Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
This chapter is of the same subject and method as the preceding; but what was stated plainly there, here he describes elegantly through a parable. For under the type of dry bones coming back to life, he signifies the liberation of the captives in Babylon; and under this type he again symbolically and literally signifies the resurrection of sinners — who, like dry bones without spirit and grace, which is the life of the soul, are held captive in sin so that they cannot rise from it by any natural power — through the breath of Christ's spirit and grace. Justification, therefore, is a resurrection. Hence the Apostle says in Romans 6:4: That as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. And in Colossians 3:4: If you have risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; set your mind on the things that are above. See what was said there.
For he clearly and explicitly rises to the Church and Christ at verse 15, where he asserts that Israel and Judah, once divided from each other and indeed opposed, are to be joined in one Church, where they will be fed and governed by one shepherd David, that is, Christ, through whom He will establish a new covenant of eternal peace with them, so that He may be their God and Sanctifier, and they may be His holy people. And so it is clear that this parable of the reviving bones literally concerns Christ and the Church, both from the course of the chapter, especially from verse 15 to the end, and from the preceding chapter to which this is connected. For here he explains what he said there in verse 16: I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the heart of bone, indeed of stone, from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh: and I will cause you to walk in My precepts, and I will save you, etc. He explains it, I say, through the parable of bones, which when they receive the vital spirit come back to life: for so sinners, when they receive the spirit of repentance and the grace of Christ, return to spiritual life.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 37:1-28
and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 7. And I prophesied as He had commanded me: and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint. 8. And I looked, and behold, sinews and flesh came up upon them: and skin was stretched over them above, but they had no spirit. 9. And He said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God: Come, O spirit, from the four winds, and breathe upon these slain, and let them live again. 10. And I prophesied as He had commanded me: and the spirit entered into them, and they lived, and they stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11. And He said to me: Son of man, all these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished, and we are cut off. 12. Therefore prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and I will bring you out of your sepulchres, O My people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your graves and brought you out of your tombs, O My people: 14. And I shall have put My spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and have done it, says the Lord God. 15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 16. And you, son of man, take one stick and write upon it: For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: and take another stick, and write upon it: For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel and his companions. 17. And join them one to another into one stick: and they shall become one in your hand. 18. And when the children of your people shall speak to you, saying: Will you not tell us what you mean by these things? 19. You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are joined to him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah, and I will make them into one stick: and they shall be one in His hand. 20. And the sticks upon which you shall have written shall be in your hand before their eyes. 21. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from the midst of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their own land. 22. And I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall rule over them all: and they shall no more be two nations, nor shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms. 23. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols, and their abominations, and all their iniquities: and I will save them out of all the places in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. 24. And My servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all: they shall walk in My judgments, and shall keep My commandments and do them. 25. And they shall dwell in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, in which your fathers dwelt: and they shall dwell in it, they and their children, and their children's children, forever: and My servant David shall be their prince forever. 26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will establish them, and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in the midst of them forever. 27. And My tabernacle shall be among them: and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 28. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Sanctifier of Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forever.
The Hand Of The Lord
THE HAND OF THE LORD — that is, the operation and breath of prophecy. So the Chaldean. Second, the very hand of God was properly seen by the Prophet, which took hold of him and led him to a field full of bones, just as happened to him in chapter 8:3: "And the likeness of a hand was put forth, he says, and took me by a lock of my head, and lifted me up between earth and heaven." So Maldonatus. Third, the hand of the Lord, that is, the very Word of God, says St. Jerome, because through Him all things were made. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 104: Christ, he says, preached Himself in the Prophets, since He is the Word of God: therefore, full of Christ, they proclaimed Christ. Fourth, Theodoret by the hand understands the power and impulse of God, which the Prophets perceived before they prophesied, and by which they were, as it were, impelled to prophesy: for the hand is for impelling. Hence some note that the Prophets name the hand of the Lord when they are about to say something illustrious, which befits the hand, that is, the power of God. Fifth, Antonius Fernandius, in Vision XVII, section 1: The hand, he says, is taken for a command by which something is ordered to be done; for with the hand we push a subordinate where we wish. All these come to the same thing. Properly, this hand lifted the Prophet and transferred him spiritually to a field full of bones: for the Prophet seemed to himself to be taken by this hand and transferred there; for this was a mental vision, not a real transfer. Hence it follows:
Verse 5: I Will Put Into You Spirit
5. I WILL PUT INTO YOU SPIRIT — that is, vital spirit. "Through the parable of the resurrection he prophesies about the restoration of Israel," says St. Jerome. And so, grammatically, as it were in the bark of the letter, it signifies the resurrection of the dead, and under this, as it were, parable, it signifies the liberation of the Jews from captivity, in which like dry bones without spirit and life, that is, lacking all consolation and vigor, with no hope of escaping, they lay. For those who spend their lives in captivity and misery are said to dwell in sepulchres, as in Psalm 67:7: "He brings out the prisoners in strength, likewise those who provoke, who dwell in sepulchres." For truly the Poet says: "It is not living, but being well, that is life." In civil law also, slavery is considered to be civil death, just as liberty is considered to be civil life.
Second, under the type of liberation from the Babylonian captivity, which he touches upon and, as it were, presupposes, he properly and literally understands the resurrection of sinners — who, like dry bones without spirit and grace, which is the life of the soul, are held captive in sin so that they cannot rise from it by any natural power — through the breath of Christ's spirit and grace. There is therefore here a double parable, as it were, that is, a double literal sense (for he wraps the type together with the antitype); but one subordinate to the other, as I explained in Canon V. And so from this passage and from this parable we rightly prove that there will be a resurrection of bodies, as Tertullian teaches in his book On the Resurrection of the Flesh, chapter 29: "For a figure (parable) could not be composed from bones, he says, if the same thing were not going to happen to bones." So also St. Ambrose in his book On the Faith of the Resurrection, Theodoret, Justin in Apology II for Christians, Cyprian in Book III to Quirinus, chapter 69, Cyril of Jerusalem in Catechesis 18, St. Augustine in Book III of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 34, Irenaeus in Book V, chapter 15, and St. Jerome who proves the same thing thus: "For the likeness of the resurrection would never have been used to signify the restoration of the Israelite people, unless the resurrection itself stood firm and were believed to be future, because no one confirms uncertain things from things that do not exist." Hence St. Ambrose, in his book On the Faith of the Resurrection, calls the bones of men lying in graves the seeds of eternity, because they survive after the flesh has been consumed, just as seeds survive after the fruit, from which God will raise up man like a new tree to live forever. Therefore the reviving bones, like seeds sprouting again, will bring forth the flower of immortality for the Saints: for the flower of the resurrection is immortality, says St. Ambrose. Hence St. Hilary on Psalm 52:6: "The hope of eternity, he says, is customarily signified in bones: from which it was said: This is now bone of my bones, which the blessed Apostle, because it is a great mystery, refers to Christ and the Church, which borrows the substance of eternity from Adam's eternity — which is not broken in the Lord's wounded and pierced body: His bone, he says, shall not be broken: because, although the force of the Passion was in the flesh, yet the Passion had no power over the eternal and impassible nature of the divinity. And that the complete and uncorrupted hope of eternity is signified in bones, we also remember where it says: The Lord guards all their bones, not one of them shall be broken; because according to the resurrection demonstrated to Ezekiel, its mystery was revealed under the signification of bones." In bones, therefore, there is, as it were, a seminal power of resurrection — not natural and physical, but moral and obediential — because they are destined and reserved by God for the resurrection. So Franciscus Suarez, Part III, Disputation 50, Section IV. Furthermore, these bones bound together and aptly fitted were, as it were, musical instruments, into which God sent His breath to produce the harmony of life. So the body of Adam was like a lyre, its limbs like pipes, into which God breathed the breath of life, that they might offer a fitting melody to the Lord, says St. Chrysostom. Hence among all the symbols of the resurrection that are true (for the phoenix is a fable), none is more similar and more significant than quicksilver, or mercury. For if you draw it out by hand (as I have actually experienced) into the tiniest grains and, as it were, atoms, so that it seems to vanish into dust particles, as soon as you rejoin and connect them again by hand, they flow back together into the original form of quicksilver and, as it were, come back to life. Gabriel Fallopius, the physician of Modena, noted this in quicksilver, and many centuries before him St. Gregory of Nyssa in his book On the Creation of Man, chapter 28.
Another symbol of the resurrection is the seed, which when cast into the earth dies, but in spring sprouts again and produces new grain and seed, which the Apostle brings up in 1 Corinthians 15:37. But the seed that rises is not the same in number, only the same in species: whereas in quicksilver the same substance in number, as it were, rises again, just as in the resurrection the same body in number that lived will rise again. Moreover, there is here a hysterologia, or inversion of the order of narration: for first he narrates what happened last. For first the bones were joined, then covered with sinews and flesh, and lastly they received spirit, as is clear from verses 8 and 9. So Maldonatus.
Verse 3: SON OF MAN, DO YOU THINK THESE BONES WILL LIVE?
3. SON OF MAN, DO YOU THINK THESE BONES WILL LIVE? — Literally, he calls the Jews captive in Babylon dry bones, worn out by squalor, and as it were dried up and dead; because they had no hope of return to their homeland, as is clear from verse 11. Consequently, he calls their raising and life their liberation from captivity, which was for them like death. It is a metaphor, or rather a parable, or riddle taken from the bones of dead men who will rise on the day of judgment. Again, by these dry bones — namely the Jews in Babylon, as if dead — he understands sinners, who through sin have lost the life of the soul, that is, the grace of God. Hence He says to them: "Hear the word of the Lord;" because these are converted through the preaching of the word of God and rise from sin, as I shall now explain more fully.
And He Brought Me Out In The Spirit Of The Lord
AND HE BROUGHT ME OUT IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD — meaning: Not bodily, but caught up in mind and spirit by the Lord, I went out to the field. That is, not in reality but through a prophetic vision I went to the field. Second, "in the spirit," that is, by the power and impulse "of the Lord."
And He Set Me Down In The Midst Of The Field
AND HE SET ME DOWN IN THE MIDST OF THE FIELD — in the field of Shinar, or Babylon: for there were the dry bones, that is, the Jews in captivity, nearly drained and dead, as I shall shortly explain more fully. Hence symbolically Dominic Soto, and from him our own Joannes Salas, I-II, Question V, article 4, treatise II, disputation 14, section 7, hold that all men will rise in the same place and field, namely in the valley of Jehoshaphat, where the judgment will take place: therefore the bones of each individual are to be transferred by the angels from the whole world, so that all may commonly rise there. But no less probably, Richard in IV, distinction 48, article 1, Question VII, and Franciscus Suarez, Volume II, Part III, disputation 50, section 7, hold that each person will rise in the place where his corpse and bones, or the greater part of them, were: for there the other parts are to be brought by the angels; and from there each one, now resurrected, is to be transferred to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to the tribunal of Christ. And this is what Ezekiel here suggests in verse 12, saying: "Behold, I will open your graves, and I will bring you out of your sepulchres, O My people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel." This field, then, was literally the whole of Babylon, which symbolically signified the whole world. For through the appearance of this field, a kind of small field like it was presented to the mind of the Prophet, elevated by vision: just as St. Benedict, with his mind elevated, saw the whole world in God under the appearance of a globe. Christ signifies the same thing in John 5:28: "All who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and those who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."
Verse 7: And There Was A Sound
7. AND THERE WAS A SOUND — that is, the rattling of the bones that were moving and being transferred, and as they approached others they collided and made noise. This sound signifies, first, the noise of the Jews and the jubilation of those exulting at their liberation and return, preparing themselves for it and gathering their belongings. Second, under this type it signifies sinners being moved by preaching to the detestation and lamentation of their crimes. For a great commotion and clash of conflicting affections takes place in the heart of the sinner when he is being converted.
THE COMMOTION signifies attrition, or contrition for sins in the process of becoming, or in the inchoate act. For then man does not yet live, that is, is not yet justified: but when justifying grace is infused into that contrition, as it were, in the accomplished fact. Grammatically it signifies the movement by which the bones will be joined to each other by the angels in the resurrection. For then a great commotion will occur, both of the earth and the graves, and of the bones coming forth from them and approaching one another. Symbolically it signifies the movement of the Jews in Babylon, where each one moved to his joint, that is, his tribe and family, to cling to it and return with it to Judea. It teaches therefore, says Tertullian in the cited passage, that the people of the Jews, "dead, dried up, and scattered in the field of the world, must be gathered together, and bone must be joined to bone, that is, tribe to tribe, and people to people, and they must be re-embodied with the flesh of resources and the sinews of a kingdom: and thus be led forth from the graves, that is, from the most sorrowful and dreadful dwellings of captivity, and breathe again in the name of refreshment, and thenceforth live in their own land of Judea." But under this type he again understands the compunction and commotion of the sinner when he is converted, as I said.
Verse 9: From The Four Winds
9. FROM THE FOUR WINDS — because the dead and the captives were scattered to all quarters. Hence come from thence, O spirit of God, both essential and notional, that is, O Holy Spirit! And breathe into them the spirit of life; to the dead, that they may rise; to the captives, give spirit, that is, strength, courage, and boldness to return; to sinners, give the spirit of grace, that they may be justified. He aptly compares the soul to the wind: because by wind, that is, by breathing in and out, which the soul causes, we live. Moreover, the souls are said to come to the body from the four winds, both because they left their bodies there when men died — for the soul seems to be where it remained when it left its body — and because some will come from heaven, others from purgatory, others from any quarter of the world, namely the souls of those who will die on the day of judgment in any part of the world. For these will suddenly be recalled from there to their body when they rise.
Verse 11: All These Bones Are The House Of Israel
11. ALL THESE BONES ARE THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL — meaning: These bones signify the house of Israel, which was captive in Babylon as if it had been dead in a tomb. Here he applies the parable to the Jews captive in Babylon, who considered themselves and their return a lost cause; and they had no more hope of being restored to liberty and their homeland than of those bones coming back to life.
God therefore showed that He could accomplish both this and that. OUR BONES HAVE DRIED UP — meaning: We have long been dead; we have lost all vigor, spirit, and strength. Mystically, St. Clement, in Book V of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter 6, holds that the Jews said this because they did not believe in the future resurrection, to whom therefore God responds and pledges the resurrection, saying: "Behold, I open your graves and bring you out of them," etc.
Our Hope Has Perished
OUR HOPE HAS PERISHED — of returning to our homeland. WE ARE CUT OFF — Just as a branch torn from the root has no hope of life, of being joined to the root again, so we, torn from our homeland, do not hope for a return to be joined to it. Likewise, the sinner does not hope for pardon; indeed he often despairs, unless hope is breathed into him by the spirit of God. These dry bones, therefore, are a symbol of extreme calamity, in which everything seems desperate to a man measuring natural forces; but then God, when invoked, is especially wont to be present and help, even beyond nature. Thus God permitted the Jews in Babylon to be ground down and consumed, as it were, to the bones, so as to teach them to hope in desperate situations and to invoke God, and when invoked, He gloriously freed them and, as it were, raised them from death. This is what Isaiah 26:19 says: "My dead shall live, My slain shall rise:" "My," that is, subject to My command, will, and power, so that I may raise them from death; hence Isaiah adds: "Awake and praise, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is the dew of light," meaning: As easily as dew refreshes and, as it were, brings to life dry herbs by watering them, so easily will I, God, by My grace and power, call you, dry and dead, back to life. Therefore then the blessed will say that of Psalm 34:10: "All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like You?"
Verse 12: I WILL OPEN YOUR GRAVES.
12. I WILL OPEN YOUR GRAVES. — He calls the prisons of Chaldea graves and tombs, and under these, the prisons of sin: for captivity is called civil death, meaning: I will free you from Babylonian slavery, and likewise I will snatch the world from the captivity of sin.
Verse 14: Your Own Land
14. YOUR OWN LAND — namely Judea, and under this he understands the Church.
Verse 16: TAKE ONE STICK.
16. TAKE ONE STICK. — The Chaldean: a tablet; the Septuagint: one rod. Up to this point he has described the resurrection and return from Babylon through the parable of dry bones coming back to life; now he describes the same through another but similar parable of branches or dry sticks joined together in Ezekiel's hand, and as it were reviving, to become like one tree. The former parable was taken from animals; this one from plants, which have a similar soul and life: for they have their veins, fibers, marrow, sap, branches like limbs, roots like a heart and stomach, leaves like hair, fruits like offspring, after the manner of animals. Hence man is called an inverted tree. Again, a seed dying in the earth and soon growing green again, and a tree in winter, as it were dying, and in spring reviving, is a symbol of the resurrection, as I taught from the Apostle and St. Augustine at 1 Corinthians 15:36. Moreover, this tree formed from two sticks, as branches coming back to life, fittingly signifies the Church, which is formed from various men and nations, formerly wicked and dead through sins, now reviving through grace, and coalesces in Christ. See Origen, Homily 7 on Leviticus 10. The Prophet is therefore commanded by God here to take two sticks, that is, scepters — one for Judah, to which Israel adheres, that is, the tribes of Benjamin and Levi; the other for Joseph, or Ephraim, that is, the ten tribes — and to join these two into one, to make one scepter, that is, one kingdom and one commonwealth. Note: Under the two sticks he signifies two kingdoms, namely one of Judah, the other of the ten tribes, which he calls Samaria, Joseph, and Ephraim: because from the tribe of Joseph, or Ephraim (for Ephraim was the son of Joseph, and was preferred by grandfather Jacob over his elder brother Manasseh and made the firstborn, Genesis 48:20; hence the tribe of Joseph was called the tribe of Ephraim, Numbers 1:10), Jeroboam arose, the first king of Israel, that is, of the ten tribes, the author of the rebellion against Judah and the house of David.
Second, these two sticks are joined together because many from the ten tribes joined themselves to Judah, when under Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah all returned from Babylon to Judea and coalesced into one commonwealth.
Third, under these he signifies the union of Jews and Gentiles in the Church of Christ. For Christ "made both one," Ephesians 2:14, so that "in Him there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one," Colossians 3:11. Hence he adds: "And they shall become one in your hand," that is, you shall so join them, and carry them joined in your hand, as if they were one stick.
Joseph, The Stick Of Ephraim
JOSEPH, THE STICK OF EPHRAIM — that is, as the Chaldean has it, as fugitives or captives, and there they absorbed the idols and sins of other nations. For, as the Psalmist says, Psalm 105:35: "They mingled with the nations, and learned their works."
Joseph, who is the tribe or kingdom of Ephraim. For from him the twelve or thirteen tribes were named, like twelve rods proceeding from the same trunk, namely their father Jacob. For the name שבט shebet signifies a rod and a scepter, and from that a tribe: for each tribe had its own rod, as is clear from Numbers 17:2.
Verse 19: I Will Take The Stick Of Joseph
19. I WILL TAKE THE STICK OF JOSEPH (that is, the tribe and kingdom of Joseph, or the ten tribes), WHICH IS IN THE HAND OF EPHRAIM — because the first king of Israel, Jeroboam, and almost all the following kings were from the tribe of Ephraim. Hence the Chaldean translates: which is the tribe of Ephraim. IN HIS HAND — So reads the Roman edition; "his," namely God's; in Hebrew: in My hand, namely God's: for I, God, am speaking here; the Septuagint reads: in the hand of Judah, meaning: By human malice and rivalry, when there was one kingdom of the Jews, under Rehoboam and Jeroboam it was split into two: but by My power, when they are two, or rather none, they shall again become one: just as you joined the two sticks in your hand so that they appeared to be one.
This God accomplished not so much through Zerubbabel as through Christ. For He removed the rivalry and contention between Jews and Samaritans, and joined both in His Church to God and to Himself, as He Himself says in John 4:21.
Verse 22: I Will Make Them One Nation
22. I WILL MAKE THEM ONE NATION — one faithful and Christian people. IN THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL — in the Catholic Church: for this is the true Zion and Israel. See what was said at Isaiah chapter 2:22.
And One King Shall Rule Over Them All
AND ONE KING SHALL RULE OVER THEM ALL — namely, the one King, Christ. "For one body of empire, it seems, should be governed by the mind of one man," says Tacitus in Book I of the Annals, just as one ship by one helmsman. If you give more, you will bring disorder, no differently than "if two suns wished to exist, the danger is that everything would be destroyed by conflagration," says Servinus. Here we read, indeed we ourselves have seen, that "the only remedy for a country often in discord has been to be ruled by one man," says Tacitus in Book I. For, as Plato says in the Politicus: the king is, as it were, a god among men. And Callimachus: From Jupiter come kings. Hence Homer also calls them "kings nurtured by Jupiter." And Livy, Book 26: "Kingship (monarchy), he says, is the finest thing among gods and men." Finally Homer, Iliad II:
Let there be one ruler, One king.
Let there be a single master, A single prince.
Verse 23: From All Their Dwellings
23. FROM ALL THEIR DWELLINGS (that is, habitations) — in which they either lived or were scattered as fugitives or captives, and there absorbed the idols and sins of other nations.
Verse 24: David Shall Be King Over Them
24. DAVID SHALL BE KING OVER THEM — that is, Christ, the Son of David, will be the King and Shepherd of all the faithful. Christ alludes to this in John 10:16, saying: "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold: and I must bring them also, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." Hence concerning them He says: "They shall walk in My judgments," that is, precepts, "upon the land that I gave to My servant," that is, in Zion, that is, in the Christian Church.
Verse 25: Their Prince Forever
25. THEIR PRINCE FOREVER — because "of His kingdom," namely Christ's, "there shall be no end," Luke 1:33.
Verse 26: A Covenant Of Peace
26. A COVENANT OF PEACE — the New Testament which reconciles us to God and wholly breathes peace, love, and concord. See chapter 34:25. Moreover He says, "I will strike a covenant," that is, I will ratify, agree, establish: because covenants and pacts used to be entered into by stipulation, that is, a mutual striking of hands; and because they were ratified by the striking and slaughter of covenant victims. Hence the Poet:
They stood, and confirmed the covenants with a slaughtered sow.
Hence the phrase: to strike, that is, to make, a covenant.
I Will Establish Them
I WILL ESTABLISH THEM — in the Church, as on firm ground and a foundation, indeed a rock.
I Will Set My Sanctuary
I WILL SET MY SANCTUARY (that is, holiness) — or the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, says H. Pintus. But note: in Hebrew it is מקדשי micdaschi, that is, My sanctuary or temple, as the Chaldean translates, meaning: I will dwell with Christians in the Church, as I once dwelt with the Jews in the temple. So Vatablus. Hence Christians are a temple in which God dwells, as the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 3:16, and 2 Corinthians 6:16. See what was said there. The Septuagint translates "holy things" in the plural, in the same sense: for so they call the sanctuary, which was formerly divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies; although H. Pintus understands by "holy things" the seven holy Sacraments of the Church.
Verse 27: AND MY TABERNACLE SHALL BE AMONG THEM.
27. AND MY TABERNACLE SHALL BE AMONG THEM. — Note: He calls the Church a tabernacle, as shortly before he called it a sanctuary or temple. For the Church militant here on earth lives, as it were, in a tabernacle.
Verse 28: Sanctification
28. SANCTIFICATION — In Hebrew: sanctuary, namely the temple, that is, the holy Church, as I said at verse 26. St. John alludes to this in Revelation 21:3; indeed he cites these very words of Ezekiel and applies them to the heavenly Jerusalem: for in that city they will be fulfilled, while in the earthly one, namely in the Church militant, they are begun — and the phrase "forever" suggests this. Our Turrianus, in his book On the Eucharist, applies these words to the Holy Eucharist, in which God, namely Christ, bodily resides, and through it remains and dwells in the Church as in His tabernacle.
There is in this chapter a didactic as well as moral passage about the future resurrection of all men. For God wished by this figure of reviving bones to sharpen in the Jews, as well as in Christians, faith and hope in the resurrection, which is a keen stimulus to every virtue. For, as Tertullian says: "The hope of Christians is the resurrection of the dead." For this reason God often represented this same truth to men through clear miracles.
First, by preserving the bodies of Saints incorrupt. For this is a specimen and, as it were, a prelude to the resurrection. In the time of the Emperor Theodosius, in the year of Christ 430, when, as many report (although Baronius denies it), there was a great discussion at Constantinople about the resurrection of the dead, God settled the matter by a miracle. For He brought to light seven brothers, healthy and vigorous, who at Ephesus, fleeing the persecution under Decius, had hidden in a cave and slept from Decius to Theodosius, that is, 181 years. Hence Theodosius, in order to see them, traveled to Ephesus: their commemoration, as saints under the title of the Seven Sleepers, exists in the Martyrology on July 27.
Metaphrastes testifies in the Life of St. Antonomus, Bishop and martyr, that he saw his relics in the tomb intact and lifelike after two hundred years from his death, so that even the hair of his head was unharmed, and the features of his face remained complete, with the skin firm and stretched, without even the hairs of his upper lip being lost. The figure of his body also preserved its structure, without any separation of the parts from one another.
We are more than 352 years, says Thomas Bozius in Book XIII of On the Signs of the Church, chapter 3, since Bishop Ubaldus of Gubbio departed from this life, and yet I myself twice observed his limbs, lifelike and unblemished, and at closer view watched them being handled by the hands of priests and turned in every direction, just as if it were living flesh, not subject to corruption.
Likewise, in the year of the Lord 771, the body of Bishop Hubert of Liege, when it was elevated in the seventeenth year after his death, was found intact and unharmed, with its hair, and wonderfully fragrant, as his Life records on November 3.
Likewise, the body of St. Claudius, Archbishop of Besancon, is shown to this day in the church of St. Eugendus, incorrupt and intact to the admiration of all, resplendent with innumerable miracles, as his Life records on June 6.
Likewise, in the year of the Lord 1170, the body of St. Sigebert, king of the Franks, was found intact, as if he were sleeping there, although he had already lain in the tomb for 572 years, says the monk Sigebert in his Life on February 1.
St. Ferreolus the martyr, buried at Vienne in Gaul, was found after many years intact and unharmed, as though he were sleeping, with neither his complexion changed, nor his hair cut away, nor any decay, says Gregory of Tours, On the Miracles of St. Julian, chapter 2.
Likewise, God preserves the virginal body of St. Francis Xavier intact and unharmed to this very day. These are preludes to the resurrection.
Second, Christ demonstrated this future resurrection by showing Himself many times after death in His glorified body; likewise Saints appearing after death. So St. Acholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, appeared to St. Ambrose, saying that he was at rest in heaven, as Ambrose himself reports in Book III, Epistle 22.
Likewise, St. Eugenia, appearing to her grieving mother in most splendid attire, with many virgins, said: "Do not weep, but rejoice: for I and my father Philip live in a certain ineffable joy of the martyrs, dwelling and reigning together with Christ, who will also call you to this life not many days hence. But preserve for my brothers the firm and stable seal which is in Christ, and constantly exhort them to be also brothers to me in spirit, so that we may offer our whole family as a beautiful gift to the Lord." So her Life records in chapter 37, in Surius on December 25.
Likewise, St. Agnes appeared to her parents after death, saying: "Do not mourn me as if I were dead; for together with these virgins I live with Him in heaven whom on earth I loved with my whole mind," as St. Ambrose reports in Sermon 90.
Third, through the reuniting of severed limbs to the body, or their carrying. St. Gregory writes in Dialogues III, 13, that the head of St. Herculanus, Bishop and martyr, which had been cut off by Totila, was found on the fortieth day after in the tomb so joined to the body, as if no stroke of a blade had touched it.
St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, killed by his most wicked brother Boleslaus, was found intact, and the torn-off ear again adhered to his head. So Dubravius, Book IV of the History of Bohemia.
Memorable and almost unheard of is what we read in the Life of St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, and what the Poles celebrate in the Breviary of their Saints: namely that King Boleslaus slaughtered St. Stanislaus, and then the king's servants in their fury cut the Saint's body into 72 pieces and threw them to dogs and birds to be devoured. But eagles, flying down from heaven, offered themselves as guardians and protectors of the Saint's body. After two days, the clergy, taking courage, sought out and reassembled the limbs of their Bishop. A wondrous thing: by the power of God it came about that they immediately grew together, as if they had never been torn apart. One finger was missing, but God did not allow even this to remain hidden for long. A heavenly light revealed the finger, which had been thrown into a nearby pool and swallowed by a fish; gutting the fish, they extracted the finger and restored it to its place. This is what Ezekiel saw here: bones joined to bones, flesh to flesh, limbs to limbs; certainly a clear symbol and proof of the future resurrection. For the Lord guards the bones of His Saints; not one of them shall be broken. Hence St. Ambrose, on the feast of St. Nazarius and Celsus, says: "I honor therefore the scars received in the flesh of the martyr for Christ's name: I honor the memory of one living in the perpetuity of virtue: I honor the ashes made sacred by the confession of the Lord: I honor in the ashes the seeds of eternity: I honor the body that shows me it loved my Lord, that taught me not to fear death for my Lord's sake. Why should the faithful not honor that body which even the demons revere? which they afflicted in punishment but glorify in the tomb. I therefore honor the body that Christ honored by the sword, that will reign with Christ in heaven."
No less wonderful, and an even more evident argument, indeed testimony of the resurrection, is what I now present. The same St. Stanislaus, when pressed by King Boleslaus to produce the deeds or witnesses of the sale of a field which he had bought for the Church three years earlier from a certain Peter, now deceased, and no one dared to testify on his behalf, since all feared the king's wrath, he himself, seized by the spirit and zeal of God, said: "Since truths have been diminished among the sons of men, let truth arise from the earth, and let justice look down from heaven. In the name of Jesus Christ, whom I serve and whose Church I protect, I pledge that three days hence I will bring Peter himself, alive, as a witness of truth and justice for my case, to this tribunal." Then, spending three days in prayer and fasting, he went to Peter's tomb, and addressing him in the name of Almighty God: "Come forth, Peter, he said, and as a dead man from the grave, bear witness to the truth buried by the living." Out came that man, dead for three years, and Stanislaus, taking him by the right hand, led him to the king's tribunal. Then Peter said: "I am Peter, who have come from my place of rest to give testimony to the truth. I sold my estate to this man at a fair price, and formally conveyed it." He then rebuked the king and his heirs for troubling the holy man without cause. So his Life and the Polish Breviary record on May 13. Behold, here in the revived Peter, not only was flesh joined to flesh and bones to bones, but also "the spirit entered into them, and they lived," as Ezekiel says in verse 10.
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, after being beheaded, raised himself up and carried his severed head for nearly two miles, as Hilduinus reports in his Life.
Saints Ursus and Victor, martyrs, together with sixty companions from the Theban legion, beheaded under Diocletian and Maximian and thrown into a river, emerged from the river carrying their heads in their hands and came to the place where a church has now been built in their honor. These things are wonderful, but more wonderful things follow. For the holy martyrs, kneeling on the ground for about the space of an hour, before they laid down their bodies, prayed while all looked on. When the prayer was finished, they set their bodies down on the ground, as if to say: "This is our rest forever and ever." So their Life records.
In the year of the Lord 306, under Dacian, St. Lambertus was beheaded by his master for the faith of Christ; he immediately picked up his head and traveled more than four miles to the place where many slain martyrs lay. Then he said: "The saints shall exult in glory," and they responded: "And they shall rejoice in their resting places." So Vasaeus reports.
St. Gregory of Tours, On the Glory of the Confessors, chapter 50, reports that St. Severinus, when struck by a medlar tree while riding, cursed it and caused it to wither. Returning after several days and seeing it dry, he began to pray, saying: "You, O Lord, who will cause our bodies to rise, command this tree to grow green again:" and immediately it grew green and came back to life.
Most illustrious is what we read in the Life of St. John Chrysostom. For when he had died in exile at Comana, and the citizens of Constantinople wished to bring his body back to their city, they could by no force or means move it from its place; until the Emperor Theodosius sent the most humble letters to Chrysostom, as if he were still living, in which he begged pardon for the offense committed against him by his mother Eudoxia, and earnestly asked him to return to himself and his citizens. When this letter was placed on the body of the Saint, it suddenly allowed itself to be moved and transported. But hear greater things. Theodosius, surrounded by an assembly and procession of all ranks, received him with wonderful rejoicing, and falling on his knees, begging pardon for his mother, asked that the shaking and noise of her tomb might cease. For it had been trembling for 35 years, namely from the time when she herself had shaken both John and the Church. The Emperor was heard: for immediately his mother's urn became still and was at rest. And when Patriarch Proclus of Constantinople placed the Saint beside him on the same throne, the surrounding crowd exclaimed with one voice: "Receive the throne, O Father!" It is reported that he then opened his lips, long closed, and said: "Peace be with you," as the bystanders and Patriarch Proclus attested. So Baronius from Cosmas Vestiarius, Nicephorus, and others, at the year of Christ 438. Do not the bones of the Saints live before God? Does not Chrysostom live? Finally, the bones of St. Januarius, Pantaleon, Nicholas, Andrew, and other Saints bubble and exude a fragrant and healing liquid, and thus seem, as it were, to live. This is what Isaiah foretold in chapter 66:14: "Your bones shall sprout like grass." See what was said there.