Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He commands Jerusalem to put on the garment of joy, on account of the joyful return of her children from Babylon, with God going before, and all things on the way accompanying them. So Theodoret and Hugh.
Allegorically, this is more truly fulfilled in the salvation, liberation, and glory obtained through Christ. So Lyra and Hugh.
Vulgate Text: Baruch 5:1-9
1. Put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of mourning and your affliction: and put on the beauty and honor of that everlasting glory which is from God. 2. God will clothe you with the double robe of justice, and will set upon your head the mitre of eternal honor. 3. For God will show His splendor in you, to all who are under heaven. 4. For your name shall be called by God forever: Peace of Justice, and Honor of Piety. 5. Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high: and look about toward the east, and behold your children gathered from the rising of the sun to the setting, rejoicing in the word of the Holy One at the remembrance of God. 6. For they went out from you on foot, led by enemies: but the Lord will bring them back to you carried in honor like children of the kingdom. 7. For God has appointed to humble every high mountain, and the everlasting rocks, and to fill the valleys to make the earth level: that Israel may walk carefully in the honor of God. 8. And the woods and every sweet-smelling tree have shaded Israel by the command of God. 9. For God will bring Israel with joy in the light of His majesty, with mercy and justice which is from Him.
Verse 1: Put on beauty,
1. Put on beauty, — embrace joyfully the beauty and glory with which God will cover you and, as it were, clothe you, when He gloriously brings you back from Babylon to Judea.
Morally, St. Augustine in the Sentences, no. 9: "He who seeks God," he says, "seeks joy. Let him so seek, that he may rejoice not in himself, but in the Lord. For by approaching God, ignorance is illuminated and weakness is strengthened, since both understanding by which to see and charity by which to be fervent are given to him."
Note that Scripture by "to put on" or "to clothe" signifies two things: first, an abundance of the thing, so that it seems to surround and cover a person on all sides like a garment, as I said in my commentary on St. Paul, Canon XXVIII; second, a close union with the thing, as a garment closely adheres to the body and binds it. This same beauty and glory for Jerusalem Isaiah also prays for, in chapter 52:1 and chapter 61:3.
God will clothe you with the double robe of justice. — So it should be read with the Roman edition, not "having been wrapped in a double garment by the God of justice," as other codices generally have it. By "the double robe of justice" he means the sacerdotal and pontifical tunic, and by "the mitre of honor" the priestly turban, on which was written "Holiness to the LORD." Hence it is called "the double robe of justice," because it was a sign of divine holiness which the priest ought to imitate, that is to say, Re-
God will restore to you, O Jerusalem, the sacerdotal vestments, and the priesthood and pontificate itself, and consequently will restore the temple, and His worship and religion in it; so Theodoret. Secondly, more simply and aptly, Castro and Maldonatus say: The diplois, they say, is a full-length woman's tunic, for he speaks of Jerusalem as of a woman; it is called diplois, that is, double, because it was lined and backed with leather and cloth. It is called "of justice," that is, just, because God justly and faithfully, as He had promised, compensated her disgrace with glory, her sorrow with cheerfulness, her captivity with freedom.
And He will set upon your head the mitre of eternal honor, — that is, an honorable and glorious mitre, which shows that Jerusalem is endowed with eternal glory, and once more adorned with priesthood and kingdom: for this reason priests wore crowns and mitres on their heads, as is clear from Ezekiel 16:12. But more simply, you should understand the mitre here, like the double robe, not as sacerdotal but as feminine, that is to say: Just as a queen is adorned with her mitre and double robe, so Jerusalem shall again be clothed and adorned with her glory, beauty, and honor. For here there is a continuous metaphor or allegory in the personification of Jerusalem, of which he speaks as of a queen restored to her kingdom, to whom all her adornment, both sacred and secular, and both priesthood and kingdom are restored, and in this way this sense encompasses and includes the former. That this is so is clear from the similar passage in Ezekiel 16:2, 10, 11, 12, 13 compared with verses 18 and 19. The mitre, therefore, is a feminine head ornament: Servius calls it a calantica.
Verse 3: For God will show,
3. For God will show, — that is, God will cause you to be most famous and most illustrious throughout the whole world: this is what Isaiah says to the same Jerusalem, but as restored through Christ, that is, the Christian Church, in chapter 60:2: "The Lord shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. And the nations shall walk in your light, and kings in the brightness of your rising."
Verse 4: It shall be named (it is a Hebraism, לך לקרא לך vaicra lach,...
4. It shall be named (it is a Hebraism, לך לקרא לך vaicra lach, that is, a name shall be given to you by God, namely, Peace of Justice, and Honor of Piety). — Now "to be called" or "to be named" stands for "to be," that is to say: O Jerusalem! you shall be a city in which peace shall abound, born from justice, and honor or glory arising from piety; so that you may rightly be called, first, "Peace of Justice," that is, abounding in peace, that is, in prosperity and abundance of goods, which shall come to you from justice, by which God will justly overthrow your oppressors and the Chaldean tyrants, and will free you from them — also from the justice which you shall cultivate and by which you shall govern your citizens; second, you shall be and shall be called "honor," that is, glory, "of piety," so that all nations may perpetually celebrate your piety, that is, your worship and religion.
These and the following things apply in an incipient way to the Jewish Jerusalem returning from Babylon under Ezra; but they apply fully to the same city as Christian, that is, to the Church which began in Jerusalem and was freed from the captivity of sin and the devil through Christ. So Theodoret, Hugh, and Lyra.
Verse 5: Rejoicing in the word of the Holy One at the remembrance of God
5. Rejoicing in the word of the Holy One at the remembrance of God. — That is to say: See your children returning from Babylon according to the word, that is, according to the promise and ordinance of God, rejoicing and glad from the remembrance of God their liberator, and from the recollection of the divine beneficence which will grant them this liberation. He speaks of a future good as if he were looking at it present and pointing it out to others with his finger, in the prophetic manner.
Note: God alone is the true and full joy of the heart. The reason is that God alone fills the heart of man and of the angel; He alone satisfies its every capacity, all its desires. The Psalmist, having experienced this, sang in Psalm 72:25: "For what have I in heaven? and besides You what do I desire upon earth? God of my heart, and God my portion forever." He again indicates that he was flooded with joy from this, Psalm 76:4: "I remembered God, and was delighted;" and Psalm 144:7: "They shall pour forth the memory of the abundance of Your sweetness; and they shall rejoice in Your justice."
Wherefore St. Augustine rightly says in the Soliloquies, chapter 18: "Just as, he says, there is no hour or moment in all my life in which I do not use Your benefit; so there ought to be no moment in which I do not have You before my eyes in my memory, and do not love You with all my strength;" and Nazianzen, in the oration On the Care of the Poor: "One ought not," he says, "to breathe so often as to remember God. For God perpetually and continuously does good to us, preserving us in being, and providing what is necessary;" and St. Ephrem, in a hortatory sermon On the Second Coming of the Lord: "Always," he says, "remember God, and your mind shall become heaven;" St. Ignatius to Hero: "Remember," he says, "God, and you shall not sin;" St. Jerome, book 7 on Ezekiel, chapter 22: "The memory," he says, "of God excludes all shameful deeds," and consequently all sorrow: for sorrow arises from sin and from the remorse of sinful concupiscence; for a secure mind is like a perpetual feast.
St. Dorotheus reports that he gave this precept to his disciple Dositheus, a precept worthy of being inscribed in golden letters: "Never let God fall from your heart; always think of God as present to you, and of yourself as standing before Him." Dositheus did this exactly, so much so that not even in sickness, even the gravest and final, did he dismiss the thought of God: and thus from a noble and dissolute soldier, he became holy and perfect, and after death was seen among the blessed anchorites already reigning with Christ. Finally, Jeremiah, Lamentations 3:20: "Remembering," he says, "I shall remember, and my soul shall waste away within me." See what was said there.
Verse 6: Carried in honor like children of the kingdom,
6. Carried in honor like children of the kingdom, — brought back honorably, and conveyed on horses and chariots like the children of kings: for Cyrus gave to those returning gold, silver, horses, camels, 1 Ezra 2:66. Moreover, Darius "the king sent together with them a thousand horsemen, to escort them to Jerusalem with peace, and with musicians and with drums and with flutes; and all the brethren were celebrating," as is said, 3 Ezra 5:2. See Josephus, Antiquities 11, chapter 4. So Theodoret. If such was the joy of those returning
from Babylon, how great will be the joy of those returning both from Judaism and paganism to the Church, and of those returning from this exile to heaven with angels as guides? For the other interpreters understand this passage of these latter; for they are the children of the heavenly kingdom. Therefore he has these primarily in view here, but in such a way that he also incidentally hints at and, as it were, touches upon the former, since they were a type and forerunners of the latter, and belonged to their own time. Of these the Psalmist similarly says, Psalm 125:6: "Going, they went and wept, etc.; but coming, they shall come with exultation." See Isaiah chapter 66:20, and chapter 49:22.
Verse 7: For God has appointed to humble every mountain
7. For God has appointed to humble every mountain. — This is an allegory signifying only that God will soften and remove every hardship of the journey for those returning from Babylon, says Theodoret, and will restrain and check the enemies lying in wait for the Jews, whether openly in the mountains or secretly in the recesses of the valleys, so that they cannot harm them; for we do not read that God literally leveled the mountains and filled the valleys for them.
Allegorically, God humbles mountains, that is, all pride: and raises valleys, that is, pusillanimity, and removes and smooths out all impediments and unevenness of the spiritual life, so that the true Israel, that is, the faithful people, may walk rightly in the ways and laws of God, according to the prophecy of St. John the Baptist, Luke 3:5.
Anagogically, this is most truly fulfilled in the heavenly journey, which God makes most expeditious for the just.
That Israel may walk carefully (swiftly and freely, in Greek ἀσφαλῶς, that is, safely, securely) in the honor of God, — that is, for the glory of God, so that from this glorious return of theirs the glory and honor of God who brings them back may be celebrated. So the Psalmist says, Psalm 113:1: "When Israel went out of Egypt, etc., Judea was made His sanctuary, Israel His dominion," that is, from the liberation of Judea and Israel from Egypt, the holiness and power of God the liberator appeared and shone forth to all.
Verse 8: They have shaded,
8. They have shaded, — that is, they shall shade; for he speaks prophetically. The translator read in the Greek ἐσκίασαν; and rightly so. The Complutensian edition reads ἐσκίρτησαν, that is, they exulted, so as to allude to Psalm 113:4: "The mountains skipped like rams."
The woods, — that is to say: Just as God of old protected the people journeying in the desert from the heat of the sun by the pillar of cloud spread over the camp, so He will do the same for them now returning from Babylon, namely, that the woods and trees breathing out the sweetest fragrance may provide them shade at God's command. It was easy for divine Providence to bring this about: for He could so arrange the route, the season, and other things through secondary causes, that the journey would be most pleasant for the Hebrews, as it is in May in our lands. Add that, allegorically and hyperbolically, these things only signify that the return was most joyful, just as to those returning most happily, the woods, meadows, and everything they pass through seems pleasant, and seems to smile upon them.
With a similar personification the Psalmist says, Psalm 95: "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth exult, let the sea and its fullness be moved; the fields shall be glad, and all things that are in them. Then all the trees of the woods shall exult," namely when the Jews returning from Babylon shall rebuild the temple; and Isaiah, chapter 44:23: "Resound, O mountains, with praise, the forest and every tree in it." Virgil uses a similar device, Eclogue 3:
The unshorn mountains themselves cast voices of joy to the stars; Now the very rocks sing songs, The very groves resound: God, God is he, that Menalcas.
Theodoret, however, takes the woods figuratively as the nations situated between Babylon and Judea, which, like woods, did not bear fruit of piety to God: these nations honorably escorted the returning Israel at the command of Cyrus and Darius, with all deference.
Allegorically, these things, like the preceding ones, are more truly fulfilled in the Church under Christ, where all things serve the just and make the way to God pleasant, especially for those going from earth to heaven.
Every sweet-smelling tree, — combias, that is, sweet-scented.
9. In the light of His majesty, — that is to say: Just as God led the Hebrews through the desert by night in a pillar of fire, so He will bring them back from Babylon as it were with a stable light of the sun, shining more pleasantly than usual before them, and refreshing and gladdening them with His light, that is, His presence: for just as in the preceding verse he alluded to the pillar of cloud, so here he alludes to the pillar of fire, which illuminated the camp of the Hebrews by night in the desert.
He calls this light "of the majesty of God," that is, an august and magnificent light, worthy of God, and produced by God through a special and extraordinary providence, to show His magnificence and glory to the Hebrews and other nations.
With a similar figure and personification, concerning the Jews liberated from the destruction planned by Haman through Esther, chapter 8, verse 16, it is said: "But to the Jews a new light seemed to arise." So Horace describes the joy of the Romans at the arrival of Caesar:
When your countenance Has shone upon the people, the day goes more pleasantly, And the suns shine brighter.
With mercy (by which He freed the Hebrews from harsh captivity), and justice — by which He punished the Babylonian tyrants and other enemies of the Jews, say Theodoret and Hugh; secondly, "with justice," that is, justly, namely faithfully carrying out what He had promised.
Which is from Him, — of which He Himself is the author, not
we ourselves, nor our merits; so Vatablus. Secondly, Maldonatus explains "which is from Him" as meaning, he says, which corresponds to His promises freely made.
Note: In this chapter God promises eight felicities to the Jews returning from Babylon, namely: first, in verse 1 and verse 2, the double robe of joy as well as justice, and the mitre of eternal honor; second, in verse 3, the greatest splendor; third, in verse 4, a new name, namely "peace of justice and honor of piety;" fourth, in verse 5, that gathered from east to west they shall return in troops together, rejoicing in the word of the Holy One; fifth, in verse 6, that they went out on foot, but shall return splendidly, carried on horses and chariots, like children of the kingdom; sixth, in verse 7, that God will level for them mountains and every rough and deep place, so that they may pass by an even and easy road; seventh, in verse 8, that the woods shall give them shade, and fragrant trees shall breathe upon them a sweet breeze; eighth, in verse 9, that He will bear before them the sun shining more pleasantly and brightly, like a torch.
It is easy to apply these things mystically to the holy soul tending toward heaven, both as still a pilgrim in the body and the Church Militant, and as departing from the body. For in heaven, says St. Augustine on Psalm 49: "All things are supreme, true, holy, eternal," and to those same things he says, on Psalms 86 and 89: "The King Himself descended, and became for us the way in our pilgrimage, so that walking in Him we may neither go astray, nor fail, nor fall among robbers or into snares, but may arrive at that city by walking. Therefore, in Christ and still pilgrims, and sighing with desire for the ineffable rest that dwells in that city, let not the enemy turn us aside from the way."
First, therefore, in heaven we shall enjoy everlasting joy and honor: "What tongue," says St. Augustine on Psalm 118, "can tell, or what mind can grasp, how great are the joys of that heavenly city? To be present among the choirs of angels, to stand with the most blessed spirits before the glory of the Creator, to behold the face of God present, to see the uncircumscribed light, to be affected by no fear of death, to rejoice in the gift of perpetual incorruption?" Hence in Revelation 21:4, it is said: "God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes: and death shall be no more, neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain shall be any more: for the former things have passed away;" and Isaiah 35:10: "Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness."
Again St. Augustine, in the oration Against Pagans, Jews, and Arians, chapter 21, comparing this life with the future: "Here," he says, "is falsehood, there truth; here disturbance, there faithful possession; here the worst bitterness, there everlasting love; here dangerous elation, there is secure exultation; here one fears lest he who was a friend suddenly become an enemy; there he who is a friend always remains a friend, because no enemy is admitted there; here whatever is good is feared lest it perish; there whatever you have received is preserved by Him who made it, so that you may not pass away, and what you have received you may not lose; here death, there life; here all things that God has created, there God shall be all in all; there we shall see what eye has not seen, there we shall hear what ear here has not heard, there we shall understand what the human heart here cannot grasp, and seeing and knowing we shall exult with inexpressible joy."
Second, the saints shall shine and "shall be resplendent as the sun in the kingdom of their Father;" and, as Daniel says in chapter 12: "Those who are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and those who instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity." And, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 15:41: "There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in glory: so also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory," etc.
Third, the blessed shall have a new name, namely peace of justice; for there is the Jerusalem, that is, the vision of peace; therefore the blessed shall mock fear, sorrow, and death, saying: Where, O death, is your victory, where is your sting? St. Augustine on Psalm 36: "What, he says, O lover of God, shall be your delights? They shall delight in the abundance of peace: your gold shall be peace, your silver peace, your estates peace, your life peace, your God peace, whatever you desire shall be peace for you. Here what is gold cannot be silver for you; what is wine cannot be bread. There your God shall be everything for you: you shall eat Him lest you hunger; you shall drink Him lest you thirst; you shall be illumined by Him lest you be blind; you shall be supported by Him lest you fail. He shall possess you wholly entire, wholly entire; you shall have Him wholly, and He shall have you; because both you and He shall be one; which one whole He too shall have, who shall possess you in peace."
Again, the blessed shall have the name: honor of piety. For they shall be most pious, and therefore supremely honored by God and the angels: for they shall sing most piously and most joyfully to God a perpetual Alleluia: "Blessed," says the Psalmist, "are those who dwell in Your house, O Lord: they shall praise You forever and ever;" and: "Glorious things are said of you, O city of God, as the dwelling of all who rejoice is in you." St. Bernard in the book of Meditations, chapter 4: "There," he says, "we shall see the beauty of glory, the splendor of the saints, and the honor of royal power; we shall know the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, and the most benign clemency of the Holy Spirit. O blessed vision, to see God in Himself, to see Him in us, and us in Him with happy delight and delightful happiness!"
Fourth, in heaven there shall be troops and hosts of saints. "There," says St. Bernard in the same place, "there shall be one tongue of all, tireless jubilation, one affection, eternal love: truth shall be manifest, the glorified humanity shall shine like the sun, the fellowship of flesh and spirit shall be peaceful and harmonious, angels and men shall share one joy, one conversation, one banquet: what madness of vices, then, torments us to thirst for wormwood, and not rather to fly to the company of the angels, that we may enter into the mighty works of the Lord, and see the superabun-
dant riches of His goodness?" And St. Augustine in the book of Meditations, 23 and 25: "There," he says, "is the sweet solemnity of all those returning from this sad pilgrimage to Your joys; there is the provident choir of prophets; there the number of the twelve apostles; there the victorious army of innumerable martyrs; there the sacred assembly of holy confessors; there the true and perfect cultivators of solitude; there the holy women who conquered the pleasures of the world and the weakness of their sex; there the boys and girls who transcended their years by their holy manners. The glory of each is different, but the joy of all is common. Their every work is the praise of God without end, without toil. Happy, therefore, and truly forever happy, if after the dissolution of this poor body I shall hear those songs of heavenly melody." What joy it shall be to hear and see virgins, martyrs, confessors coming forth by thousands in troops from Japan, from China, from Greece, from Persia, from Ethiopia, from Peru and the whole world, and gathered into one Church of the blessed! And there to tell of their conversion, their events, their martyrdoms! And all to embrace one another as brothers and to jubilate.
Fifth, they wandered here in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, distressed, afflicted, of whom the world was not worthy: but by angels they shall be carried in a chariot, as it were triumphal, to heaven. "For the chariot of God is attended by tens of thousands, thousands of those rejoicing." To them, therefore, can be acclaimed what Elisha cried out to Elijah as he was being taken up to heaven: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its driver." So the soul of Lazarus was carried by angels with jubilation to heaven. So too the souls of St. Martin, St. Servulus, St. Nicholas, St. Catherine, and other saints were carried up to heaven in glorious triumph, with angels singing heavenly melody.
Sixth, God will level all things for them; nothing there shall be rough, nothing lofty, nothing low, but all things easy and even, all things joyful and pleasant: "For their highest happiness," says St. Bernard, Meditations 4, "shall be the highest pleasantness, true freedom, perfect charity, eternal security, and secure eternity; there is true joy, full knowledge, all beauty, and all blessedness. There is peace, piety, goodness, light, virtue, honor, joy, gladness, sweetness, everlasting life, glory, praise, rest, love, and sweet harmony."
Seventh, all things shall refresh the blessed: God, angels, the elements, the stars, air, earth; indeed even hell and the damned, over whom they shall rejoice to have conquered and to trample underfoot. Rightly, therefore, St. Augustine exclaims in the passage cited: "O life which God has prepared for those who love Him, life-giving life, blessed life, secure life, tranquil life, beautiful life, pure life, chaste life, holy life, life ignorant of death, life that knows no sorrow, life without stain, without pain, without anxiety, without corruption, without change, without disturbance, life most full of all elegance and dignity: where there is no adversary attacking, where there is no enticement of sin, where there is perfect love and no fear, where the day is eternal, and there is one spirit of all! The more I contemplate you, the more I languish with love. O most happy life! O truly blessed kingdom! to which no ages succeed through eternity: where the continuous day without night knows no time: where the victorious soldier, joined to those hymn-singing choirs of angels, sings to God without ceasing a song of the songs of Zion?"
Eighth, do you want the sun of the blessed? Hear St. John, Revelation 22:5: "And night shall be no more, and they shall not need the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine them, and they shall reign forever and ever;" and chapter 21, verse 23: "The city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it: for the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk in its light." Indeed, the sun itself, rejoicing with the saints, shall be far more resplendent than usual. "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days," says Isaiah, chapter 30:26.