Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He promises to bring Israel back from Babylon and restore them; and in its antitype, to redeem them through Christ from the captivity of sin and the devil; and to give them a new spirit and a new, holy, and divine life through baptism. Note here: the Prophet, according to his custom, treats the affairs of his people, namely their captivity and liberation; but under these he rather looks toward, and fixes the gaze of his mind upon, Christ as the target of his prophecy; hence he clearly and explicitly rises to Him at verse 25. See Canons IV and V.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 36:1-38
1. But you, son of man, prophesy over the mountains of Israel, and say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord: 2. Thus says the Lord God: Because the enemy has said of you: Ha! The everlasting heights have been given to us as an inheritance: 3. therefore prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God: Because you have been made desolate, and trampled on every side, and made an inheritance for the remaining nations, and you have become the talk of every tongue and the reproach of the people: 4. therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and hills, the torrents and valleys, the deserts, the ruined walls, and the abandoned cities, which have been depopulated and mocked by the remaining nations all around. 5. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because in the fire of My zeal I have spoken against the remaining nations and against all of Idumea, who gave My land to themselves as an inheritance with joy, and with their whole heart, and with full intent, and cast it out to lay it waste: 6. therefore prophesy over the soil of Israel, and say to the mountains and hills, the ridges and valleys: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, in My zeal and in My fury I have spoken, because you have borne the disgrace of the nations. 7. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I have raised My hand, that the nations who are around you shall themselves bear their disgrace. 8. But you, mountains of Israel, shall put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel: for it is near that they should come. 9. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be plowed and receive seed. 10. And I will multiply men upon you, and the whole house of Israel: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. 11. And I will fill you with men and cattle: and they shall be multiplied and increase: and I will cause you to be inhabited as at the beginning, and I will bestow greater goods than you had from the start: and you shall know that I am the Lord. 12. And I will bring men upon you, My people Israel, and they shall possess you as an inheritance: and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer be without them. 13. Thus says the Lord God: Because they say of you: You are a devourer of men and one who smothers your nation: 14. Therefore you shall no longer devour men, and you shall no longer slay your nation, says the Lord God: 15. Nor will I cause you to hear any more the disgrace of the nations, and you shall by no means bear the reproach of the peoples, and you shall no longer lose your nation, says the Lord God. 16. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 17. Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, and they defiled it by their ways and their pursuits; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. 18. And I poured out My indignation upon them for the blood which they shed... upon the land, and defiled it with their idols. 19. And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the lands: according to their ways and their inventions I judged them. 20. And they went to the nations to which they had come, and they profaned My holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of the Lord, and they have come forth from His land. 21. And I had pity on My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had gone. 22. Therefore you shall say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for the sake of My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you went. 23. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you profaned in the midst of them: that the nations may know that I am the Lord, says the Lord of hosts, when I shall have been sanctified in you before their eyes. 24. For I will take you from among the nations, and will gather you from all the lands, and will bring you into your own land. 25. And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your defilements, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. 27. And I will put My spirit within you: and I will cause you to walk in My precepts, and to keep My judgments and do them. 28. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers: and you shall be My people, and I will be your God. 29. And I will save you from all your defilements: and I will call for the grain and will multiply it, and I will not lay famine upon you. 30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, that you may no longer bear the reproach of famine among the nations. 31. And you shall remember your very evil ways, and your pursuits that were not good: and your iniquities and your crimes shall displease you. 32. It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord God, let this be known to you: be ashamed and blush for your ways, O house of Israel. 33. Thus says the Lord God: In the day when I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, and shall have caused the cities to be inhabited, and shall have rebuilt the ruins, 34. and the desert land shall have been tilled, which before was desolate in the eyes of every passer-by, 35. they shall say: That uncultivated land has become like a garden of delight: and the cities that were deserted, destitute, and demolished, now sit fortified. 36. And the nations that shall have been left around you shall know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed, and planted what was uncultivated: I the Lord have spoken and have done it. 37. Thus says the Lord God: In this also the house of Israel shall find Me, that I may act for them: I will multiply them like a flock of men, 38. like a holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem at her solemn feasts: so shall the deserted cities be full of flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Verse 1: Prophesy Over The Mountains
1. PROPHESY OVER THE MOUNTAINS (concerning the mountains) OF ISRAEL — that is, concerning the restoration of the mountains of Judea, and consequently of all Judea, which is for the most part mountainous. It is a synecdoche. MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL — It is a prosopopoeia. For he addresses the mountains as though they were men: or "mountains," that is, the inhabitants of the mountains, as a metonymy.
Verse 2: Because The Enemy Has Said
2. BECAUSE THE ENEMY HAS SAID — the Idumean, the Ammonite, the Moabite, as he said in chapter 25, verse 3. THE EVERLASTING HEIGHTS (that is, the mountains of Judea) EVERLASTING (in Hebrew: of the age, that is, which have existed from the beginning of the age and the world, and will endure forever, that is, always: or, which we think will always be ours) HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO US AS AN INHERITANCE — meaning: The Idumeans boast that they possess Judea, laid waste by the Chaldeans, and will always possess it by succession and quasi-hereditary right. For they themselves are kinsmen and relatives of the Jews: for Esau, the parent of the Idumeans, was the brother of Jacob, the parent of the Jews: and Ammon and Moab were the sons of Lot, nephew of Abraham, who was the grandfather of Jacob: therefore, with the Jews carried away from Judea, they think they should succeed to Judea as their inheritance. See Jeremiah 49:1.
Verse 3: AND TRAMPLED ON EVERY SIDE.
3. AND TRAMPLED ON EVERY SIDE. — In Hebrew: and the neighboring nations devoured you. YOU HAVE COME UP ON THE LIP OF THE TONGUE — you have become a byword of the people, a proverb and a reproach, according to what Jeremiah threatened you with in chapter 24:9.
Verse 4: Ruined Walls
4. RUINED WALLS — walls and partitions that have been demolished.
Verse 5: IN THE FIRE OF ZEAL.
5. IN THE FIRE OF ZEAL. — The Chaldean: of vengeance; the Septuagint: of fury, meaning: In the burning heat of anger and indignation I threatened the Idumeans with destruction, because they exulted in the calamity of the Jews and invaded and occupied Judea as their own. THEY CAST IT OUT (that is, its inhabitants) TO LAY IT WASTE — that is, to plunder the spoils both of them and of the land; Vatablus: to cast it out as prey.
Verse 6: IN MY ZEAL, ETC., I HAVE SPOKEN (the Chaldean: in indignation)
6. IN MY ZEAL, ETC., I HAVE SPOKEN (the Chaldean: in indignation), BECAUSE YOU HAVE BORNE THE DISGRACE OF THE NATIONS — because you have been afflicted with the reproaches and injuries of the nations, O Jews, who are My people: hence for your consolation I will avenge you and repay the nations in kind. Hence St. Augustine says excellently in his Sentences, no. 207: "The sorrow of one who suffers unjustly," he says, "is better than the joy of one who acts unjustly."
Verse 7: I Have Raised My Hand
7. I HAVE RAISED MY HAND — I swore, as it were with raised hand, meaning: I solemnly swear that I will cause the nations hostile to you to bear their own ignominy as well, and pay the penalty for the reproach they inflicted upon you, O Jews!
Verse 8: For It Is Near That He Should Come
8. FOR IT IS NEAR THAT HE SHOULD COME — meaning: The time is at hand for the people of Israel to return from Babylon to you, O mountains of Judea! Begin therefore to put forth leaves and prepare fruits for them. Hence the Chaldean translates: The day of redemption is near.
Verse 9: Behold, I Am For You
9. BEHOLD, I AM FOR YOU — namely, O Jews! I will come; and, as the Chaldean has it, I will appear, not as an avenger, but as a beneficent father, to supply all things necessary for you, as he explains in verse 15.
Verse 11: And I Will Bestow Greater Goods
11. AND I WILL BESTOW GREATER GOODS — namely, spiritual ones in the time of Christ: for Christ lived, taught, and worked miracles in Judea. For according to his custom, the Prophet rises and flies to Christ, as I said in the Synopsis of the chapter. For the Jews under David, Solomon, Joshua, etc., had greater temporal goods than they had after the return from Babylon. Therefore not those, but the spiritual goods of Christ are to be understood here.
Verse 12: I WILL BRING MEN UPON YOU.
12. I WILL BRING MEN UPON YOU. — The Septuagint: I will beget men upon you for My people Israel, meaning: I, O Christians, O My Church! in place of the people Israel who were once faithful, will beget for you apostles, apostolic men, and an immense number of the faithful from all nations.
YOU SHALL NO LONGER BE WITHOUT THEM.
YOU SHALL NO LONGER BE WITHOUT THEM. — He speaks not so much of the earthly Judea, for that was afterwards completely devastated by Titus, but of the spiritual one, that is, the Church of Christ, as I said: for to that he rises and is carried in the manner of the Prophets. For the Church will endure forever and will always have its citizens.
Verse 13 and 14: Devourer
13 and 14. DEVOURER (There is an enallage of gender and number: for up to this point he has been speaking to the people in the plural, but now he speaks in the singular to the land, as to an infamous woman who is accused of eating her children or smothering them in bed, meaning: Up to now, O Judea! you have lost your inhabitants by plague, famine, dissensions, and war: but) YOU SHALL NO LONGER DEVOUR — that is, I will bring it about that this reproach is no longer cast upon you; because I will not allow the inhabitants in you to be devoured, that is, killed.
Verse 17 and 18: Their Way Before Me Was Like The Uncleanness Of A Menstruous Woman
17 and 18. THEIR WAY BEFORE ME WAS LIKE THE UNCLEANNESS OF A MENSTRUOUS WOMAN (meaning: Just as a husband abhors his wife when she is foul and fetid in her menstrual period, so I abhorred Israel on account of its menstruation, that is, the filth of idolatry, murders, and other crimes, says Theodoret, as he explains in the following verse. For he says): FOR THE BLOOD (that is, on account of the blood), AND FOR THEIR IDOLS. — Repeat the causal "for," that is, "on account of," which preceded, meaning: I hated them on account of the blood which they shed, and on account of their idols, namely because "they defiled" the land "with their idols." Why crimes are compared to menstruation, I discussed at Jeremiah 2:24.
Verse 20: And They Went To The Nations
20. AND THEY WENT TO THE NATIONS (they clung to the vices and idolatry of the nations to which they were led, and thus profaned the name of God, that is, they gave occasion for the nations to blaspheme the God of Israel and say): THIS IS THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD — meaning: The Jews are the people of the Lord, and yet they have been expelled from Judea and carried away to Babylon: therefore the Lord either neglects them and does not care for them, or He cannot preserve and protect them: therefore they worship Him and hope in Him in vain.
Verse 21: And I Had Pity On My Holy Name
21. AND I HAD PITY ON MY HOLY NAME — I resolved to spare My name, that is, to prevent it from being mocked any longer by the nations: but rather I will sanctify it, that is, I will show it to be holy and admirable, not because of your merits, but for the sake of My name.
Verse 23: When I Shall Have Been Sanctified In You
23. WHEN I SHALL HAVE BEEN SANCTIFIED IN YOU — namely, when My holy justice has been displayed through your punishment and captivity; and now My mercy through your liberation. For when you, being penitent, shall have invoked God and repudiated your vices and idols, then God will free you from captivity, and the nations will understand that God's power, justice, and mercy arranged and ordered all these things justly and fittingly.
Verse 25: I WILL POUR UPON YOU WATER.
25. I WILL POUR UPON YOU WATER. — The Jews understand by water the abundance of temporal goods and specifically rain, which irrigates and fertilizes the crops. But this does not cleanse sins, as follows, indeed it often increases them.
This water, then, is grace and the abundance of spiritual goods, which flows from Christ through the Sacraments: but most properly it is the water of baptism, which cleanses all sins; concerning which the Apostle says in Ephesians 5:26: "Cleansing her (the Church) by the washing of water in the word of life." So the Fathers everywhere: and indeed the Chaldean and Rabbi David, although they do not acknowledge baptism, nevertheless consider that the remission of sins is being discussed here. Therefore St. Augustine teaches that all these promises pertain to the New Testament, in Book III of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 34, and others everywhere. St. Clement says excellently in Book VI of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 26: "Everyone, he says, who is truly baptized is separated from the diabolical spirit and abides within the Holy Spirit: and in him who pursues virtuous actions, the Holy Spirit remains and fills him with wisdom and understanding, and does not allow the evil spirit to approach, watching against its assaults and attacks."
Hear what St. Cyprian writes about the efficacy of baptism and his own transformation through it, in Book II, Epistle 2, to Donatus: "Just as I was held entangled in the very many errors of my former life, from which I believed I could not free myself, so I was compliant with my vices, and in despair of better things I favored my evils as if they were already my own and native to me. But after the stain of my former age was washed away by the help of the water of regeneration, and light from above poured itself into my cleansed and pure breast; after the second birth restored me to a new man by the Spirit drawn from heaven, in a wonderful way things uncertain immediately began to be confirmed, things closed to lie open, things dark to shine; what previously seemed difficult began to be possible; what was thought impossible began to be achievable; I recognized that what had lived carnally, born subject to pleasures, had been earthly; and that what the Holy Spirit now animated had begun to be God's." Then he adds: "You yourself surely know, and recognize along with me, what this death of sins and life of virtues has taken from us and what it has conferred." Note here: Baptism is "the death of sins" and "the life of virtues," which St. Paulinus elegantly expressed in verse, in Epistle 12 to Severus:
Sin perishes, but life returns; the old Adam dies, And the new is born under eternal rule.
St. Augustine confesses that he experienced this same thing in his own conversion and baptism, in Book IX of the Confessions, chapters 12 and following. The Indians, even the wild and barbarous ones, still experience this power of baptism, who through baptism and the grace of Christ received therein are often so transformed, and that suddenly, that they seem to be changed from beasts into men, and they themselves marvel and are astonished at their transformation. To pass over others, well known is the conversion, faith, holiness, and martyrdoms of the Japanese, which rival, if they do not surpass, the martyrdoms and martyrs of the early Church.
Verse 26: I Will Take Away The Heart Of Stone
26. I WILL TAKE AWAY THE HEART OF STONE — that is, the hard heart, hardened in vices, which admits no impression of pious and salutary doctrine.
Note here nine immense gifts which God promises here to the Church, and to every faithful and just person through Christ, and which Christ's baptism and grace confer upon and work in every saint. The first is: "You shall be cleansed from all your defilements;" the second: "I will give you a new heart;" the third: "I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh;" the fourth: "I will put My spirit within you;" the fifth: "I will cause you to walk in My precepts, and to keep My judgments and do them," and thus you may abound in good works, virtues, and merits of heavenly glory; the sixth: "You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers," meaning: In peace, joy, and abundance of spiritual goods you shall dwell in the Church, as the Patriarchs dwelt in it in Canaan; the seventh: "You shall be My people;" the eighth: "I will be your God," meaning: I will be your protector, provider, nourisher, promoter, governor, guide, justifier, glorifier, and every good. For this is what God is to His own. Hence it follows: "I will call for the grain and will multiply it." This is what God promised to Abraham, and in him to every saint who is a spiritual son of Abraham, in Genesis 15:1: "Do not fear, I am your protector, and your reward exceedingly great." And Zechariah 2:8: "He who touches you, touches the apple of My eye." And Psalm 90:1: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven." And Psalm 32:16: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears are open to their prayers. Many are the tribulations of the just: and from all of these the Lord will deliver them," etc. The ninth: "The land" once "uncultivated" shall be "a garden of delight," as verse 35 says.
And I Will Give You A Heart Of Flesh
AND I WILL GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH — that is, as St. Jerome, Theodoret, and others say, soft, docile, tractable, persuadable; and, as St. Augustine reads, obedient; and, as the Chaldean has it, fearing Me, so as to do My will. Note that metaphorically the heart of stone refers to the free will that is, however, accustomed to vices: hence God takes it away, not by giving a different power or freedom, but, as follows, "by giving a new spirit," namely by soothing and softening it with His threats, promises, consolations, and other holy inspirations, by which, attracted, strengthened, and elevated, it freely bends itself to God's will. In this way, therefore, God compels even the rebellious wills of men to Himself, not by forcing, but by persuading; not only externally through laws and preachers, as Pelagius wished, but also internally, either by terrifying the mind or by gently attracting it, and by instilling pious affections in it: and thus He causes them to walk in His precepts, and thus He works in us both to will and to accomplish, as the Apostle says in Philippians 2:13. See what was said there.
Note: Heart in Scripture signifies the mind and will. A "new heart" therefore is the will renewed by the grace and spirit of God, which, dying to the old life and earthly way of living, lives for God and heaven; for which David prays in Psalm 50, saying: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."
"Heart of stone" is the will obstinate and hardened like stone in impiety and sin, such as was that of the Jews: thus Pliny, Book XI, 37, Plutarch in his Parallel Lives, and Rhodiginus, Book IV, chapter 16, report that Hermogenes, Leonidas, Aristomenes the Messenian, and Lysander actually had hairy and shaggy hearts, and that this belongs to men who are hard, rough, and cruel. "Heart of flesh," smooth and polished, is a will that is easy, compliant, and flexible like flesh, which immediately receives God's impulses, law, and impressions, imprints them on itself, and carries them out in action. The reason for this phrase is, first, because just as the heart is the principle of natural life, so the will is the principle of a pious or impious life. The heart, says Pliny, Book XI, 37, "is said to be the first organ formed in the womb for those being born, then the brain, just as the eyes are formed last; but these are the first to die, the heart the last." Others, however, say that the liver, not the heart, is the first formed in the body; but the heart is the first to be animated and the last to die, as Franciscus Valesius teaches in Book II of Medical Controversies, 6. Hence the heart is called "the first to live and the last to die;" just as conversely the eyes are the last to live and the first to die, because they are farthest from the heart, which is the principle of life. Historians have accordingly noted that for Julius Caesar the dictator, on the day when he first appeared in purple and sat on the golden chair, the heart was twice missing from the entrails of the sacrificial victim. Likewise for Helvius Pertinax, on the day he was killed, when he was sacrificing, the heart did not appear in the victim: which they interpreted as an evil omen of death.
Second, because just as the heart is the workshop of the vital spirits, which it supplies to the whole body, and through them is the principle and cause of all movement and animal action, so the will is the workshop of virtue and vice, merit and demerit, and of every good or evil action. Physicians teach that there are four vital parts on which life chiefly depends and is preserved: the heart, the brain, the liver, and the lungs. For the heart supplies warmth and vital spirits to the body; the liver supplies blood, by which the body is nourished; the brain supplies the animal spirits, by which sensation, understanding, and local movement are accomplished; the lungs, like bellows, give cooling to the heart. So the spiritual life consists in a right will as its heart; prudence as its brain; justice as its liver, the maker of blood and beauty; temperance as its lungs, moderating and cooling the passions.
Third, as the heart is, so are the spirits, and so is the condition of the body: likewise, as the will is, so is the man. Hence we are commanded to love God with the whole heart, Matthew 15:8. And God demands the heart for Himself, Proverbs 23:26: "Give Me your heart, my son:" for he who gives his heart to God gives the tree with its fruits.
Fourth, just as the body serves the soul, so the heart serves the will: hence bodily passions in the heart, for example anger, which is a boiling of the blood around the heart, excite a similar anger, that is, indignation, and a desire for revenge in the will. For this reason Blessed Catherine of Siena, as her Life records in Book II, chapter 16, asked Christ her Spouse to take away her own heart and give her the heart of Christ: Christ consented, and truly removed her heart, and after several days during which she was without a heart, He placed another, namely His own, that is, one made by Him and conformed to Him, within her: hence she thereafter, praying to Christ, would say: "I commend to You, Lord, Your heart, not mine:" for the heart is the symbol and seat of love. For this reason Gregory of Nyssa and St. Thomas say that the Holy Spirit was given to the Church as its heart at Pentecost.
Fifth, some physicians have held that the common sense resides in the heart, although others more correctly hold that it is in the brain, but that the heart is its origin. Hence it is commonly said: "The heart discerns, and the lung speaks." Hence Solomon prays: "You will give Your servant a docile heart, so that he may judge Your people," 3 Kings 3:9. Hence also the ancients called a prudent, clever, and wise man a "corculum" (little heart); thus Nasica was called corculum on account of his prudence, as Pliny attests in his book On Illustrious Men, chapter 44. Similarly Judas Thaddaeus was surnamed Lebbaeus, that is, corculum. Hence also Ecclesiasticus 21:29 says: "In the mouth of fools is their heart, and in the heart of the wise is their mouth," meaning: Fools cannot keep anything secret, but blurt out whatever comes to their lips; but the wise man says nothing unless it has first been examined, weighed, and premeditated in the heart.
Sixth, when the heart is healthy, the body is healthy; when it rejoices, the body rejoices; when it grieves, the body grieves. Hence the deepest and greatest pain is called by Plautus and others "cordolium" (heartache): hence the riddle of Pythagoras: "Do not eat your heart," that is, do not afflict your mind with cares or torment it. Likewise, when the will is healthy, the mind is healthy; when it rejoices, joyful; when it grieves, sorrowful. For this reason the Wise Man says in Proverbs 4:23: "With all watchfulness guard your heart, because from it life proceeds."
Seventh, the human heart in its substance is solid and firm, says Galen in Book VI of On the Use of Parts, II; fiery in constitution, pyramidal in shape, but in an inverted position: for above, toward heavenly things, it is wide and hollow; below, toward earthly things, it tapers to a point. It signifies therefore that the human will ought to be carried by solid love toward heavenly things and to receive and embrace them with full bosom; but earthly things it should barely touch, as if only at a point. Galen adds that the heart is situated in the middle of man, to represent the soul and right will standing in the midst of vices, declining neither to the right nor to the left. This indeed is the will imbued with the love of God and virtue: for virtue consists in the mean.
Eighth, the heart is restless, and is moved by continual agitation from itself, like a solitary living creature. For either through diastole it expands, to receive what is useful to man, or through systole it contracts, to expel what is harmful: and so also is our will.
Hence St. Augustine, Confessions I, 1: "You have made me, O God, for Yourself, and my heart is restless until it rests in You." And St. Bernard, in his treatise On the Interior Home, chapter 55: "The mind, he says, driven about by its desires, never rests: therefore it ought to be immovably fixed in the desire for eternity."
Ninth, the heart is in man what the sun is in the universe, namely the fountain of light and life; indeed the Stoics held that the sun was properly the heart of the world, for they thought the world was a great living being, endowed with sensation and reason. Hence Plutarch, in his treatise On the Face in the Orb of the Moon, says: The stars are shining eyes in the face of the universe; the sun is endowed with the power of a heart; as the heart diffuses blood and spirit, so the sun pours forth from itself life-giving warmth and light. The world uses the earth and sea, like a living being, as its belly and bladder. The moon between the sun and the earth, as between the heart and the belly, is like the liver or some other soft organ. Therefore what the sun is in heaven, the heart is in man — that is, in the body, the heart itself; in the soul, the will itself — which therefore ought to look continually upon its Maker, just as the sun does. So St. Paul continually had Jesus Christ on his lips, continually in his heart. So St. Ignatius constantly called Jesus his love, and scarcely anything else resounds in his entire epistle to the Romans: hence he was surnamed both God-bearer and Christ-bearer. And from this some think arose what is commonly said, that after his death the name of Jesus was found inscribed in golden letters on his heart — by which phrase is signified that he continually had this name in his heart and on his lips. For otherwise the ancients, and among them Baronius, Volume II, year of Christ 110, record that he was devoured by lions down to the bones, as he had desired. Although Ado in the Martyrology denies this and writes that the name of Jesus was truly found in his heart, whom St. Thomas, St. Antoninus, and many others have followed.
Tenth, the heart is the seat of the soul, the will, and love, and consequently of God, who breathes into us a soul made in His likeness. Hence the symbolists interpret the heart through each of its letters as if you were to say: the chamber of the almighty king, that is, the citadel of the divinity. Hence St. Augustine, in his Sermon on Redemption: "The hearts of the faithful, he says, are heaven, because they are daily raised up to heaven." For, as Christ says: "Where your treasure is, there also is your heart." Hence David is said to have been a man after God's own heart, 1 Kings 13:14; and "the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord," it is said in Proverbs 21:1. Again St. Augustine, describing in Book IX of the Confessions, chapter 2, the wondrous conversion of himself and his will wrought from heaven by God: "You had pierced our heart, he says, O Lord, with Your love, and we carried Your words transfixed in our innermost being; and the examples of Your servants, whom You had made bright from dark and living from dead, gathered in the bosom of our thought, burned and consumed our heavy torpor." Pierce us also, O Lord! And wound our heart with the fiery dart of Your love, that You may kindle our cold and crystalline heart and make it fleshly, crimson, aflame: give what You command, and command what You will, that we may love You alone ardently with our whole heart, strive to please You alone, and fulfill Your most holy law and will perfectly in all things. Let us therefore pray daily and say from the inmost affection of our heart: "Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love: wash what is soiled, water what is arid, heal what is wounded, bend what is rigid, warm what is cold, guide what is astray, strengthening the weakness of our body with perpetual power." Grant that in the marrow of our hearts we may feel what the heart of the spouse felt when kindled by You in the Song of Songs, and jubilantly sing with her: "My Beloved is mine, and I am His, who feeds among the lilies, until the day dawns and the shadows decline: support me with flowers, surround me with apples, for I am languishing with love. For what have I in heaven, and what have I desired on earth besides You? My flesh and my heart have failed: God of my heart and my portion forever. God of my heart" — nay, no longer mine, but Yours; possess my heart, nay, Yours. "God of my heart," fill and satisfy my heart, which can be filled and satisfied by nothing else. "God of my heart," whom alone my heart loves, thirsts for, and seeks, grant that my whole heart may love You with all its strength, that it may burn wholly with love of You, that it may be entirely set ablaze with Your fire, melt, and passing away from itself, pass into You, and that You may be my God, my love, and my all.
Verse 28: You Shall Dwell In The Land That I Gave To Your Fathers
28. YOU SHALL DWELL IN THE LAND THAT I GAVE TO YOUR FATHERS — in Judea; or rather in the Church, which began in Judea. This He "gave" to the fathers, that is, He promised to give. For the word "gave" signifies an act not completed but begun and destined; just as the Apostle in 2 Timothy 1:9 says that God gave us grace through Christ before the ages: "gave," that is, He decreed and predestined to give.
Verse 29: I Will Call For The Grain
29. I WILL CALL FOR THE GRAIN — meaning: At My command, at a single word, indeed at a nod, there will come an abundance of grain, not so much bodily as spiritual, meaning: I will give you an abundance of grace, of the Sacraments, and especially of the Eucharist, by which the soul may be fed and delighted.
And I Will Not Lay
AND I WILL NOT LAY (in Hebrew: I will not give, I will not bring) FAMINE upon you.
Verse 30: I Will Multiply The Fruit Of The Tree And The Produce Of The Field
30. I WILL MULTIPLY THE FRUIT OF THE TREE AND THE PRODUCE OF THE FIELD — that is, I will multiply all herbs, crops, and fruits, not so much of the body as of the soul, as I said.
That You May No Longer Bear The Reproach Of Famine Among The Nations
THAT YOU MAY NO LONGER BEAR THE REPROACH OF FAMINE AMONG THE NATIONS — so that the nations may no longer be able to reproach you for being afflicted or dying of famine.
Verse 31: Your Iniquities Shall Displease You
31. YOUR INIQUITIES SHALL DISPLEASE YOU — in Hebrew ונקטתם unecototem, which Vatablus translates: You shall be ashamed before your own faces for your iniquities; others: You shall be nauseated, disgusted, and wasting away within yourselves over your iniquities; others: You shall quarrel within yourselves against your sins; the Septuagint: And you shall be held in abomination before your own faces, in your iniquities; the Chaldean: You shall groan over your sins.
Verse 32: Not For Your Sake
32. NOT FOR YOUR SAKE — not for your merits, but by My mercy, and for the sake of My name, as He said in verse 22.
Verse 33: And I Shall Have Rebuilt The Ruins
33. AND I SHALL HAVE REBUILT THE RUINS — the demolished houses and cities of Judea, namely through Zerubbabel: and rather, through Christ I "shall have rebuilt" souls that fell into sins; then "they shall say: That uncultivated land has become like a garden of delight;" in Hebrew עדן Eden, meaning: It is like the earthly paradise, concerning which see Genesis 2:8.
Verse 35: Fortified, They Sit
35. FORTIFIED, THEY SIT — that is, they sit fortified, that is, they are fortified and safe: for those who are safe sit at ease. Hence the Septuagint translates: they appeared fortified; the Chaldean: they are inhabited. So also the Hebrew and Vatablus. Therefore some wrongly read: fortified, they sat down.
Verse 36: I Have Spoken And Have Done It
36. I HAVE SPOKEN AND HAVE DONE IT — that is, the nations shall know that just as I spoke and promised you, so also I actually did and accomplished it.
Verse 37: That I May Do For Them
37. THAT I MAY DO FOR THEM — what follows: or what they desire and ask for, says Maldonatus.
I Will Multiply Them Like A Flock Of Men
I WILL MULTIPLY THEM LIKE A FLOCK OF MEN — as a flock of sheep is accustomed to multiply, so I will multiply men in Judea, and rather in the Church.
Verse 38: Like The Flock Of Jerusalem At Her Solemn Feasts
38. LIKE THE FLOCK OF JERUSALEM AT HER SOLEMN FEASTS — meaning: Just as in Jerusalem at the feasts, especially the three most solemn ones, namely Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, a great flock gathers, both of men and of sheep to be sacrificed: so I will multiply the sheep of Christ the Shepherd, that is, the faithful and Christians. For these are the holy flock of God, just as formerly the sheep to be sacrificed to God were the holy flock of God.