His palm, and earth in His fist? And he answers that these things are said of God anthropopathically, to denote His various attributes: for in the throne and footstool, according to the posture of one sitting, the extension of the body, that is, royal majesty is understood; but in the containing by palm and fist, God's immensity is described, so that by heaven and earth it is signified that God is within and without, supereminent and interior, that is, poured around and infused into all things;
but in the palm and fist containing all things, His infinite magnitude is shown, by which He extends Himself immensely beyond all created things, and contains them on every side with His fist, indeed with His finger. See also St. Gregory, II Moral. VIII.
Allegorically, Origen on Matthew chapter XXI says: The Church militant here on earth is the footstool of God, of which it is said: "When all things shall have been subjected to Him"; and that He will make His enemies the footstool of His feet. It is a great blessedness to be made from enemies into the footstool of God, and to be subjected to God.
Symbolically, heaven is the divinity, earth the humanity. Hence St. Augustine explains that verse of Psalm XCVIII: "Adore His footstool," as if to say: Adore the humanity of Christ.
Finally, St. Bernard elegantly, in his treatise On the Steps of Humility, step 1, proves from this that the devil has his place neither in heaven nor on earth, since God occupies those, but in the air: "What will you do," he says, "cast out of heaven? You cannot remain on earth; choose therefore a place for yourself in the air — not for sitting, but for flying, so that you who attempted to shake the state of eternity may feel the punishment of your own restlessness."
"What is this house that you would build for Me?" — Isaiah in the person of the Jews complained, in chapter LXIV, verse 11, that the house of God had been burned by the Romans: "In which," he says, "our fathers praised You," as if requesting that God take care that it be rebuilt. To this God responds that the house which the Jews desire or plan to rebuild is a small thing. Moreover, heaven and earth, and consequently all things that would be used for the construction of the temple, were created by God, and therefore just as He has them in His hand, so He does not need them, nor does He take delight in them. Third, His temple is not material but spiritual, just as He Himself is spirit, namely the contrite in spirit, and those who tremble at the words of God. See what was said on chapter LVII, verse 15.
Verse 2: 2. "The poor one" — that is, the humble, as Vatablus translates: for the humble and the poor are rel...
2. "The poor one" — that is, the humble, as Vatablus translates: for the humble and the poor are related, since poverty depresses and humbles lofty spirits. Hence in Hebrew עני (ani) signifies both the poor and the humble. Poverty is therefore a sapphire throne, upon which God sits with majesty. Hear St. Bernard, homily 1 on Missus est: "Upon whom," he says, "does My Spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet? He said 'upon the humble,' not 'upon the virgin.' If therefore Mary had not been humble, the Holy Spirit would not have rested upon her, nor would He have made her conceive. For how would she conceive of Him without Him? She herself says: He has regarded the humility of His handmaid, rather than her virginity; although her virginity was pleasing, yet she conceived through humility. Hence it is clear that even for her virginity to be pleasing, humility without doubt made it so."
"Trembling." — This word signifies immense reverence and fear: for from this trembling arises, just as children tremble at the sharper voice of parents or teachers. Who would not tremble at the voice of God, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords?
Verse 3: 3. "He who sacrifices an ox is like one who kills a man." — God here declares that He detests the sa...
3. "He who sacrifices an ox is like one who kills a man." — God here declares that He detests the sacrifices of the Jews, and compares them to homicide, the slaughter of a dog, the offering of swine's blood, and idolatry — all of which were forbidden and abominable to the Jews by either the law of nature or the Mosaic law. And this not because God detested the old sacrifices, since He Himself had instituted them; but first, because He abhorred the offerers and sacrificers themselves, inasmuch as they placed all piety in the worship of sacrifices, while meanwhile they violated the law and devoted themselves to robberies, lusts, and other crimes. For this is what He says at the end of verse 3: "They have chosen all these things in their own ways, and their soul has delighted in their abominations." This is also what Isaiah proposed as the argument of the whole prophecy at its beginning (and hence here, at the same point, he closes and concludes it), saying in chapter I, 11: "What is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me? etc. Who has required these things from your hands, that you should walk in My courts? Incense is an abomination to Me," etc. Second, He speaks thus of the Mosaic victims because He looks to the times of Christ, when these sacrifices were abolished, and indeed became deadly. For these things refer to Christ, as I have already often shown, and is clear here from verse 7 and following. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Procopius, Theodoret, and others everywhere.
"He who slaughters a sheep is like one who breaks a dog's neck." — In Hebrew ערף (oreph), that is, one who breaks the neck, or cuts off the neck of a dog; in Chaldean, one who flays; the Septuagint has, one who kills. He says the same thing with another foul and horrible comparison: for this is what "breaks its neck" implies, as if to say: He who slaughters a sheep for God does something ungrateful, hateful, and unworthy to Him, as if he were slaughtering a dog for Him. For St. Jerome rightly notes from the old law: "neither the wages of a prostitute, nor the price of a dog, could be offered in the house of God, because both animals are prone to lust." Add that the dog is the vilest of animals, and it would be an abominable sacrifice if one were to brain it for God.
"Oblation." — The Hebrew מנחה (mincha) is a grain offering, discussed in Leviticus II; it extends, however, to any offering.
"He who burns incense" (by remembering he offers and burns — it is a metalepsis) "is like one who blesses an idol" — that is to say: I abhor the one who burns incense or perfume for Me, for the reasons already stated, as if he were burning it for an idol. Note: The burning of incense is here called remembrance and blessing, because in it they used to remember God, or the idol to whom they were offering incense, and to bless him, that is, to celebrate him with praises and hymns.
"They have chosen all these things in their own ways" — that is to say: By this pretended appearance of religion they deceive not Me, but themselves, because they meanwhile delight and persist in their abominations, that is, in their abominable sins.
Verse 4: 4. "Therefore I also will choose their mockeries" — that is to say: By their sacrifices, these wicke...
4. "Therefore I also will choose their mockeries" — that is to say: By their sacrifices, these wicked men do not so much honor Me as mock and jest; for that feigned and masked appearance of piety with which they veil their crimes is not so much the worship of God as a mockery and derision. Hence I likewise will mock them, and will send upon them mockeries, so that they may be captured, slaughtered, and mocked by the Romans. So Cyril and Procopius.
Verse 5: 5. "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word" (God here turns from the wicked and unbe...
5. "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word" (God here turns from the wicked and unbelieving to the pious and believing, those of verse 2, namely from the Jews to the Christians, from the hardened Israel to the Israel obedient to Christ, that is, to the Apostles and the first faithful, whom Christ chose from Israel. To these God speaks as consoler): "Your brothers who hate you have said," etc. — that is to say: O My Apostles, your brothers according to the flesh, namely the Jews, have hated you and cast you out for My name's sake, that is, for the faith of My Christ, and have said mockingly: "Let the Lord be glorified," that is, let Christ, your crucified God, show His glory by rising and performing other miracles, so that you may rejoice, and we may see your joy and His glory — as if to say: From a dead and crucified God, no joy or glory will come to you, but rather sorrow, confusion, and shame. But these mockers themselves will be confounded; for Christ, rising, will show His glory through Paul and the other Apostles, and will convict and confound them, and finally through Titus and the Romans will punish them with the utmost destruction and confusion. For behold, I already seem to hear the voice of the people sounding from the city — struck with terror and wailing at the siege of the Romans — and the voice of angels crying out from the temple: "Let us depart from here"; and the voice of the Lord crying out both through the Prophets and through others, especially through a certain Jesus, that destruction was imminent for the Jews, His enemies. For Jesus the son of Ananus, a rustic man, when Titus and the destruction were approaching, for four years used these very words of Isaiah, and driven by enthusiasm, constantly day and night going through the streets would cry out: "A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against all the people: Woe, woe, woe to Jerusalem!" — until, while shouting the same words with an even louder voice from the wall and adding: "Woe to Jerusalem and to me!" he was struck by a stone launched from a siege engine and died, as Josephus testifies, book VII of the War, chapter XII. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Haymo, Adam, Forerius, and others.
Hear St. Jerome: "'Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy' — the meaning of this verse is: Why do you introduce a humble God to us? Why a crucified one and a man of sorrows, who knows how to bear infirmities? We wish to see Him reigning in His majesty (as you claim), and we will look upon Him triumphing in His glory; we cannot bear to see one who is humble and lowly."
Note the Hebraism, "we shall see in your joy," that is, we shall see your joy. For the Hebrews construct verbs of contact, both physical and spiritual (such as vision, which as it were touches the thing seen by its gaze) with ב, that is, "in" or the ablative.
Verse 7: 7. "Before she was in labor, she brought forth." — He speaks of the assembly of the pious, namely th...
7. "Before she was in labor, she brought forth." — He speaks of the assembly of the pious, namely the Apostles and the faithful, who tremble at the word of the Lord, as He said in verse 5 — that is, of the Church. The male child is Christ, or, which amounts to the same, Christians, whom Herod, the Jews, and others persecuted, just as Pharaoh of old killed the male children of the Hebrews, Exodus chapter I, 16; for he alludes to this.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The Synagogue under Abraham and Moses grew gradually and slowly, and was propagated through the generation of sons and grandsons, whom Pharaoh attempted to kill. But the Church of Christ, "before she was in labor," that is, suddenly, without the long ministry, suffering, and toil of those in labor, through the Apostles who went forth from Zion, will bear very many Christians throughout the whole world for Christ, at that time when the Jews who mocked them will be slaughtered by the Romans, as was described above. That this is the meaning is clear from what follows. That it happened this way is established from Acts II, 3, where by the first sermon of Peter three thousand people, and soon another five thousand, are reported to have been converted to Christ and regenerated in His baptism. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Cyril here, Ambrose, in Exhortation to Virgins. He does not deny the labor pains and suffering of the Apostles, but says they will be brief and simultaneous with a most joyful birth, which will therefore soon lull and wipe away all the anguish of labor.
He alludes to the birth of the Blessed Virgin: for she "brought forth a male child," both in sex and in strength, namely Christ, "before she was in labor," that is, without the pain, delay, and uncleanness of those in labor, as Gregory of Nyssa says in his oration On the Resurrection, and Damascene, book IV On the Faith, chapter XV (who explain these words of the Blessed Virgin). Hence the Septuagint translates: Before the pain of labor came, she escaped and brought forth a male child. Therefore these words can be applied literally to the birth of Christ, as if to say: The assembly of those who fear God, namely the faithful and pious Synagogue, through the Blessed Virgin brought forth a male child, who then brought forth many other male children. Again, the Synagogue of the Apostles brought forth Christ in the souls of believers, when it made them Christians and lovers of God — and these are male, that is, of manly and most courageous spirit, such as were the countless Martyrs who labored for the faith; the unconquered Virgins who fought for chastity; the Anchorites, Monks, and other Confessors who generously labored and fought for virtue and holiness even unto death.
Therefore there is one male child, says St. Ambrose in the passage cited, whom the Blessed Virgin brought forth, and whom the Church brings forth in the faithful: because Christ, with them as His members, is one body, and as it were one civil person, and one man. See what was said on I Corinthians chapter XII, 12 and 27. St. John alluded to this, Apocalypse chapter XII, 1, where he speaks symbolically of the Church as a woman who at the end of the world will bring forth male children, that is, most robust martyrs, who will fight against the dragon, that is, the devil and the Antichrist, even unto death. By this male child, therefore, is denoted the manly fortitude of the faithful people against all the allurements of the flesh: "For," says Cyril, "the Christian people is not softened by effeminacy; it is endowed with a manly and youthful spirit." Hence it is clear that those who degenerate from a manly state into feminine allurements are unworthy of the Christian name and of the Church as their mother.
Hence learn tropologically that the saints are called "males" in Scripture; for Christian virtue requires force; force demands a manly spirit. For this is what Christ says: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it." On the contrary, the wicked, being soft and pleasure-seeking, are called "feminine." So St. Jerome here, and on chapter II of Ecclesiastes, and St. Ambrose, book I On Cain and Abel, chapter X, at the end.
Verse 8: 8. "Shall the earth bring forth in one day?" (as if to say: No, for it needs much time for the seed...
8. "Shall the earth bring forth in one day?" (as if to say: No, for it needs much time for the seed to sprout, grow, and bear fruit.) "Or shall a nation be born all at once?" (as if to say: By no means, for so numerous an offspring as to constitute a nation is not generated in one day, but over many years and centuries, as was the case with the lineage of Abraham. This therefore is a marvel unheard of in all ages, as was stated above, that the Church in one day, that is, in a short time, bore many thousands, and entire nations, for Christ, and that not successively, nor with great pain and anguish;) "for" (simultaneously and as it were in the same instant) "Zion was in labor and brought forth" (that is, the Church) "her children." — Note: The word "for" (quia) here is adversative, and means the same as "nevertheless" or "but indeed." See Canon XXIV.
Verse 9: 9. "Shall I, who make others give birth, not give birth Myself?" — He speaks literally of birth, tha...
9. "Shall I, who make others give birth, not give birth Myself?" — He speaks literally of birth, that is, of the conversion of the nations to the faith through the baptism of Christ, as if to say: This sudden generation and multiplication of Christians will not happen by natural power, as was said, nor by the strength of the Apostles or other men, but by My divine power. For I, who make others give birth, am endowed with the greatest and infinite power of begetting; and therefore in an instant I can beget infinite numbers, that is, generate them.
The Scholastic Doctors argue from a similar principle that natural fecundity in God is immense and most efficacious, namely that God the Father from eternity can, and does in fact, generate the Word consubstantial and equal to Himself: because He Himself causes man to generate a man consubstantial with himself and equal in nature, and He grants to all who generate and give birth the power of generating and giving birth. Why then should He who makes others beget naturally not Himself naturally beget, that is, generate, a Son consubstantial (homoousios) with Himself? But the Prophet does not intend this here, as is clear from what has been said.
Verse 10: 10. "Rejoice with Jerusalem." — He here invites the faithful to exult over Jerusalem, that is, over...
10. "Rejoice with Jerusalem." — He here invites the faithful to exult over Jerusalem, that is, over the propagation and glory of the Church, because they previously mourned when they saw its smallness, namely that there were so few and lowly Christians, whom the Jews and the nations persecuted.
Verse 11: 11. "That you may suck" (that is, "and suck," or "because you will suck"). — For "that" (ut) here an...
11. "That you may suck" (that is, "and suck," or "because you will suck"). — For "that" (ut) here and elsewhere does not signify purpose, but connection and consequence, or the cause of joy. See Canon XXIV. He alludes to crying and weeping infants, whom mothers quiet and console by putting them to the breast, so that by sucking they stop crying.
Verse 12: 12. "Behold, I will turn toward her like a river of peace" — that is, overflowing peace, so that it...
12. "Behold, I will turn toward her like a river of peace" — that is, overflowing peace, so that it seems to be not so much peace as a torrent and river of peace, which will intoxicate, indeed overwhelm you with the abundance of all things (for this is what "peace" signifies to the Hebrews). This is the cause of the joy of the faithful, or why He said: "Rejoice with Jerusalem," etc.
These things are true in the Church militant, but will be truer in the Church triumphant. Hence St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapter XXI, refers these and the following words to the latter: for there will be full peace, an abundance of delights, and there God, Christ, the Virgin Mother of God, and all the Angels and Saints will console us most perfectly and tenderly. So also St. Jerome and others. For in this life the Church remains under the cross and death, yet she has her breasts of consolation and glory. Hence it follows:
"You shall be carried at the breast, and upon the knees they shall caress you." — For "at the breast," the Hebrew has על צד (al tsad), that is, "at the side." Hence the Septuagint translates, ἐπ' ὤμων ἀχθήσονται, that is, "they shall be carried on the shoulders." Our translator either read שד (shad), meaning "breast," instead of צד (tsad); or took "side" by catachresis for "breast," which is at the side — and this aptly and prudently. For "you shall suck" preceded: and breasts are what are sucked. Again, because it follows: "As a mother caresses her child, so I will comfort you." For mothers usually caress their little ones and console them when they cry, by giving them the breast. So in chapter LX, verse 4, where it says: "Your daughters shall rise from the side"; others translate: your daughters shall be nursed at the breast, because "side" signifies the lateral breast. He transfers the discourse from the Church to her faithful and children: hence he passes from the singular to the plural. Moreover, by breasts and knees he understands both the nations — for of these He said: "You shall suck the glory of the nations" — and God and the Church, as in verse 11, as if to say: You, O faithful, will be cherished and nourished, both by rich and powerful nations, indeed by kings and princes, and by God and the Church, and her pastors and rulers, as tenderly and generously as little children are accustomed to be treated by their mothers: for mothers are wont to carry these at the breast, to set them on their knees, to caress them, and to kiss them. So St. Jerome and Cyril. See Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Pedagogue, chapter V.
Verse 14: 14. "Your bones shall flourish like grass." — Symmachus translates, "they shall blossom," as if to s...
14. "Your bones shall flourish like grass." — Symmachus translates, "they shall blossom," as if to say: So great will your joy be that your bones, squalid, withered, and as it were dead from sorrow, will seem to revive and bloom again. For just as sadness dries the bones and consumes the marrow, so joy irrigates, moistens, and invigorates them with its sap and marrow. This is what the Wise Man says, Proverbs XVII, 22: "A joyful heart makes a flourishing youth; a sorrowful spirit dries the bones." Hence the Jews, captive and afflicted in Babylon, are compared to dry bones, which God made to come alive again when He led them back from Babylon to their homeland, Ezekiel chapter XXXVII, 1 and following.
Second, this will happen properly in the resurrection: for then the bones of the Saints, long since dead and decayed, will come back to life; just as grass, dead in winter, turns green again and revives in spring when it begins to sprout. So St. Jerome here, and St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapter XXI; Irenaeus, book V Against Heresies, XV; Tertullian, book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter XXXI.
For this reason, even to this day the bones of Saints have often been seen to sprout and, as it were, come back to life in their tombs, as if to portend and begin the future resurrection. Evagrius, book II, chapter III, and Nicephorus, book XV, chapter III, report that a copious red liquid like blood flowed from the body of St. Euphemia, virgin and martyr, to such a degree that not only the Emperor and the Bishop, but the entire populace who used to gather there, enjoyed it; and that those drops never failed at any time; nor was that sacred blood changed in any respect, but perpetually retained its red color. They add that a wonderful fragrance, surpassing all human perfumes, was breathed forth from her tomb. Furthermore, Nicephorus, book XVIII, chapter XXXI, relates that the Emperor Maurice, doubting the authenticity of the miracle, shrewdly investigated the matter and discovered its truth by experience, since when he approached, a more copious than usual sweet-smelling blood flowed from her bones.
The same Nicephorus, book XVIII, chapter XXXII, relates that a similar liquid flowed from the body of the martyr Glyceria, which was caught in a basin placed beneath; and when the Bishop unknowingly substituted a silver vessel that had been used for magical arts, the liquid stopped. Struck by this new development, the Bishop had recourse to prayer, and by divine impulse removed that vessel and substituted another, and immediately the liquid began to flow as before.
From the body of Euthymius the Abbot, and of Elizabeth of Hungary, oil used to flow, by which many sick people were healed.
From the bones of St. Hedwig, Duchess of Poland, a pure and clear liquid flowed, like the sweetest oil of wonderful fragrance.
The same happened to the bones of St. Salomea, who was the sister of King Boleslaus, and after the death of her husband Coloman lived in chastity, and departed this life around the year of the Lord 1263, about whom see Cromer, book IX.
Procopius, oration I On the Buildings of Justinian, reports that the Emperor Justinian, suffering from an incurable disease and having despaired of all medical counsel, requested that certain relics that had recently been discovered be brought to him and placed on his knee where the pain was greatest. When this was done, not only did the pain depart, but oil suddenly flowed from them, with which both the reliquary and the feet and purple garment of the Emperor were completely drenched.
It is well known that the blood of St. Januarius in an ampulla, when placed near the head of the same saint, though it had been solid before, immediately liquefies, stirs, and bubbles as if endowed with the vital spirit.
That the body of St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, which is preserved at Bari, emits a liquid that heals very many diseases, is known to all, and the Emperor Manuel testifies to this in his Novella on feast days, where he also mentions the water that flows from the body of St. Andrew, which is preserved at Amalfi.
Famous in Montefalco, a city of Italy, is an ampulla of blood that flowed from the body of St. Clare: this coagulated blood, whenever some calamity threatens the Christian commonwealth, is accustomed to liquefy, leap up, and boil over, and eyewitnesses attest that this happened shortly before Cyprus was captured by the Turks. These and more things are recorded by Thomas Bozius, volume II of the Marks of the Church, sign 66, book XV, chapter X. Do you want bones of Saints that properly sprout? From the mouth of the skull of St. Magdalene a vine sprouted, and by this sign she revealed her relics to Charles, King of Sicily, appearing to him in prison and freeing him from it, as Doctor Silvester Prieras reports, and from him Surius in the Life of St. Magdalene on July 22.
St. Dorothy, having suffered martyrdom, in the middle of winter sent spring roses to the advocate Theophilus, who had mockingly requested this from her before her death. And he, seeing these, was converted to the faith of Christ and became a martyr. So her Life has it, on February 6. Thus we read in the Lives of holy Virgins that from their tombs lilies or roses have more than once sprouted. Hence the Church rightly sings: "Your Saints, O Lord, shall flourish like the lily, and like the fragrance of balsam they shall be before You."
But hear something more wonderful. The body of St. Edmund, King of the English and martyr, was found so sound and intact after many years that — not to mention that the head was reattached and joined to the body — there was absolutely no wound, no scar apparent in it, so that it was most similar to a living person. Only on his neck, as a sign of martyrdom, there glowed a very thin line like a scarlet thread; moreover, his nails and hair continued to grow, which a certain pious matron who stayed at his tomb for many years used to trim annually. So reports Abbo, Abbot of Fleury, in his Life, who also adds that when the blessed king's head had been cut off and hidden by the wicked soldiers in thorns, and could not be found despite searching, the head itself uttered a voice, indicating to the searchers the place where it was. Finally, a wolf sent by God was its guardian, which, clasping that sacred head between its forelegs, lay on the ground, performing funeral rites for the martyr and not permitting it to be harmed by any beast. Thus in beasts was fulfilled that vow of Dido, by which she summons an avenger from her bones against Aeneas and the Romans, saying in Aeneid IV:
"Arise, some avenger, from my bones, who will pursue the Trojan settlers with fire and sword."
"The hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants" — that is to say: Then the faithful who fear God will know the hand of the Lord, that is, first, God's fatherly care and indulgence toward them; second, His power and might, by which He will cause a few fishermen, uneducated and unlettered, namely the Apostles, to subject the whole world to the crucified Christ. Hence the Apostle calls the cross of Christ the power and wisdom of God, I Corinthians I, 23.
"And He shall be indignant against His enemies" — both by devastating the Jews through Titus and the Romans, and by condemning them and all the wicked on the day of judgment. For He passes to this when He adds:
Verse 15: 15. "For behold, the Lord will come in fire." — First, Forerius refers these words to the first comi...
15. "For behold, the Lord will come in fire." — First, Forerius refers these words to the first coming of Christ, of whom He Himself said: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I will but that it be kindled?" Luke XII. And: "I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," Matthew X. The Gospel, therefore, is the fire of life for the pious and holy, whom it inflames to the love of God and kindles to zeal for the house and glory of God; but it is pestilent and deadly to the wicked, who are hardened by it, on account of which they will also be delivered to another fire, the inextinguishable fire of hell. Again, the Gospel is the sword of life for the pious, whom it separates from the world and perishing things, and, as St. Basil says, from the conversation according to the flesh; but for the wicked, who are devoted to the world and the flesh, it is the sword of death, delivering them to hell, where there is the second and eternal death. The Gospel, therefore, like a sword separates the just from the unjust. Hence Christ says He came for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. And Simeon says of Him that He came for the fall and the resurrection of many.
Second, more aptly St. Jerome, Cyril here, and St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, XXI, and Cyprian, in his book On the Good of Patience, near the end, refer these words to the last judgment. Therefore by fire understand the fire of the conflagration of the world, of which Psalm XCVI, 3: "Fire shall go before Him." Again, fire symbolically signifies, first, that in the judgment of God all things will be clear and transparent, as Theodoret and Cyprian say in the passage cited; second, the power, zeal, and efficacy of divine justice and vengeance, as St. Jerome and Augustine say, book XX of the City of God, XXI.
Moreover, by chariots and four-horse teams, the majesty of God as victor and judge is signified metaphorically. So St. Jerome, although St. Augustine and Cyril understand them as angels. The whirlwind signifies His swiftness and force. Additionally, by the sword He means punishment. See Canon XXVI, hence He adds: "And those slain by the Lord shall be multiplied," as if to say: Christ will slay many, indeed all, the reprobate — that is, He will thrust them into hell and eternal death.
Verse 17: 17. "Those who sanctified themselves and thought themselves clean in gardens" — that is to say: Thos...
17. "Those who sanctified themselves and thought themselves clean in gardens" — that is to say: Those who sanctified and purified themselves in gardens, by washing themselves with expiatory waters and sacrificing to idols. For of such waters Aeneas says in Virgil, book II: "Until I wash myself in living water," and Persius, Satire 2: "You who purge the night (nocturnal lust) in the river." For the Jews in the time of Isaiah imitated these pagan rites, and Christ will judge and punish the sins of these and of their posterity and all men on the day of judgment. Add that, although in the time of Christ the Jews did not publicly and by common consent worship idols, yet who would deny that some of them, through association with idolaters, worshipped them privately and secretly? Surely Isaiah seems to be speaking of these here.
St. Jerome adds that they practiced luxury in the gardens. "In places," he says, "of delights and pleasures, that is, in the most pleasant gardens, they built baptisteries, thinking to wash away adulteries and all the filthiness of lusts with simple waters." Isaiah is saying, as it were: After the lust they practice in the gardens, they sanctify themselves, that is, they wash themselves right there behind the door within, and so they think they have expiated their crime.
"Behind the door." — Here in the Hebrew there is a variant reading, and hence a varied translation, and still more varied explanation. First, the Chaldean translates, crowd after crowd; he seems to have read אחר אחר (achar achar), that is, one after another, that is, one group after another continuously, that is, crowd after crowd. Second, Symmachus and Theodoret, reading אחד אחד (echad echad), translate one after one. Third, commonly they read אחר אחד (achar achad), which first the Syriac translates, one after another. Second, Forerius takes it as one who is foreign, namely God, as if to say: A foreign god was in their midst when they ate swine's flesh. Third, a certain distinguished Hebrew translates it as after one, that is, after God — because since God is one, they called God echad, or achad, that is, One. And from that achad the name of the God Adad seems to be derived, about whom Macrobius writes in book I of the Saturnalia, chapter XXX, where he says: "The Assyrians gave the name Adad to the God whom they venerate as the highest and greatest. The interpretation of this name signifies 'One' (the Hebrew achad means the same). They therefore worship Him as the most powerful God." He then adds that "Adad" is the sun, and therefore is depicted "with rays inclined downward, by which it is shown that the power of heaven resides in the rays of the sun, which are sent down to earth." Hence Trismegistus in the Poimandres, chapter IV, says of God: "God is a monad; that unity which is the beginning containing every number, contained by none." And Psellus says: "Unity, though it is not a number, is nevertheless the progenitor of numbers, the source, root, and cause of all multiplicity, and the express image of God, who, though He is none of the natural things, is nevertheless the maker of all natural things." When Parmenides asserted that "being is one," he meant God: for he conceded the true appellation of Being to God alone, since He exists through Himself, and all other things through Him, according to Exodus chapter III: "I am who I am."
Finally, our translator most aptly renders it "behind one," namely one door; for this is the one way into a house. Hence the Septuagint also translates, on the thresholds.
You will ask, why did they do these things behind the door? I answer, first, so that in a more hidden place, in secret and seclusion, with doors closed, they might practice their idolatry and lust — for both are shameful and therefore seek hiding places. Second, because at the entrance of the house, behind the doors, they placed their idols or household gods, so that entry and exit might be propitious.
Hence St. Augustine, book IV of the City of God, chapter VIII, says: They set three gods to guard the doors — Forculus for the doors, Cardea for the hinge, Limentinus for the threshold. Hence they also prepared banquets before them beside the doors, and during these they made libations to them. And this is what Isaiah means here, and he implies the same in chapter LVII, 8. Moreover, they did these things in houses both private and, even more, in public and sacred buildings, that is, in shrines which they customarily built in gardens among the trees for pleasure; just as even now the Mohammedans build their mosques in such places. So Arias.
"And the abomination" — that is, unclean foods forbidden by the law, such as the raw broth of peace offerings, says Forerius. Also foods sacrificed to idols, that is, idol-meats: for here he censures both idolatry and excess, that is, the intemperate consumption of foods forbidden by the law.
"And the mouse." — The Hebrew עכבר (achbar) also signifies the dormouse: for the eating of the mouse or dormouse is forbidden to the Jews, Leviticus XI, 29. Moreover, that dormice were also considered a delicacy by the Romans, Varro teaches in book III On Agriculture, chapter XV, where he testifies that enclosures were made for fattening dormice — for dormice are fat, and indeed grow fatter through sleep. Hear Martial, book XIII, depicting the dormouse:
"The whole winter is slept through by me, and I am fatter at that season when nothing but sleep nourishes me."
The dormouse is therefore a symbol of the fat, sleepy vice of sloth.
Verse 18: 18. "But I know their works." — Supply: I will punish them severely; or rather, as the Septuagint ha...
18. "But I know their works." — Supply: I will punish them severely; or rather, as the Septuagint has it, I have found them out. As if to say: I have seen and know their crimes, which they perpetrate behind the door, or elsewhere in secret. This is an aposiopesis. For the Roman editions separate these words from what follows by a period, although Adam connects them. But whether you connect or separate them, they must be referred to the following: for our Vulgate translation compels us to do so.
"I am coming to gather all nations and tongues." — "Gather" — whom or what? Some supply and repeat from verse 2, those who tremble at the words of God. But this is too long and remote a repetition. Therefore it is better: "to gather," namely, the wicked works and those who work wickedly, about whom He immediately spoke above. As if to say: I am coming to gather the wicked Jews and their sacrilegious works together with all nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and to set them before all as a spectacle, as it were in a public theater of the world. For there I will gather both Jews and gentiles, to judge them publicly before all angels and men, and to punish or reward each according to their merits. There, then, they will see My glory, that is, the glorious vengeance upon the wicked and the glorious rewards of the Saints. Again, the Jews will see My glory, by which I shall descend gloriously from heaven with all the saints and angels, with great power and majesty, as King and Judge of the world, whose humility in His first coming they saw and despised. So Adam thinks.
Therefore, more plainly, with the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Pagninus, Forerius, and Vatablus, it can be translated from the Hebrew: I am coming to gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come, and they shall see My glory, namely, the glory of Christ the Judge already mentioned.
Verse 19: 19. "And I will set a sign among them." — Here Isaiah springs back from the wicked to the pious, fro...
19. "And I will set a sign among them." — Here Isaiah springs back from the wicked to the pious, from the second coming of Christ to the first. For here he makes a brief recapitulation of his prophecy, in which he summarily repeats and recapitulates the whole work of Christ's redemption, which he has treated throughout this entire book — namely the grace of the New Testament, especially the propagation of the faith among all nations from the time of Christ to the end of the world, and the day of universal judgment and resurrection — and there he ends the prophecy. So St. Cyril and Adam here, and St. Augustine, XX City of God, XXI. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Before I gather all nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, I will first raise among them a sign, as it were a standard — the cross — to which I will summon and gather all nations. And therefore I will send from those first ones who have been saved, that is, justified and sanctified by Christ and called to eternal salvation — namely, I will send the Apostles to the nations across the sea (to island and overseas peoples) and to Africa, and to Lydia, etc., so that from the whole world they may summon peoples to the standard of the cross and the faith and salvation of Christ. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret.
Some take the sign to mean the temples and altars erected everywhere among the nations by the Apostles. Others take the sign to mean the character of Baptism and Confirmation, by which Christ marks His flock and His soldiers, and Cardinal Bellarmine proves this in book II On the Effect of the Sacraments, chapter XX, near the end. Others, finally, and more aptly, take this sign to mean the charisms of the Holy Spirit, such as the tongues of fire given to the Apostles at Pentecost. For by these they were then marked, not only as friends and ministers, but also as Apostles of God and Christ, and setting forth from there to the sea, Africa, and Lydia, etc., they converted the nations to Christ by this sign.
"Those who have been saved." — This can also be translated with Forerius as: those who shall save others.
"Those who draw the bow." — Refer this to the word "nations" which preceded, as if to say: I will send the Apostles to the nations, namely the Africans and Lydians, skilled in archery, that is, armed and fierce; but I will make it so that they do not fear them, but rather convert them, says St. Jerome. For "drawing" the Hebrew has מושכי (moseche), which the Septuagint retains as if it were a proper noun, by which Leo de Castro understands the Muscovites or Moscovites. Others refer "drawing" to the Apostles: for they were the archers of God, indeed the sharp arrows of the Mighty One, who pierced and pricked the hearts of the nations with the love and fear of God.
"Italy." — In Hebrew it is תובל (Tubal): by which, says St. Jerome, Spain can also be understood. For Tubal, the son of Japheth, inhabited Spain, as I said on Genesis X, 2, and from him they say the city of Setubal, which exists in Lusitania (Portugal), was founded and named.
"Those who have not heard of Me, and have not seen My glory" — as the Jews saw it on Sinai and in the temple of Solomon. As if to say: I did not show My glory to the Gentiles in the Synagogue, but I will show it to them, and indeed a more august glory, in the Church.
Verse 20: 20. "They shall bring all your brothers from all nations as an offering to the Lord." — He turns His...
20. "They shall bring all your brothers from all nations as an offering to the Lord." — He turns His discourse to the first who were saved, that is, the faithful from Israel whom He named in verse 19, as if to say: O Israelites converted to Christ, the Apostles will bring you brothers from the nations, namely believers in Christ, as a gift, indeed as an offering to the Lord. For "gift" the Hebrew has מנחה (mincha), that is, gift, offering, sacrifice.
Morally, note that the noblest gift and victim for God is a soul, if you lead it from unbelief to faith, or from iniquity to holiness. Thus the Apostle, Romans XV, 16, says he is a priest whose Mass or liturgy is the Gospel, and whose victim is the converted nations. Therefore St. Gregory truly and rightly says, homily 12 on Ezekiel: "No sacrifice," he says, "is so great to the Almighty as zeal for souls."
"On horses and in chariots." — Note that by these are understood all manner of aids and comforts, both human, angelic, and divine, as if to say: Conveniently and easily, through so many helps, the nations will be brought to the faith and the Church. For although the way of the cross, penance, and mortification, through which they must travel, is harsh, yet the Apostles will soften it by word and example, the angels by their assistance, and Christ by His grace and spiritual consolations — by which He makes it so that once the spirit is tasted, the flesh loses its savor, and out of love for God and hope of heavenly glory, they joyfully overcome all hardships and count them as nothing, indeed glory in them. So St. Jerome and Augustine, XX City of God, XXI.
He alludes to the Jews returning from Babylon to Judea: for these, with Cyrus's favor, returned to their homeland comfortably and joyfully.
"As the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord" — as if to say: As precious and pleasing to God were the clean offerings, offered to Him by clean persons in a clean vessel under the old law, so clean, precious, and pleasing to God will be the Gentiles now sanctified through the holy Apostles, offered to Him in holy baptism. For Baptism and the other Sacraments are the clean and holy vessels of God.
Verse 21: 21. "I will take from among them" (the Gentiles) "priests and Levites" — that is, deacons and other...
21. "I will take from among them" (the Gentiles) "priests and Levites" — that is, deacons and other ministers of the Church. Formerly only Jews, indeed only those descended from the tribe of Levi, could be priests and Levites; but Christ chose them from every nation. Therefore not all Christians are priests, as Chemnitz would have it. For no person of sound mind would say that these are selected and chosen from among Christians in that sense, as Gregory of Valencia, among others, rightly noted in On the Eucharistic Sacrifice, disputation 6, Question XI, point I.
Verse 22: 22. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I am making, stand before Me" — as if to say: J...
22. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I am making, stand before Me" — as if to say: Just as a lord makes his servant stand before him to receive and carry out his commands, and serve at his beck and call, so the heavens and the earth stand before Me and serve Me at My command. Moreover, the new heavens and the new earth are the heavens and earth to be renewed at the resurrection; mystically they are the kingdom of God, or the Church, discussed in the preceding chapter, verse 17. The meaning is: Just as these heavens with the earth, to be renewed, will endure forever and serve Me, so your seed, that is, the faithful converted by you, O Apostles, and your name will endure forever. As if to say: The old priesthood and Testament will come to an end in Christ; but the new priesthood — namely, the ministry of sacred ministers chosen from the Gentiles, that is, the progeny of Peter and Paul and the other Apostles — will last as long as heaven and earth, that is, it will last for all eternity. For through it they will stand before God in all glory and jubilation, and will praise God; and so they will offer Him perpetual sacrifices of mouth and heart, namely hymns, thanksgivings, doxologies, etc. So St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Forerius, Adam, and others. Gradually the Prophet passes imperceptibly to the future age, so as to end the prophecy in it.
Verse 23: 23. "And it shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath." — First, Forerius explains it th...
23. "And it shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath." — First, Forerius explains it thus, as if to say: The faithful each month and each sabbath, that is, on Sundays and feast days, will come to the temple to hear Mass and the word of God, and also to confess, receive communion, etc., as was done in the primitive Church, and in this age again (praise be to God) is beginning to happen.
He alludes to the old feasts and sacrifices, which ceased for the Jews held captive in Babylon, but were restored to them when they returned.
Second, Sanchez explains it, as if to say: Formerly under the old law, sacrifices were offered only on certain days, namely feast days such as the new moon, the sabbath, etc., and only three times a year did all go to the temple; but under the new law there will be a continual feast. For every day the most august sacrifice of the Eucharist will be offered to God, which anyone can offer daily — by himself, if he is a priest; through a priest, if he is a layman. Again, in the Church there is daily feast upon feast, because each day it celebrates in the Ecclesiastical Office the memory and feast of some holy Martyr, Virgin, or Confessor. This applies especially at Rome, where almost daily we venerate and visit new Roman martyrs, and their churches, stations, and relics on their feast days — both to implore and obtain their patronage, as we truly do obtain it. Hence it was revealed by God to St. Bridget that the way to heaven is easy at Rome: for this reason she herself chose to live and die at Rome. And also so that we may be stirred by their examples to heroic works of virtue. For these domestic examples of theirs, these illustrious triumphs of fortitude, chastity, and charity, which constantly strike our eyes, have a wonderful power to kindle sluggish souls. "The solemnities of the martyrs are exhortations to martyrdom, so that we may not be reluctant to imitate what it delights us to celebrate," says St. Augustine, sermon 47 On the Times.
For this reason many pious kings and princes, both from England and elsewhere, formerly came to Rome, to lead a pious life there and to conclude it with a pious end and passage.
So did Caedwalla, King of the Britons, about whom hear Bede, book V of the History, chapter VII: "He came to Rome, desiring to obtain this singular glory, that he should be washed at the threshold of the Blessed Apostles in the font of baptism; hoping also that, soon after being baptized, freed from the flesh, he might pass, now clean, to eternal joys — both of which things, as he had planned in his mind, were accomplished with the Lord's help. For arriving there, when Sergius held the pontificate, he was baptized on the holy Saturday of Easter, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 689, and while still wearing the white garments, seized by illness on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, he was freed from the flesh and united with the company of the Blessed in heaven." He adds that he took the name Peter in baptism, and was buried in the basilica of St. Peter; and he recites his epitaph.
Likewise Coenred, King of the Mercians, after reigning for six years, migrated to Rome in the year of the Lord 709, as Bede writes in his Epitome.
Anastasius writes thus of two other kings in the time of Constantine: "In his time two kings of the Saxons came to the prayers of the Apostles with many others, and swiftly (as they wished) ended their lives." Paul the Deacon writes the same, and adds: "In these times many of the English nation, both noble and common, men and women, by the impulse of divine love, were accustomed to come to Rome."
Ina, King of the Britons, successor of Caedwalla, "after holding the kingdom for 37 years, leaving it and entrusting it to younger men, set out for the threshold of the Apostles, when Gregory II was Pope, desiring to go on pilgrimage for a time near the holy places on earth, so that he might more intimately merit to be received by the Saints in heaven," says Bede in the passage cited. At Rome, therefore, at the threshold of the Apostles, he embraced the monastic life, and rested in the Lord with a holy end, as Baronius reports from the English Annals, in the year of Christ 740.
Nor was it only male princes, but women too who did the same. For Eadburga, surnamed Buggan, a kinswoman of King Ethelbert of Kent, betook herself to Rome to the threshold of the Apostles. Before doing so, she wrote a letter to St. Boniface, apostle of the Frisians and Thuringians, informing him of her desire and purpose — namely, that she, now aging, wished to leave her native land for love of quiet and go to Rome, so that there, living unknown at the holy threshold of the Apostles and devoted only to divine matters, she might prepare herself for death and await her last day, seeking his advice about this journey. To her St. Boniface wrote back in these words: "It seems better to me, if because of worldly liberties you can in no way have the liberty of a quiet mind in your homeland, that you acquire through pilgrimage the liberty of contemplation, if you are able and can do so, just as our sister Wietburga was doing, who informed me through her letters that through such a life she had found, near the threshold of St. Peter, the quiet that she had long sought and desired."
Moreover, this Wictburga, as is clear from letter 47 of the same St. Boniface, voluntarily shut herself up at St. Peter's in Rome in a cell like a prison, and there, enclosed, she devoted herself to the contemplative life. Cardinal Baronius records the letters of both, in the year of Christ 725.
Finally, Charlemagne, in the year of the Lord 774, made a pilgrimage to Rome; and when he approached the city, dismounting from his horse, he proceeded on foot to St. Peter's, and kissing the steps of St. Peter's one by one, was received by Pope Adrian, and then visited other churches with equal devotion. Therefore God blessed him. For on his return he captured Pavia and took Desiderius, King of the Lombards, captive, and extinguished the Lombard kingdom that had troubled Italy for so many years. Then he subjugated the Saxons. So Baronius from Anastasius and others, in the year of the Lord 774, where he also shows that Charlemagne made four pilgrimages to Rome: first, in the year 774, as I have already said; second, to fulfill a vow, in the year of the Lord 780; third, against the Duke of Benevento, in the year of the Lord 786; fourth, to restore Pope Leo to his place, in the year of the Lord 800, when he was also made Emperor.
Third, and in the genuine sense, the Prophet here passes to the future age — most happy for the good, most unhappy for the wicked — so as to plant a sting in the reader either by its horror or by love and desire of it, and thus to end the book, teaching preachers to end their sermons by planting a similar spur in their hearers.
Note therefore the Hebraism: for he calls the first day of the month a "month," which was the feast of the new moon (neomenia), called in Hebrew min chodes, that is, renewal — namely of the moon and the month, that is, the new moon, which the Jews celebrated for two reasons: first, for the benefit of divine governance; second, so that just as they paid God the first-fruits of their crops, so also they might render to God the first-fruits of their time and month. See what was said on Numbers XXVIII, 11.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: For the faithful in the Church, especially the heavenly and triumphant Church, there will be a perpetual solemnity, perpetual rest and exultation, a perpetual sabbath, a perpetual new moon — that is, a perpetual renewal of joy, grace, and glory; while on the other hand for the wicked and the damned there will be eternal fire and the worm, as follows. So Theodoret, St. Augustine, and Tertullian in the passages cited.
"All flesh" — every man: namely every faithful and holy person, every blessed one; for He speaks of these alone.
Verse 24: 24. "And they shall go out and see the corpses of the men." — First, Sanchez continues to explain th...
24. "And they shall go out and see the corpses of the men." — First, Sanchez continues to explain these words of the present Church, as if to say: The faithful in the Church, secure and safe, will go out in thought and contemplate the daily deaths of those who, outside the Church, are exposed to the snares of the devil and the sword of the Lord. Again, as Forerius says, they will go out by meditating on the punishments of the damned in hell — which is certainly a prudent and useful excursion, so that sins may be avoided, lest one be forced to enter hell. Second, St. Cyril refers these words to the devastation of the Jews by Titus. Third, and in the genuine sense, St. Augustine, Jerome, Adam, and others everywhere refer these words to the future age, as if to say: The Blessed, in mind and contemplation, or even naturally and locally if they wish, will go out of heaven to gaze up close at the punishments of the damned, which they themselves escaped by God's singular help, and in which they will see their wicked enemies rolling forever. For this will be an immense joy for them. So, says Theodoret, Lazarus in Abraham's bosom saw the soul of the rich man in hell. Indeed, St. Thomas in the Supplement, III Part, Question LXXXIV, chapter II, verse 2, teaches that the Blessed will sometimes actually go out of heaven, both to exercise the gift of agility, and to feast and delight their sight with the appearance of other creatures.
Note: The bodies of the damned, although animated, are called "corpses." First, because they will be foul, heavy, and foul-smelling, like corpses. Second, the Hebrew פגרי (pigre) also signifies sluggish, and limbs torpid with cold, or exhausted by torments. So Theodoret and De Castro. Third, because they are in eternal death and simultaneously in eternal punishment; for to signify death he said "corpses" and "worms," but to show a life more bitter than any death on account of the punishment, he said the fire is inextinguishable and their worm shall not die.
"Their worm shall not die." — "Worm," that is, worms. He alludes to the "corpses" of the damned, just mentioned; for these in this life usually teem with worms. But these worms are mortal; those in hell will be immortal — hence he adds, "shall not die." For when a man dies here, his moist and putrid flesh soon produces serpents, toads, earthworms, and other worms. These gnaw and feed on the flesh of the dead person down to the bones, and when nothing more remains for them to feed on, they gradually die and turn to earth. Thus is fulfilled that word of God to Adam: "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." But in hell, just as the corpses, so also the worm and the fire will be eternal, God always preserving them for the eternal punishment of the reprobate. The Arabic translates: Their guilt does not die, and their worm does not sleep, and their fire is not extinguished. Moreover, it is certain that the Prophet speaks of the damned in hell. For Christ explains it thus, Mark IX, 42: "It is better for you," He says, "to enter into eternal life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not extinguished." And so all interpreters understand it; therefore the preceding words too must be taken of the future age, not the present, as I said there.
The question is asked here whether there are true and properly so-called worms in hell that torment the damned. Calvin, book III of the Institutes, XXV, section 12, just as he takes the fire of hell tropically — as nothing other than God's indignation apprehended by the damned — so consequently he also takes the worms tropically. Some understand by worms thin little flames that will burst from the flesh of the wicked in a thousand places, like little worms. Again, many Catholics take the fire properly and the worm tropically, namely that the worm is pain and grief — a worm, as it were, born from the rottenness of sin, gnawing and tormenting the soul over the loss of so great a happiness that had been easy to obtain, and over the onset of so great a misery that they brought upon themselves through the difficult paths of sin. So St. Jerome and Procopius here, Ambrose on Luke XIV, book VII, Augustine, book XX of the City of God, XXI — who nevertheless asserts that the contrary opinion is equally probable; Jansen in his Concord, chapter LXXI; St. Thomas in IV Sent., distinction L, Question II, article 3, replies 1 and 2. There Soto and the Scholastics commonly. Hence Isidore also, book I On the Supreme Good, chapter XIII, posits a twofold punishment of the damned: "For both sadness," he says, "burns their mind, and flame burns their body." But it seems rather that this worm is tropological.
I say therefore that here are understood properly so-called worms, which in hell will be horrible, most foul, most biting, and eternal — just as the salamander and the pyrausta naturally live in fire. And this is so that they may be the fiercest avengers of the damned, who indulged the flesh and the concupiscence of both body and mind, and especially pride. This torment of worms will therefore be as horrible and fierce as fire; for these will not be natural worms, but formed by a miracle of God for the affliction of the wicked. And so these worms will not be afflicted by the fire, but will only afflict the wicked.
Note that Sacred Scripture mentions these worms in four places. The first is here in Isaiah; after him, Judith XVI, 21; third, Sirach VII, 19; fourth, Mark IX, 45. Now this opinion is proved: first, because Isaiah says that the corpses — that is, the bodies — of the damned, foul, putrid, and cadaverous, cast into hell, will be seen by the Blessed, and immediately adds: "Their worm shall not die" — where he sufficiently implies that these worms will belong to the bodies, which he therefore calls corpses, for these of themselves teem with worms. Second, because Sirach VII, 19 and Judith XVI, 21 clearly explain this, where they are called worms not of the soul, but of the flesh — therefore they will be bodily. For Sirach says: "The vengeance of the flesh of the wicked is fire and the worm." And Judith: "He will give fire and worms into their flesh, that they may burn and feel it forever."
Although some explain "into their flesh" thus, as if to say: Into their carnal life, that is, to punish it; and others, into the flesh that the worms will consume in the grave — yet these explanations are weak and conflict with what follows: "That they may feel it forever," and with what Christ says, Mark IX, 45: "Their worm does not die."
Third, the worm is joined to the fire: therefore just as the fire is real in hell, as the faith teaches, so too are the worms — because the connection of the words does not allow fire to be taken properly and the worm tropically, especially since, just as fire is always mentioned, so the worm is always mentioned, and nowhere does Scripture explain a figure of speech in the word "worm." And indeed, if we understand the fire, sulfur, and pitch of hell in Scripture as real, why not also the worms? Especially since it is the rule of St. Augustine and the other Fathers that in the Scriptures all things are to be taken properly, not tropically, unless an absurdity of meaning compels it. But there is nothing absurd in worms, and their life in fire, and their manner of acting, biting, and tormenting the damned — no more than in the bodies of the damned, and in the manner in which fire and sulfur act not only upon their bodies but also upon their souls. Fourth, because the Blessed will have certain most sweet pleasures of all the senses, as theologians teach: therefore the damned too will have worms and filth that afflict all their senses, and fittingly punish the illicit pleasures with which they delighted themselves in this life. Fifth, because so think Haymo here, Augustine XXI City of God IX, Basil on Psalm XXXIII at the verse "I will teach you the fear of the Lord": "In hell," he says, "there will be a venomous and flesh-eating race of innumerable worms, gnawing indeed but never sating themselves, inflicting intolerable pains with their bites."
The author of On the Threefold Dwelling, found in St. Augustine, volume IX: "In hell," he says, "there is the ferocity of beasts, the tearing by immortal worms." Pope Innocent III, book III On the Contempt of the World, chapters I, II, and following: "There will be in hell," he says, "a double worm: an interior one that gnaws the heart, and an exterior one that gnaws the body"; and chapter IV: "In hell there will be unfailing worms." Prosper, book III of The Contemplative Life, chapter XII, says the damned "are torn apart forever by most voracious worms, without end." Hugh of St. Victor, book IV On the Soul, chapter XIII: "In hell," he says, "all are burned and gnawed by worms, yet are not consumed — whose worm does not die, and whose fire is not extinguished." St. Anselm in the Elucidarium: "The third punishment," he says, "in hell is immortal worms, that is, serpents and dragons horrible in sight and hissing, who live in flame as fish live in water." Cyril indicates the same in his oration On the Departure of the Soul, where he calls it a foul and stinking worm — therefore it will be bodily, not spiritual. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and William of Paris teach the same, whom our Serarius cites and follows in Judith chapter XVI, Question II. So too thinks Gregory of Valencia, III Part, On the Beatitude and Damnation of Bodies, disputation 13, Question V, point 3.
Rightly did Scripture, when it so often threatens the wicked with worms as well as with the fires of hell, intend to signify some proper, new, and wonderful punishment of the damned — one which is not mere grief or remorse of conscience, for this is present in every punishment, and even Calvin himself never doubted that it would be in hell. For who would not know that in so great a punishment, and one that is eternal, the damned would grieve and be tortured because they brought those punishments upon themselves? Finally, the damned will be fitly punished with the worm: for since all flesh has corrupted its way, and most of the sins of the wicked are carnal — and we see lust, gluttony, and drunkenness rampant everywhere — God will aptly punish them with putrid worms, which are accustomed to arise from gluttony, lust, and the resultant putrid flesh. And He wished this to be predicted so often, so that by its horror men might restrain themselves from these sins. This is what St. Gregory writes, XVI Morals, last chapter: "The carnal sweetness of delight nourishes in the conscience the worm of pain. For what is the flesh, if not rottenness and a worm? And whoever pants after carnal desires, what else does he love but a worm? For what the substance of the flesh is, the tombs testify. What parent, what faithful friend, can touch the flesh of their beloved, however dear, when it swarms with worms? When the flesh is desired, therefore, let one consider what it is when lifeless, and one understands what one loves." He adds the reason: "For nothing so avails to tame the appetite of carnal desires as for each person to consider what that which he loves while alive is like when dead. For when carnal corruption is considered, one quickly recognizes that when the flesh is unlawfully desired, decay is what is longed for. Rightly therefore it is said of the mind of the lustful: His sweetness is a worm — because he who burns with the desire of carnal corruption pants after the stench of putrefaction."
Therefore St. Ambrose, book VII on Luke, chapter XIV, in the treatise On the Great Supper Prepared: "Just as," he says, "many fevers and worms are born from indigestion, when someone eats food intemperately, so if someone piles sins upon sins and does not digest them through penance, but mixes sins with sins, he will contract an indigestion of old and new offenses, and from this will be burned as by a fever with his own fire, and will be consumed by worms, that is, he will be tormented" — and will be tortured unto exhaustion and death, yet in such a way that he will never be exhausted or dead. As a symbol of this, God delivered certain very wicked men to be gnawed by worms while alive, such as Antiochus, from whose body worms swarmed, II Maccabees XIV, 4; and Herod, of whom Josephus says, book XI of Antiquities, chapter VIII; and Calvin, who the physician Bolsec and his disciple report was consumed by phthiriasis, that is, the pedicular disease, in his Life of Calvin.
Mystically, this worm will be the remorse of conscience, which like a worm will perpetually bite and gnaw it. On this Innocent III writes beautifully in the passage cited: "The worm of conscience," he says, "will lacerate in three ways: memory will afflict, late repentance will disturb, and anguish will torment. For they will come to the remembrance of their sins in fear, and their iniquities will testify against them face to face, saying: What has our pride profited us? And what has the boasting of our riches brought us?"
Therefore St. Bernard rightly says, book V of On Consideration, chapter XII: "This is," he says, "the worm that does not die — the memory of past things. Once cast in, or rather born through sin, it has clung fast, never thereafter to be torn away. Nor does it cease to gnaw the conscience, and fed on this food, which is indeed inexhaustible, it perpetuates its life. I shudder at the biting worm and the living death. I shudder to fall into the hands of a death that lives and a life that dies. This is the second death, which never finishes killing, but always kills. Who will grant them to die once, so that they may not die forever? Those who say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us." Wherefore St. Pachomius, a man of wondrous holiness in the time of Emperor Constantine: "Whenever an illicit thought had struck him, he would immediately repel it, and would persevere fixed in the fear of the Lord, mindful of eternal punishments and of pains remaining without end — namely, of that inextinguishable fire and the worm that never dies," says the author of his Life, chapter XVI.
IT SHALL NOT DIE. — Truly St. Gregory, book IV of the Morals, chapter VII: "The soul," he says, "is mortally immortal and immortally mortal: for it is so immortal that it can die, and so mortal that it cannot die. For it loses blessed life either through vice or through punishment. But essential life it loses neither through vice nor through punishment." For the essence of the soul never perishes, but is immortal; yet it dies spiritually when it loses God's grace, which is as it were its soul. Hence Damascene in the History of Barlaam, chapter XVIII: "Sin," he says, "is the death of the immortal soul." Again it dies when in hell it is punished and tortured forever by eternal death, that is, by the agony and pains of death.
AND THEY SHALL BE UNTO THE SATIETY OF VISION TO ALL FLESH. — For "satiety of vision" the Hebrew is דראון deraon, which, first, the Syriac and the Arabic of Antioch translate as: they shall be an astonishment or stupor to all flesh; second, the Arabic of Alexandria: it shall be an example to all flesh, that is, to all people; third, Vatablus and Forerius: they shall be unto disgust or nausea; others, unto abomination — for we abominate stinking and worm-eaten corpses, such as are especially those who lived in the delights of the belly and of lust. Better, our Translator with the Chaldee and other Hebrews took deraon as if compounded from דִּי de, that is, satiety, and ראון raon, that is, vision, as if you would say "satiety of seeing." Hence the Chaldee translates: And the impious shall be judged unto Gehenna, until the just say over them: We have seen enough. Others, and better, as if to say: They shall be an everlasting spectacle to the just. So St. Cyprian Against Demetrian, treatise I, at the end. The meaning therefore is: The Blessed will rejoice seeing the great punishments of the reprobate, the enemies of God and of themselves, seeing that they have escaped them. But this spectacle of their punishment, and the joy of the Blessed, will wondrously torment the damned — and that the Blessed are moved by none of the sufferings and lamentations of those so tortured, but rather laugh and praise the justice of God. Therefore there will be for them no consoler in eternity, no alleviation of pains; but rather God will mock them, who said in Proverbs I, 24: "Because I called, and you refused, etc., I also will laugh at your destruction and will mock." The Saints and Angels will mock them, Psalm LVII, 11: "The just man will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner." On the word deraon I will say more at Daniel XII, 3, at the end.
Here Isaiah concludes his prophecy by placing before our eyes the ultimate and supreme punishments of the damned as well as the joys of the Blessed. For what spur could be sharper than this for pursuing every virtue and abominating every sin? "The Prophet ended his book at the point at which the age will end," says St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, XXI.
See therefore here and continually consider, O Christian, the unhappy end of the impious, plainly different from the end of the pious. St. Jerome admirably shows, in epistle 24 to Marcella, how the death of St. Lea, an illustrious but devout woman, differed from the death of an unbelieving consul who had died around the same time. "Her humility was so great" (St. Lea's), he says, "that she who was once the mistress of many was thought to be the servant of all. Rough clothing, cheap food, an unkempt head. Now therefore in exchange for brief toil she enjoys eternal blessedness. She is received by the choirs of angels, warmed in the bosom of Abraham, and with the once-poor Lazarus she sees the rich man clothed in purple — not the consul wearing the palm-embroidered toga, but one in mourning black — begging for a drop from a little finger. O what a change in affairs! He who a few days before had climbed the Capitoline heights as if in triumph is now desolate and naked, confined not in the milky palace of heaven, as his wretched wife falsely claims, but in squalid darkness. But she whom the seclusion of a single small room deceived, who seemed poor and lowly, whose life was thought to be madness — she follows Christ, and says: 'As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of our God.'" Whence he concludes with great emotion: "Therefore I admonish, and weeping and groaning I testify, that while we run the course of this world's life, let us not be clothed with two tunics, that is, with a double faith; let us not be weighed down by the skins of sandals, that is, by dead works; let not the wallet of riches press us to the earth; let not the help of the rod, that is, of secular power, be sought; let us not wish to have both Christ and the world; but let eternal things succeed to brief and perishable ones, and since we die a little each day (I speak of the body), let us not think ourselves perpetual in other things, so that we may be able to be perpetual."
The poets relate that Prometheus, because he had brought down fire from heaven with a reed, was bound by Jupiter to Mount Caucasus, where an eagle perpetually devours his heart. And that Tityus, a son of the earth, because he had fallen in love with Latona, was pierced by the arrows of Apollo and condemned in the underworld to this punishment: that a vulture perpetually gnaws his liver, for when gnawed and consumed it always grows back. So report Hesiod, Ovid, and Lucan. Whence Virgil, in Aeneid VI, sings thus of him:
"And a monstrous vulture with hooked beak Pounds his immortal liver, dwelling beneath his deep Breast, nor is any rest given to the fibers that are reborn."
By this symbol they signified that the wicked are tormented day and night by their own conscience, as if by an executioner and furies. Whence Carpenteius beautifully rendered this verse of Isaiah in verse from Virgil:
"Do you seek the punishment? Horned serpents shall pound The immortal liver, ever to survive, and shall gnaw The bowels fruitful with pains, and shall supply food Sufficient for our fury, nor shall the flames be without fuel — Living flames, and unsleeping vapors."
These things I too write with sighing and groaning, as I think of the ruins of so many daily perishing and descending into Gehenna, where "their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched." And I beseech and implore you, O reader, by the bowels of the mercy of our God, by your own salvation, by the one little soul entrusted to you and committed to your care, that you always place before your eyes the living memory of eternity and of the eternal torments as well as the joys set before you by God on both sides — concerning which you here cast one throw of the die, and that an irrevocable one. Let these two things not depart from your mind: in this world, "vanity of vanities, and all is vanity" — O how much emptiness there is in things! O without Christ how vain is everything that we live! In the world to come, truth of truths, and all is truth; stability of stabilities, and all is stability; ETERNITY OF ETERNITIES, AND ALL IS ETERNITY: in heaven most joyful, in hell most miserable, where "the worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched."
Therefore, set in the midst, so live that you may live forever. Your life is unique and brief; once you have died, it will not be permitted to return to this life: to grow wise and to correct the errors committed will not be granted: the door of repentance will be closed. Foreseeing these things, be wise while you have time.
There a moment of delight, here an eternity of torment; here a moment of torment, there an eternity of delight. Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched; the glory of these shall not die, and their happiness shall not be quenched. Go now, O young man, rejoice in your youth, walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, and know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Go, O vain one, gape after vanities; sate yourself on things soon to perish, you who are to die tomorrow. O vain sons of Adam, deceitful in the balances, that they may deceive themselves from vanity in the same! O shadow, O dream, O every man living is universal vanity! Remember your Creator before the time of affliction comes, before the silver cord is snapped and the golden fillet runs back, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the dust returns to its earth whence it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. For man will go to the house of his eternity, whether above or below. Enter through the narrow gate, because wide and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter through it. How narrow the gate, and how strait the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it!