Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to describe and threaten the horror of the day of Jerusalem's destruction by the Chaldeans, and under that type allegorically the horror of the day of judgment. Then, from verse 12, he exhorts all to repentance and lamentation, that they may reconcile God to themselves and thus escape His threats. Third, from verse 18, he promises the penitent salvation through Cyrus, and much more through Christ the Teacher of justice, through whom He will pour out the Holy Spirit upon the faithful. Finally, from verse 30, he gives signs preceding the judgment and the Judge, Christ.
Vulgate Text: Joel 2:1-32
1. Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord comes, for it is near. 2. A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and whirlwind; like the dawn spread upon the mountains, a people numerous and mighty; there has not been the like from the beginning, nor shall there be after them, even to the years of generation upon generation. 3. Before their face a devouring fire, and behind them a burning flame; like the garden of pleasure is the land before them, and behind them a desert wasteland, and there is none that escapes them. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and like horsemen so shall they run. 5. Like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains they shall leap, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring stubble, like a mighty people prepared for battle. 6. Before their face peoples shall be in anguish; all faces shall be turned into a cooking pot. 7. They shall run like mighty men; like men of war they shall scale the wall; men shall march each in his way, and they shall not turn aside from their paths. 8. No one shall press his brother; they shall walk each in his own track; they shall fall through the windows and shall not be destroyed. 9. They shall enter the city, they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up into the houses, they shall enter through the windows like a thief. 10. Before their face the earth trembles, the heavens are moved; the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness. 11. And the Lord has uttered His voice before the face of His army; for His camps are very great, for they are strong and do His word; for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can endure it? 12. Now therefore, says the Lord, be converted to Me with your whole heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. 13. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to relent of the evil. 14. Who knows but He may turn and forgive, and leave a blessing behind Him, a sacrifice and a drink offering to the Lord your God?
your God? 15. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, 16. gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the little ones and those who suck the breast: let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her bridal room. 17. Between the vestibule and the altar the priests, the ministers of the Lord, shall weep, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare Your people: and give not Your inheritance to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples: Where is their God? 18. The Lord has been zealous for His land, and has spared His people. 19. And the Lord answered, and said to His people: Behold, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be filled with them: and I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations. 20. And him that is from the north I will remove far from you, and I will drive him into a land without paths and desolate: his face toward the eastern sea, and his end toward the farthest sea: and his stench shall rise up, and his rottenness shall ascend, because he has acted proudly. 21. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord has done great things. 22. Fear not, you beasts of the field: for the beautiful places of the desert have sprouted, for the tree has borne its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have given their strength. 23. And you children of Zion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the teacher of justice, and He will cause the early and the latter rain to come down to you, as in the beginning. 24. And the threshing floors shall be filled with grain, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25. And I will restore to you the years which the locust has consumed, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm: My great army, which I sent among you. 26. And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you shall praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders with you: and My people shall not be confounded forever. 27. And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and My people shall not be confounded forever. 28. And it shall come to pass after this: I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29. Moreover, upon My servants and My handmaids in those days I will pour out My Spirit. 30. And I will show wonders in the heavens, and on the earth blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. 32. And it shall come to pass: everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be salvation, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
Verse 1: 1. WAIL — not so much with the voice as with the trumpet: for in Hebrew it is tariu, that is, sound the taratantara;...
1. WAIL — not so much with the voice as with the trumpet: for in Hebrew it is tariu, that is, sound the taratantara; the Zurich translation renders: Sound the battle trumpet, namely a mournful and dreadful sound, such as is usually sounded at the approach of enemies, in battle, in slaughter and destruction, as if to say: Behold the enemy approaches, the Chaldean is at hand, siege and devastation threaten the city; therefore sound the trumpets, both as a call to arms, and more importantly so that all may flee to God in the temple, and implore and obtain God's help; there let them have either a sanctuary or a tomb. ON MY HOLY MOUNTAIN — in the temple and citadel of Mount Zion. LET ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND — our land, namely Judea — BE TROUBLED (the Zurich translation has: tremble); and trembling and dismayed, let them all with one voice unanimously cry out for God's help.
1 and 2. For the day of the Lord comes (that is, the day of judgment and vengeance of the Lord, which the Lord will execute upon the Jews through the Chaldeans. Hence this day is soon called by Joel) a day of darkness and gloom, a day OF CLOUD AND WHIRLWIND — that is, supremely disastrous, sad, gloomy, and calamitous, in which the Jews, overwhelmed with sorrow, will have their eyes darkened, so that noon will seem to them to be darkness, and all things will appear to them dark and black. For just as light is the symbol and cause of joy and prosperity, so darkness is the symbol of sadness, adversity, and prison and captivity. Literally, therefore, he speaks of the day of the destruction of Jerusalem; tropologically, of the day of death, judgment, and the destruction of the world, when the Archangel shall sound the last trumpet, 1 Corinthians 15:52. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Albert, Hugh, Arias, Ribera, and others.
Like the dawn — that is, just as in the morning the dawn spreads in every direction, and the first light of the sun, which as soon as it rises illuminates all things with its rays and fills everything with its light; so this great and mighty people, namely these locusts of which I spoke in chapter 1:4, that is, the armies of the Chaldeans, will most swiftly occupy all the mountains of Judea. For he persists in the parable and allegory of the locusts: "This," says St. Jerome, "is said of the locusts, that it may be understood of the enemies; so that while we read of locusts, we may think of the Babylonians." So also Theodoret, Remigius, Hugh, Clarius, and others; and this is clear from what follows, where he compares them to horses and horsemen. For it is the locusts that resemble these, not the Chaldeans, who were not merely similar but were themselves horsemen.
Arias explains differently: Just as in the morning, when the light rises and occupies the mountains, the darkness is driven into the valleys; so when the Chaldeans come and occupy the mountains, the darkness of calamity and devastation will be driven into Judea and Jerusalem. For them, therefore, it will be "a day of darkness and gloom," as was said before; while for the Chaldeans and other nations it will be a bright, joyful, and happy morning.
HIS LIKE HAS NOT BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING, NOR SHALL THERE BE AFTER HIM EVEN TO THE YEARS OF GENERATION UPON GENERATION — that is, for two or for many generations and ages, no enemy was or shall be more harmful to Judea than the Chaldeans. For after many centuries, it is clear from Josephus and from the modern dispersion of the Jews throughout the whole world that the Romans under Titus and Vespasian harmed them more and utterly overthrew and desolated her. So Theodoret.
Before his face a devouring fire — that is, whatever this people of locusts, that is, of Chaldeans, touches, they will consume entirely like a devouring flame; so that they seem to carry fire in their hands, and to blow upon and burn everything with it, to such a degree that they reduce everything to a wilderness, and leave behind nothing but coals and ashes. So St. Jerome. It is a catachresis.
Sanchez explains differently: The fire here, he says, is that which was carried before the kings and armies of the Chaldeans, as a companion and guide of the way; for the Chaldeans worshipped fire as a god. Fire therefore was for them like a military standard, threatening and portending conflagrations, slaughter, and carnage. The same practice the kings of Persia received from the Chaldeans after their overthrow; that fire was carried before them is taught by Xenophon, Cyropedia book VIII, Curtius book III, and others. Similarly, burning and fiery torches were carried before Holofernes, Judith 10:17, according to the Septuagint. He therefore gives this sense of the passage: Before the hostile armies hastening into Judea, a devouring fire will go, the proper ensign of the Chaldeans; another fire will follow which the enemy will scatter, so that Judea, which was previously a garden of delight, may be burned and desolated. In a similar manner and for a similar reason, Jeremiah, chapter 1, saw a boiling pot, by which was portended the coming of the Chaldeans, who were going to lay waste everything with sword and flame. St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 45, reading from the Septuagint, renders it thus: Before him, a garden of delight; but behind him, a field of extermination; and he explains it thus: "Joel," he says, "with these words laments the corruption of the land and the torment of famine, tragically contrasting the later deformity with the former beauty," as if to say: The land, which was previously blooming and fruitful, afterward became arid and squalid, and as if exterminated.
Verse 4: 4. THE APPEARANCE OF THEM IS LIKE THE APPEARANCE OF HORSES — that is, these camps of locusts, which represent the...
4. THE APPEARANCE OF THEM IS LIKE THE APPEARANCE OF HORSES — that is, these camps of locusts, which represent the armies of the Chaldeans, will be similar to horses and horsemen. So St. Jerome. For the locust has the appearance of an armed horse and an armored horseman; hence in Italian it is called cavalletta, that is, a little horse. St. John alludes to this in his future locusts at the end of the world, Revelation 9:7: "The shapes," he says, "of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle;" and verse 9: "And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle."
Verse 5: 5. LIKE THE NOISE (din and crackling) OF A FLAME OF FIRE DEVOURING STUBBLE — as if to say: Just as a flame licking and...
5. LIKE THE NOISE (din and crackling) OF A FLAME OF FIRE DEVOURING STUBBLE — as if to say: Just as a flame licking and igniting stubble crackles and pops, so these locusts make noise, that is, the Chaldeans, when they gnaw and burn the fields of Judea like stubble.
Verse 6: 6. ALL FACES SHALL BE REDUCED TO THE COLOR OF A POT — the Chaldee renders: They shall become black like pots, namely...
6. ALL FACES SHALL BE REDUCED TO THE COLOR OF A POT — the Chaldee renders: They shall become black like pots, namely from fear and terror. For fear drives the blood back to the heart, to protect it as a citadel in danger; hence the extremities, as if lifeless and bloodless, grow pale, and then, as fear increases, they become black. For slight fear induces pallor; great fear, such as the fear of death, induces blackness, so that their faces, says Rufinus, "are clothed with the livid hue of approaching death: hence they shall not only grow pale, but shall be utterly blackened" (for so I read with Delrio, adage 969, not "attracted").
Thus Isaiah, chapter 13:8, says of the destruction of the Babylonians: "Their faces shall be as faces scorched," that is, they blacken from fear and grief; for just as the face becomes serene and bright from joy, so it is darkened and clouded by sadness and fear, says St. Jerome and Theophylact. Secondly, Theodoret refers these words to famine as the cause, as if to say: From famine they shall become livid and black; likewise from the burning sun, when in Chaldea they are compelled to work like slaves in mud and other sordid tasks, says Sanchez, especially when they become potters, caldron-makers, blacksmiths, furnace-workers, charcoal-burners; and how black these become can be seen in the mines of Liege.
Tropologically, this is the type, this the discolored color, this the appearance, this the face of all sinners before God and His angels.
Verse 7: 7. THEY SHALL SCALE THE WALL — the Chaldeans. Note: In parables, the thing is mixed with the parable; hence certain...
7. THEY SHALL SCALE THE WALL — the Chaldeans. Note: In parables, the thing is mixed with the parable; hence certain things are said in them which more properly belong to the thing itself than to the parable. Such is the case here: to scale the walls of Jerusalem and through them to burst into the besieged city, which more properly belongs to the Chaldeans than to the locusts their antitypes. Such also are what follows: "They shall enter the city, they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb into the houses;" and verse 11: "His camps are exceedingly many, for they are mighty: each man shall march in his own path." Men, that is, each one like mighty men in the manner of an army, shall advance in their own battle line and order. For the Hebrew word for man has two meanings: first, man, that is, each one; second, man, that is, strong and manly.
Thus the locust "goes forth all in its bands," says the Wise Man, Proverbs 30:27. "We recently saw this," says St. Jerome, "in this province (Judea). For when the swarms of locusts came and occupied the air between heaven and earth, they flew in such order and arrangement at the command of God, that like the tiles which are fixed in pavements by the hand of an artisan, they kept their place, and did not deviate, so to speak, even by a hair's breadth from their position." This is what Joel adds: "No one shall press upon his brother, each shall walk in his own lane;" the Syriac renders: Each shall go in his own path, from the weight (gravity) of his judgment they shall fall, and shall not ascend to the highest. By these battle lines of locusts, understand the orderly battle array of the Chaldeans.
Note: For windows, the Hebrew has shelach, that is, sending in and sending out, namely a window, through which light and air are sent into the house, while filth is sent out and ejected into the street. Again, shelach means a missile, that is, a dart or javelin. Hence the Septuagint translates: They shall fall upon javelins and not be consumed; Pagninus and Vatablus: They shall throw themselves upon the sword and not be wounded, as if to say: The Chaldeans will rush upon the swords of the Jews and not be harmed by them, but will fell them and pierce them with their own swords. Again, for "they shall not be destroyed," the Hebrew is iibtsau, which means to wound, and also to be greedy, to seek money. Hence the Chaldee translates: They go to the place to which they are sent, slaughtering, and they shall not receive money, that is, the Chaldeans will take the lives of the Jews and will not accept gold offered by them as ransom. Arias and the Zurich version translate: They do not gape after gain. So also tropologically, the demons seek souls, not gold. Finally, learn here that avarice is aptly called in Hebrew betsa, that is, a wound, because it hurts and wounds the neighbor through usury, fraud, contracts, etc. For as the Philosopher says: "Money is the soul and blood of mortals."
Verse 8: 8. AND THEY SHALL FALL THROUGH THE WINDOWS. — "For nothing is impassable for locusts, since they penetrate both fields...
8. AND THEY SHALL FALL THROUGH THE WINDOWS. — "For nothing is impassable for locusts, since they penetrate both fields and crops, both cities and houses, and the inner chambers of bedrooms," says St. Jerome, as did the locusts sent by Moses upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Exodus 10:14. He notes the impetuosity, shamelessness, and audacity of the Chaldeans; that like locusts they will burst through windows, with the gates closed, into the houses of the Jews.
AND THEY SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED — in the passive sense, that is, they shall not be hurt, they shall not wound themselves in this leap through the windows, as if to say: They shall not dash the weight of their bodies, heavy with arms, to the ground, nor lose anything of their size and strength by this fall. By this sign he notes their dexterity and training in fighting, leaping, etc., as well as their boldness, with which they will rush fearlessly upon the very swords of the enemy; and indeed unharmed, from their practice and skill in leaping and fighting. So Sanchez.
One might suspect that instead of demolientur, one should read demorientur, that is, they shall be wounded so as to die. For this is what the Hebrew iibtsau means. But the Latin codices, even the most ancient ones that I inspected in Rome, consistently read demolientur, that is, they shall be destroyed, and, as the Septuagint has it according to St. Jerome, they shall be consumed; and this is good Latin, not barbarous. For the ancients said actively demolio, demolivi, for destruo, destruxi; and consequently, passively demolior, demolitus sum, for destruor, destructus sum. So in chapter 1:17, it is said: "The granaries have been demolished," that is, destroyed. So Alphenus in the law Qui insulam, in the beginning, Digest: "The owner of the building, he says, because he said the buildings were defective, had demolished it." And Ulpian in the law Quid tamen, section 1, Digest, On the ways in which usufruct is lost: "If, he says, after demolishing the buildings, the testator had restored new ones;" and: "A building demolished," in the law Qui insulam, in the beginning, Digest, On Leases. The sense therefore is: The bold Chaldeans, greedy for plunder, with the doors shut, will burst through the windows into the houses, and will not be demolished, that is, will not be cut down, will not be harmed, either by themselves and their own arms in this leap, or by the swords of the inhabitants, namely the Jews, defending themselves and their houses; for they will be so strong and dexterous that in leaping they will not stumble upon their own weapons; and so terrifying that the Jews will not dare to attack them, but will hide themselves in their hiding places.
10. Before his face (of the people, of which verse 2 speaks) THE EARTH TREMBLED, THE HEAVENS WERE SHAKEN. — It is a poetic hyperbole, in which the Prophet partly alludes to the locusts, partly to the Chaldeans signified by them, as if to say: So vast and so numerous and dense will this locust swarm be, that is, the army of the Chaldeans, and so great will be its horror and terror among the Jews, that when they are struck and stunned by this fear, through these locusts like clouds and through the dust raised by them, the sun and moon will seem to be veiled and darkened (for the swarms of locusts are sometimes so dense that when they fly with expanded wings, they cover the sun and sky); moreover, amid the dreadful blare of trumpets, the beating of drums and blast of war engines, the neighing of horses and the clash of their hooves upon the rocks, the shouting and fury of the soldiers, "the heaven will seem to fall and the earth to surge," says St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert, Hugh, Ribera, and others. In a similar manner, Isaiah, chapter 13:10 and 13, says that in the destruction of Babylon the sun, moon, and stars withdrew their light, the heavens were disturbed, and the earth was shaken from its place. So the Psalmist, Psalm 17, poetically depicts God descending for vengeance upon the wicked, as if shaking the heavens, the air, the earth, and the whole fabric of the world, and, as the Poet says: "He who shakes the world with His nod." See Canon 32 on the Major Prophets.
Secondly, Theodoret and Arias understand these words not hyperbolically but literally. For they believe that God sent before the army of the Chaldeans storms, lightning, and thunder to terrify the Jews. For by these the sky, that is, the entire atmosphere, as well as the earth is disturbed and shaken, according to that saying of Virgil, Aeneid IV: I will shake all heaven with thunder. Again, by these storms the sun and sky are covered and darkened. Whence follows:
AND THE STARS HAVE WITHDRAWN THEIR SPLENDOR — the Syriac and both Arabic versions render: The light (brilliance) of the stars has perished.
11. And (that is, because) the Lord has given His voice BEFORE THE FACE OF HIS ARMY — that is, before His army, namely before the Chaldeans. For the voice of God is thunder, as is clear from Psalm 28:2 and following. He alludes to the voice of a commander who with great spirit and voice exhorts and spurs on his soldiers for the approaching battle, as if to say: God, like a commander of war, will animate His soldiers, namely the Chaldeans coming into Judea, to battle through thunder; but the Jews He will through the same strike and terrify, because they refused to hear His gracious voice and invitation to repentance, and despised His envoys, namely the Prophets; therefore they shall hear and feel the thunder of God, who heard His gentle words and rejected them. Note: The Chaldeans are here called soldiers and the army of God, because they were like the lictors of divine justice and vengeance exercised upon the Jews and other nations. For although they themselves invaded the Jews and nations tyrannically out of lust for domination and desire to enrich themselves with spoils, and therefore could not have been directly stirred up and positively sent by God for this purpose; nevertheless God decreed to directly permit this tyranny, lust, and greed of theirs, and in fact did permit it, in order that through it He might chastise the luxury, idolatry, and other sins of the Jews and the nations. See Canon 36 on the Major Prophets.
Allegorically, these things will be truer and greater on the day of death, and even more on the day of judgment, of which a vivid image is given here in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. And so this day will be one of darkness and gloom, when the locusts, that is, innumerable demons armed with our sins which we committed in life, will invade the soul, strike it, lacerate it, and reduce it to extreme anguish, so that the earth, the air, and heaven will seem too narrow for it.
12. Be converted to Me (you who had turned away from Me, and turned to your various and enticing desires): be converted, I say, with your whole heart — with your whole mind, your whole soul, your whole spirit, your whole affection. For I am the creator and lord of the heart and mind, and therefore I gave it entirely to Myself; indeed, I want it returned, and I do not allow any part of it to be stolen from Me and given to idols, to lust, or to the belly. See St. Gregory, Moralia book VII, chapter 12, on that passage from Job: "Their paths have become entangled," where he teaches that sinners often make good resolutions, but when temptation comes, they immediately fall back into their vices, because they do not change their heart, nor seriously and with their whole heart convert to God: "For they want," he says, "to be humble, but without being despised; to be content with their own possessions, but without necessity; to be chaste, but without mortification of the body; to be patient, but without insults: and while they seek to acquire the virtues, they flee the labors of the virtues; what else is this but not knowing how to fight battles in the field, and desiring to celebrate triumphs in the city?" Whereas, on the contrary, as St. Bernard says, humiliation is the way to humility, suffering to patience, mortification to chastity, fasting to abstinence. True conversion therefore comes through a solid, serious, and effective resolution of the will to change one's life, if that resolution is frequently renewed and put into practice.
"Turning away from God," says Hugh of St. Victor, "happens in three ways: by the vanity of the world, by the pleasure of self, by the curiosity about one's neighbor. But conversion happens through confession of the mouth, compunction of the mind, mortification of the flesh; so that in the mouth there may be truth, in the mind purity, in the chaste flesh sobriety." Furthermore, show this interior conversion and compunction of heart "in fasting," by which you may punish the sins of the flesh and of gluttony, "and in weeping and in lamentation," by which you may not only weep with copious tears, but also with groans, sighs, beating of the breast, wringing of hands, etc., weep and lament your former sins.
13. And rend your hearts. — For the Jews were accustomed, upon hearing blasphemy or a similar atrocious crime, as well as in great mourning, to tear their garments from the head down to the chest, says Arias, so that by this tearing they might show the internal pain and displeasure of their soul. But in many cases this tearing was a mere ceremony, remaining only in the garment and not arising from the heart. God therefore here commands the heart to be torn, rather than the garment.
For He is gracious. — With five epithets he declares the immense piety and clemency of God toward penitent sinners. The first is that He is "gracious" toward them, Hebrew channun, that is, merciful, gracious, benign; the second is that He is "merciful" toward them, Hebrew rachum, that is, one who shows compassion from the depths of his being, or who has compassion from his inmost bowels; the third is that He is "patient," Hebrew erech appaim, that is, of long, that is, wide, nostrils, meaning longsuffering, patient, slow to vengeance, easy to pardon; for those who have wide nostrils are slow to anger and quickly appeased, because they breathe out the fumes of anger through their nostrils; on the contrary, ketsar appaim, that is, of narrow nostrils, signifies one quick to anger and slow to pardon, because he cannot breathe out the spirits and fumes of anger, but retains them and keeps them in his heart and mind, as I explained in Exodus 34:6; the fourth is "of great mercy," that is, abounding in piety and goodness; the fifth is "ready to relent" (praestabilis), that is, placable and repenting, "of evil," that is, of the affliction and punishment which He threatened to sinners, so that when the man repents, God also repents, and does not inflict upon them the decrees of His threats, but revokes and abolishes them. So the Hebrew, the Chaldee, St. Jerome, and others. For in Hebrew it is nicham, that is, repenting of evil, as the Septuagint and Vatablus translate. "God," says Hugh of St. Victor, "is gracious, because He turns the wrath of enemies into gentleness; merciful, because He turns cruelty into piety; patient, because He turns contempt into compunction; abounding in mercy, because He turns hatred into love; ready to relent of evil, because He raises the abyss of desperation into the grace of contemplation." Hence the Arabic version translates: Great is the power of His mercy, and His grace, and He turns away evil; the Syriac: Converting evil.
For Tertullian rightly prescribes these actions and gestures for penitents according to the ancient custom of the Church, in his book On Repentance, chapter 9: "Exomologesis," he says, "is the discipline of prostrating and humbling a man, imposing a manner of life that invites mercy. Regarding dress and food, it commands one to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to darken the body with filth, to cast down the spirit with sorrows, to exchange what one has sinned for a treatment of grief; and for the rest, to know only simple food and drink, not for the belly's sake but for the soul's; and generally to nourish prayers with fasting, to groan, to weep, and to cry out day and night to the Lord." The same author, in book III Against Marcion, chapter 18, says that the afflicted "in times of disaster should commend their prayer on bent knees and with hands beating the breast, and with face upon the ground by their own will."
"Be converted therefore to Me with your whole heart," so that you may refer all your affections to the one God. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 2 On Quadragesima: "Examine carefully what you love, what you fear; what you rejoice in or grieve over, and beneath the habit of religion you will find a worldly spirit, beneath the rags of conversion a perverse heart. For the whole heart is in these four affections, and I think this is what is meant when it is said that you should convert to the Lord with your whole heart. Let your love therefore be converted, so that you love nothing at all except Him, or at least for His sake. Let your fear also be converted to Him, because all fear is perverse by which you fear anything apart from Him, or not for His sake; so also let your joy and your sorrow be equally converted to Him. And this will happen if you grieve or rejoice only according to Him."
Note here again the Latinity, indeed the elegance of our Translator. For "praestabilis super malitia" (ready to relent of evil) in Latin means literally the same as surpassing, or one who surpasses, excels, and rises above evil, that is, above wrath and vengeance; who is greater and better than evil, and does not allow himself to be conquered or governed by it, but himself conquers and governs it as a master. So Ribera. For anger is like a fierce tiger and an untamable lioness; for what man raging with anger and choler can tame and govern it? Anger therefore dominates the angry man and shakes loose the reins of reason and authority from him; indeed, it makes him serve and obey it like a slave. Hence the Poet says: Anger is a brief madness. And Cicero, Tusculan Disputations IV: "Is there anything," he says, "more similar to insanity than anger? How well Ennius called it the beginning of madness: the color, the voice, the eyes, the breathing, the lack of control over words and deeds — what part of sanity do these have? What is more shameful than Homer's Achilles? What than Agamemnon in his quarrel? For anger indeed drove Ajax to frenzy and death." But God is so powerful, so holy, so gentle, that He commands His wrath and vengeance at His will; so excellent and outstanding is His goodness, that all the evil of guilt, all the punishment decreed for sinners, all the desire for vengeance, every sentence of punishment pronounced against them, He immediately revokes and blots out, if they repent. Hence the Hebrew nicham can be translated as "able to be consoled regarding evil," as if to say: God is able to console, bend, and sweeten evil, that is, His wrath and vengeance, however fierce, most bitter, and most harsh, and indeed to turn His very wrath into consolation and supreme benevolence. How great would be the force and sweetness of honey that could sweeten gall, indeed a sea of gall! Far greater is the force of God's goodness, sweetening all evil and bitterness. Let the angry set this before themselves, and in this abyss, as it were, let them plunge and bury their angers.
Furthermore, that praestabilis in Latin means the same as surpassing, excellent, outstanding, is clear from Cicero in his book On Friendship, where he says: "You consider nothing more excellent than friendship;" and in book II On the Nature of the Gods: "Nothing better than the world, nothing more excellent, nothing more beautiful;" and in book II On the Orator: "The orator must take up matters that are either outstanding in greatness, or foremost in novelty, or singular in their kind. For small, ordinary, or common things are not usually thought worthy of admiration or praise at all;" and Gellius says: "Chilon, a man outstanding in wisdom." So God is "praestabilis," that is, of surpassing, eminent, and transcendent mercy, which arises partly from His loftiness and immense greatness of spirit. For that saying of Ovid is true, Tristia book III, elegy 5: The greater anyone is, the more placable he is to anger, and a noble mind takes on easy emotions. It is enough for the magnanimous lion to have struck down bodies; the fight has its end when the enemy lies fallen. But the wolf and the vile bears press upon the dying, and every beast that is less noble in nature.
Partly from His infinite goodness. For it is the property of a good man, says Plato, not to destroy his work but to perfect it; and it is perfected by repentance on the part of the one destroyed, and by forgiveness on the part of God. Seeing this among the other mysteries shown to him on Sinai, while he beheld God clothed in a body from behind, Moses exclaimed: "Lord, Lord God, merciful and clement, patient and of great compassion, and truthful, who keeps mercy unto thousands," that is, unto a thousand generations, etc., "who repays the iniquity of fathers upon sons and grandsons to the third and fourth generation." As much therefore as a thousand exceeds four, so much do the goodness and clemency of God exceed His justice. This is what the Church professes when she says: "O God, whose property it is always to have mercy and to spare." See the commentary on Exodus 34:6.
Morally, let the faithful person continually consider these attributes of his God, in whose image he was created and through Christ recreated, and let him strive to imitate, put on, and express them in his conduct. St. Thomas wrote on this subject, Opuscule 62, which is entitled On the Divine Attributes, in which he teaches how we ought to emulate fifteen attributes of God, and thus become divine. The first, he says, is immutability. "With" God "there is no change, nor shadow of turning," James 1:17; and therefore His works are immutable in their essence, namely the angel, the soul, heaven, and the four elements; He indeed changes many things in the world, but all this change is in creatures, not in the Creator. Worldly people change constantly, and are consistent in their inconsistency; but the Saints continually strive toward constancy of mind, so that neither broken by adversity nor enticed by prosperity they may turn aside from the right path; moreover, they always maintain the same tenor in their state, in their conduct, and in every aspect of their pious life. Second, every good pleases God, every evil displeases Him; so also the Saints are pleased by every good always and everywhere, and in every creature, and they firmly resist all who attack the good, that is, the glory of God and the salvation of their neighbor, and much more every evil, that is, sin. Third, God foresees and provides for all things; so the Saints foresee temptations and fortify themselves against them; likewise they consider the last things, namely death and judgment, and thus look after their own affairs and their eternal salvation. Fourth, God is patient; indeed He makes His sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust; so also the Saints' proper virtue is patience, by which they not only tolerate their enemies but love them, and strive to overwhelm them with good deeds and make them friends. Again, they patiently endure the many crimes, robberies, oppressions, slaughters, and calamities both public and private that occur in this world, just as God endures the same. For this commends the omnipotence of God: it is not a great exercise of power to plunge the wicked into the pit of hell, but to manifest His mercy above all by sparing and having compassion. Fifth, God is just, so much so that, as far as it depends on Him, no one suffers harm from another's wickedness. For the fall of Lucifer does not harm St. Michael, nor does the wickedness of Judas diminish the charity of Peter; worldly people act otherwise, who blame one person's sin — for example, that of a religious or a cleric — on the entire order and ecclesiastical state; but the Saints imitate the justice of God. Sixth, God is upright; He does nothing from private love or hatred, He never abandons mercy for the sake of justice, nor abandons justice for the sake of mercy; the Saints strive to do the same. Seventh, God is generous, and communicates of His own whatever is communicable, even to those who do not ask for it, indeed who neglect and despise it. Thus He communicated to the angels His blessedness, to the apostles His power of binding and loosing, to the prophets His foreknowledge, to the teachers His wisdom, to the martyrs His fortitude, to the confessors His constancy in times of joy and sorrow, to the virgins His purity, and specifically to Moses His gentleness, to Joseph His providence, to Elijah His zeal, to Samson His strength, to Solomon His prudence, to David His mercy, to Blessed Peter His charity, to St. John His chastity, to St. Paul His magnanimity: so also the Saints have eyes to see for others, ears to hear confessions, a mouth to preach, feet to walk, a heart to meditate for the salvation of others.
Eighth, God is placable: for He pardons penitents even the most grievous offenses, so that He never remembers them, and He loves them as before, indeed more than before; so also the Saints forget injuries, do not withdraw their friendship from those who hurt them, indeed pardon all reproaches, and pray for their persecutors. Ninth, God is benign toward those who have most grievously offended Him, indeed toward His very mockers and crucifiers, whom He anticipated with His grace and called to repentance, grace, and glory; so nothing makes one so like God, says St. Chrysostom, as being benign and clement toward the malicious and those who harm us, since it is the summit of perfection to love one's enemies and pray for them, as Christ did on the cross. Again, God demands from no one anything beyond his strength in penances, fasting, prayers, almsgiving, and every form of discipline; but being content with a few tears and groans, indeed with a sorrowing and contrite heart, He pardons all crimes: so the Saint burdens no one beyond his strength, but demands only what can easily be performed. Tenth, God is truthful in His words and promises, as is clear from these oracles of the Prophets: so the Saint is truthful and faithful, both to God in faith, worship, obedience, and vows, and to his neighbor in all words and deeds, because "whoever hates truth hates Christ," and, as St. Chrysostom says: "A betrayer of truth is not only he who lies, but also he who does not freely proclaim or defend the truth when it is needed."
Eleventh, God is no respecter of persons, so as to prefer the rich and powerful to the poor and wretched; indeed He sets the latter before the former and exalts them, as He exalted David, Saul, Gideon, Joshua, etc., to kingship and authority, and in the gifts of grace He does not regard the endowments of nature, and in the gifts of glory He considers nothing but merits; finally, His care is equal for all; so also the Saint loves and cares for the poor as much as the rich, strangers as much as citizens, the afflicted as much as, indeed more than, the fortunate; for he strives equally to help all and direct them toward salvation. Twelfth, God is disturbed by nothing, but in all things and events is equanimous: so the Saint avoids all disturbance, because no grace, or rather, no grace can rest in a disturbed soul. Hence he overlooks the curses and evil deeds of his neighbors, and like David pretends not to hear them as if deaf, and not to see them as if blind, because he is wholly fixed and at rest in God and in God's will and love. Thirteenth, God does not seek His own advantage, but in every work of creation, conservation, governance, redemption, etc., He looks to the good of men and creatures: so also the Saint does not seek his own things, but purely promotes the glory of God and the benefit of his neighbors in all his actions; because the more and more purely we look to God, and the less we attend to our own and the more to our neighbor's benefit, the more acceptable is our work to God, and the more fruitful for the universe. Fourteenth, God does everything well and perfectly in the works of nature as well as of grace, whether it be wind, or rain, or heat, or cold, or barrenness, or abundance, etc.; for that time nothing better could be done, because His immense wisdom perfectly operates each thing in its proper time: so also the Saint strives to be perfect in each of his works, as if his entire salvation and all the praise of God and the benefit of the universe depended on that one work; and as if he were never going to return to it, nor begin any other work: hence he rests in it until he completes and finishes it. For he who desires and is eager to finish, and therefore hastens to move on to something else, diminishes the affection and effort of the work, grows weary, and easily abandons what he has begun. Fifteenth, God does not punish the same thing twice: the Saint does the same, who in this and in all the rest strives to conform himself in all things to the most holy will of God. These are in summary what St. Thomas treats at length, Opuscule 62.
14. Who knows if He will turn? — So also translate the Septuagint, Vatablus, and others generally; for although the word "if" is not in the Hebrew, it is nevertheless understood from the Hebrew idiom by custom. The word "if" signifies the Prophet's doubt about obtaining pardon from God even for penitent Jews; for although he knew with certainty that God always remits to the penitent the offense, that is, the guilt and eternal punishment, he knew equally well that God does not always remit to the penitent the temporal punishment, such as was here the destruction of Judea by the Chaldeans which He had decreed and threatened. Doubting therefore about that, the Prophet says: "Who knows if He will turn and forgive?" that is, whether perhaps He will forgive, as if to say: I hope He will forgive, but I dare not assert and promise it. In a similar way, God remitted to David, when he repented, the guilt of murder and adultery, but not the punishment; for He punished him with the death of his son, and the loss of his kingdom in the persecution of Absalom, 2 Kings 12:10. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rufinus, Rupert, and others. The Chaldee, from the Hebrew, omitting "if," translates assertively and paraphrastically in this way: "Whoever knows that there are sins within him, let him depart from them, and mercy will be applied to him; and whoever has done penance, his sins will be remitted to him, and he will receive blessings and consolations, and his prayer will be like that of a man who offers oblations and libations in the house of the sanctuary of the Lord."
AND FORGIVE. — Hebrew venicham, that is, and may He repent, that is, revoke His sentence, by not laying waste Judea through the Chaldeans, as He had decreed.
AND MAY HE LEAVE A BLESSING BEHIND HIM. — It is a personification: for he speaks of God as if of an offended man who, appeased by the repentance of the friend by whom he was offended, setting aside his anger and offense, returns to his friend gentle and serene, indeed with little gifts and presents, which he then leaves behind for him when he departs, as tokens of restored friendship, as if to say: In like manner, God will leave you, O Jews, a blessing, that is, an abundance of crops and all good things, from which you may frequently and generously offer Him "a sacrifice and a libation" in thanksgiving. Christopher de Castro explains "behind Him" somewhat differently: After His vengeance, namely after the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity.
Verse 15: 15. BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION — so that by the sound of the trumpet you may summon all to a public supplication and...
15. BLOW THE TRUMPET IN ZION — so that by the sound of the trumpet you may summon all to a public supplication and litany to avert such a great calamity. For the Jews used trumpets to convoke the people, by God's command, Numbers 10:1, not bells: for bells are proper to Christians, and at first indeed they were smaller, but when peace was restored to the Church through Constantine, they gradually became larger, and received the name of bells (campanae) from the place where they were first made larger, namely from the city of Nola in Campania; hence smaller bells are also called Nolae. So the Rationale of the Divine Office, book I, chapter 4, number 1, Cardinal Baronius, volume 1, year of Christ 38, Judocus Lorichius in the Theological Treasury, under the word Campana.
From this passage Luther is refuted, and the Magdeburg Centuriators who followed him, Century III, chapter 10 on Tertullian, who attribute public processions and litanies to the ceremonies of the heretic Montanus, and to the errors of Tertullian. For God here commands them to be proclaimed through the Prophet, just as in Joshua chapter 6:4, where through them the walls of Jericho fell. David proclaimed the same, 1 Chronicles 13:2, and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:21; indeed Christ sanctioned them by His own deed and example, when He entered Jerusalem in a public procession of the people on Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:8. So Gregory the Great, during a public plague and pestilence, proclaimed public litanies, by which the wrath and plague of God were turned away, as he himself testifies in book XI, letter 2. And the Emperor Charlemagne, in book VI of his Laws, chapter 74, says: "Let the major litany be celebrated in the Roman manner on the seventh day before the Calends of May." The same was ratified by the Council of Mainz held in the year of Christ 813, chapter 33. So in the 36th year of the reign of Emperor Theodosius, when Constantinople was shaken by an earthquake, the entire people praying cried out: "Lord, have mercy," and a boy was caught up into heaven and commanded to announce to the Bishop and the people that they should perform litanies and say: "Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us." Bishop Proclus, therefore, having taken up this litany, ordered the people to do likewise, and immediately the earthquake ceased, says Paul the Deacon, Miscellaneous History, book 14. See more in Judocus Coccius, Catholic Treasury, part II, book III, article 7. Truly, St. Leo says in Sermon 3 On the Fast of the Seventh Month, chapter 3: "The fullest abolition of sins is obtained when the whole Church has one prayer and one confession; for if the Lord promises to grant all that the devout agreement of two or three Saints has asked, what will be denied to the people of many thousands who equally carry out one observance and concordantly supplicate through one spirit?" And Tertullian in the Apologeticus says: By the public prayer of all, "we make as it were an assault, and we do violence to God. But this violence is pleasing to God."
SANCTIFY A FAST (proclaim a holy fast. See the commentary on chapter 1:14), CALL A SOLEMN ASSEMBLY. — Mystically, St. Bernard, Sermon 4 On the Lenten Fast, says: "Let our fast have two wings, so that it may easily penetrate the heavens, namely those of prayer and justice," so that you may restore to your brother the unity and peace that you owe him. Hence he says: "Call a solemn assembly. For what is it to call an assembly? To preserve unity, to love peace, to cherish brotherhood. That proud Pharisee had a fast, he sanctified a fast, for he fasted twice a week and gave thanks to God, but he did not call an assembly, saying: I am not like the rest of men; and therefore his fast, relying on only one wing, did not reach heaven. You therefore, beloved, wash your hands in the blood of the sinner, and be entirely solicitous that your fast have two wings, namely holiness and peace, without which no one shall see God; sanctify the fast so that a pure intention and devout prayer may offer it to the Divine Majesty. Call an assembly, so that it may accord with unity; praise the Lord with timbrel and choir, so that the mortification of the flesh may be harmonious."
Verse 16: 16. SANCTIFY THE CONGREGATION — that is, bring it about, partly by admonishing, partly by exhorting, partly by...
16. SANCTIFY THE CONGREGATION — that is, bring it about, partly by admonishing, partly by exhorting, partly by threatening, partly by going before with the example of a holy life, that the entire people of the congregation may present itself holy to its God, and thus appease His offense, and reconcile Him to itself. So St. Jerome.
ASSEMBLE THE ELDERS — that is, gather people of every age, rank, and sex, so that all may cry out to heaven and demand mercy, and by the common voice of all, as if by armed force, wrest it from God. He names above all "the elders," because they, being advanced in age, are usually purer from the vices of the flesh, and because of their weakened and feeble health, more inclined to prayers and vows. Likewise "the little ones and those nursing at the breast," so that these innocents by their pitiful wailing may beat upon the ears of God and bend Him to mercy. So regarding the infants slain by Herod, St. Augustine says, Sermon 1 On the Holy Innocents: "The lamentation of the mothers aroused compassion, and the offering of the little ones passed to heaven," reconciling God to the mothers and to all Judea. So the Psalmist teaches that the young of ravens, by their plaintive croaking, as if by a natural prayer, ask for food from God, Psalm 146:9: "Who gives the beasts their food, and the young ravens that call upon Him." And lion cubs with their roaring: "The young lions," he says, "roar to seize prey and seek their food from God," Psalm 103:21. And in verse 27 he says of all animals: "All things look to You to give them their food in due season." For these are, as it were, the natural supplications of animals, by which they silently ask from the Author of nature the food and drink fitting for them. Hence God their Creator hears and answers them, as He provides and bestows food upon each. Moreover, these little ones by their weeping rouse their parents and neighbors to pray and weep more fervently.
Let the bridegroom go forth — that is, let brides and grooms abstain from the embraces and pleasures of the marriage bed, and give themselves to repentance and tears, and go to the church, so that all with one voice may cry out to heaven, begging for pardon. The Prophet teaches here that in a time of public calamity, repentance, and supplication, married couples should abstain from conjugal relations, so that they may better devote themselves to prayer; which the Apostle also teaches, 1 Corinthians 7:5. And the Roman Ritual commands that pastors advise the married about this when joining them in matrimony. So Nicholas I, in his Response to the Questions of the Bulgarians, chapter 50, writes that during the entire time of Lent, as a time of prayer and fasting, they should abstain from the use of marriage. So Noah abstained from it during the entire time of the flood, while living in the ark, and this at God's will, as I explained from St. Ambrose on Genesis 8:16.
Symbolically, Hugh of St. Victor says: The bridegroom, that is, the wise man, "let him go forth from his chamber, that is, from the study of wisdom; and the bride from her bridal room, that is, let her descend from the privilege of contemplative grace, and let them take upon themselves the squalor of penance, for the sake of obtaining pardon."
Verse 17: 17. BETWEEN THE VESTIBULE AND THE ALTAR. — Note from 3 Kings (1 Kings) 6 that the temple of the Jews properly contained...
17. BETWEEN THE VESTIBULE AND THE ALTAR. — Note from 3 Kings (1 Kings) 6 that the temple of the Jews properly contained only two parts, namely the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, but before it had a vestibule, or portico, which Aquila translates prodromos, as if preceding the temple. In Hebrew it is called ulam, that is, joined and connected to the temple; Symmachus translates it propylaion, as if to say, "before the doors," a forecourt, and this for a twofold reason: the first, for the dignity of the Basilica and the majesty of its inhabitants. For this reason vestibules are usually added to palaces, as Vitruvius teaches in book VI, chapter 8. So in Rome, before the basilica of St. Peter, St. Lawrence, St. Clement, the Holy Cross, etc., we see vestibules, or porticos supported by their columns. The second reason is for the station of those arriving. Hence Macrobius, book VI, chapter 8, thinks the word vestibulum is derived from ve-stabulum, or ve-statio; and ve signifies both intensification and fortification. For vetus (old) is said from the magnitude of age, as if ve, that is, great age; vehemens as if equipped with the force of the mind. But vecors (senseless) and vesanus (insane) signify the privation of health and judgment. Therefore they think the place left before the doors is called vestibulum from the excess of standing there, because those arriving stood in it for a long time, waiting to greet the master of the house and expecting an audience. And Gellius, book XVI, chapter 1, thinks vestibulum is derived from the station of those coming; but Servius thinks it is because it clothes (vestiat) the door, or because it was consecrated to Vesta. Hence brides do not touch the threshold. Whence Lucan, book II: He forbade the transplanted foot to touch the threshold.
Furthermore, this vestibule of the temple, for the sake of magnificence, was 120 cubits in height, as Villalpando teaches in book III On the Temple, chapter 46. It was therefore like a huge tower: hence on its pinnacle, that is, its summit, the devil set Christ, tempting Him and saying: "Cast Yourself down," as if to say: If You are the Son of God, then this is Your temple; cast Yourself down, therefore, so that You may stand unharmed between the vestibule and the court of the priests; and they, as well as the laity, seeing this miracle, may acknowledge and worship You as the Lord of the temple and the Son of God. So Francisco de Lucas on Matthew 4. For before this vestibule of the temple, there was the court of the priests in the open air, and in it was the altar of holocausts; after this court of the priests came the outermost court of the laity, which was separated from the court of the priests by a wall three cubits high, according to Josephus, Antiquities book VIII, chapter 2; so that the people could watch the priests, the holocausts, and other things that were done in the court of the priests, but could not enter it.
The Prophet therefore here commands the priests to pray and weep as suppliants between the vestibule of the temple and the altar of holocausts, that is, in their court, but near the vestibule and the temple; and this for three reasons: first, because it was fitting that they supplicate near the temple in such great necessity of the people; second, so that the people could watch them and be kindled by their example to common prayers and lamentation; so St. Jerome, Lyra, Ribera, de Castro, Villalpando, and others; third, because the priests first sacrificed, and through victims for sin and holocausts prepared for themselves an approach to God, so that then, coming to the vestibule of the temple, they might offer their vows and prayers to God as suppliants. Hence tropologically it was signified that one approaching prayer must first practice mortification: for the altar of holocausts was a symbol of mortification, the temple of prayer.
Finally, in this very place here designated by Joel, the prophet Zechariah was slain and fell as a martyr, of whom Christ says, Matthew 23:35: "Even to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar," which is here called: "Between the vestibule and the altar." For the vestibule was connected to the temple and was, as it were, the outermost part of the temple; therefore Christ includes it under the name of the temple. "They shall weep," that is, let them prostrate themselves, covered with ashes and sackcloth, and weep and say: "Spare, O Lord." For the Hebrews often use the future for the imperative or subjunctive. So St. Jerome.
Note here that it is the duty of priests to weep and lament the sins of the people. Thus in ancient times pious priests would flow with tears during the sacrifice. For this reason they used a handkerchief, as they still do. Hear Amalarius, book III On the Ecclesiastical Offices, chapter 24: "The handkerchief is carried for wiping away tears, as is read in the Martyrology of Bede on July 19, that our Father Arsenius, for wiping away the overflow of tears, always had a handkerchief in his bosom or in his hand. It is carried in the left hand, to show that in this temporal life we endure the annoyance of superfluous moisture, that is, of carnal delight." Furthermore Bede, in his Collections, treating of the vestments of priests, volume III, calls this handkerchief a mappula, or amapha, so called from wiping away sweat and moisture; and he says the priest carries it in his left hand. Hence it seems that this mappula was the maniple: for the maniple also seems to be called, as it were, a hand-cloth (manus mappula); and that in place of the mappula, as the devotion and tears of priests declined, our maniple succeeded. Therefore Amalarius, among the vestments of the priest, does not name the maniple, but puts the handkerchief in its place. Hence also the priest, putting on the maniple, says: "Grant, O Lord, that I may worthily carry the maniple of weeping and sorrow, so that I may receive with joy the reward of labor." Let the maniple therefore remind him of the compunction, devotion, and tears of the ancient priests.
DO NOT GIVE YOUR INHERITANCE (Your people, of whom You said: "The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance," Deuteronomy 32:9; and: "You shall be My own possession from among all peoples," Exodus 19:5) TO REPROACH, THAT THE NATIONS — the Chaldeans — SHOULD RULE OVER THEM.
WHY DO THEY SAY (that is, will they say; the Septuagint has: lest they say) AMONG THE PEOPLES: WHERE IS THEIR GOD? — as if to say: If You hand us over to the Chaldeans, the nations will mock both us and You, O Lord, and blaspheme, saying: The God of the Hebrews has abandoned His Jews, because He was too weak to protect them against the Chaldeans; or, if He could, He was merciless and cruel and would not. Avert these reproaches from Yourself, from Your glorious name.
Verse 18: 18. THE LORD HAS BEEN ZEALOUS (will be zealous, that is, will pursue with love and zeal) FOR HIS LAND (Judea), AND HAS...
18. THE LORD HAS BEEN ZEALOUS (will be zealous, that is, will pursue with love and zeal) FOR HIS LAND (Judea), AND HAS SPARED (that is, will spare) HIS PEOPLE — when He moves Cyrus to release them from Babylon into Judea as free men, namely after He has punished them with seventy years of captivity, and has heard them, crushed and penitent and supplicating Him in that captivity, as was said above. The Prophet consoles his people after threats and punishments, as is his custom. See Canon 12. So St. Jerome and others generally. Hence the Arabic version translates: The Lord has been zealous for the land, and has spared His people.
Tropologically, see here the fruit of contrition and repentance, which stirs and kindles God not only to mercy and love, but also to zeal for sparing and protecting the penitent. Therefore Hugh of St. Victor rightly exclaims here: "O fruitful and manly repentance! O heroine to be embraced, most faithful mediatrix of sinners! O second plank after shipwreck! O refuge of the poor, help of the wretched! Hope of exiles, nourishment of the weak, light of the blind, rod of the wanton, lock against vices, storehouse of virtues: you alone bend the Judge, you convict the Creator. You lay low the Almighty; when you are conquered, you conquer; when you are tormented, you torment; when you wound, you heal; when you healthily succumb, you gloriously triumph. You alone, while all others are silent, boldly ascend the throne of grace." He proves and illustrates this with examples: "David," he says, "you lead by the hand and reconcile; you restore Peter; you enlighten Paul; the Publican taken from the tax booth you boldly insert into the choir of the Apostles; Mary you raise from the brothel to the heavens and join to Christ; the thief nailed to the cross, still fresh with blood, you place in paradise. What more? The heavenly court is under your jurisdiction."
And soon, by antitheses, setting the evils of guilt inflicted in chapter 1:10 against the goods of repentance that follow in verse 22, and correcting them: "Against the devastation of the land," he says, "He sets its fertility; against famine, fullness; against reproach, the security of glory; against the cruelty and invasion of enemies, their stench and destruction; against the barrenness of fruits and the dryness of trees, their sprouts and abundance; against hunger for the word and thirst for teaching, He introduces the fountain of life and the teacher of justice; against sadness, joy; against confusion, consolation; against reproach, glory; against death, life; against ashes, a crown."
Verse 19: 19. THE LORD ANSWERED (through me, Joel, in this passage): Behold, I will send you grain — which I took away through...
19. THE LORD ANSWERED (through me, Joel, in this passage): Behold, I will send you grain — which I took away through the caterpillar, the locust, the cankerworm, and the mildew, chapter 1:4.
AND I WILL NO LONGER MAKE YOU A REPROACH. — "No longer," that is, for a long time, namely in this age, or for as long as the memory of you endures. Thus "no longer" signifies not eternal, but a long and immemorial time, 3 Kings 10:10; 4 Kings 6:23, and elsewhere.
Verse 20: 20. AND HIM THAT IS FROM THE NORTH (the northern tyrant), I WILL REMOVE FAR FROM YOU. One asks: who is this northerner?...
20. AND HIM THAT IS FROM THE NORTH (the northern tyrant), I WILL REMOVE FAR FROM YOU. One asks: who is this northerner? St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Albert, and Hugh understand Sennacherib, whom the Lord removed far from Jerusalem; because while he was besieging it, the angel of the Lord struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in one night, and thus compelled him to flee, 4 Kings 19:35.
But Joel in his entire prophecy treats of the devastation threatening the Jews, not from Sennacherib, but from Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, as I have already said many times. For he, coming from the north, that is, from Chaldea, captured and devastated Jerusalem and led the Jews into captivity to Babylon. Hence Jeremiah, chapter 1:14, threatening his destruction, calls him the north: "From the north," he says, "evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." God removed him far and drove him away from the Jews, when He overthrew his son or grandson Belshazzar with the city of Babylon and the entire kingdom through Cyrus. Wherefore the Chaldeans, who at that time were dwelling in Judea and governing it, as is evident from Jeremiah 40:10, when they heard of this disaster of Belshazzar their lord, fled in terror into trackless wildernesses, partly toward the Dead Sea situated to the east of Judea, partly toward the Mediterranean Sea situated to its west, and many of them were slain by the Jews and Persians, so that the stench of the slain
HIS FACE TOWARD THE EASTERN SEA, AND HIS END TOWARD THE FARTHEST SEA: AND HIS STENCH SHALL RISE UP, AND HIS ROTTENNESS SHALL ASCEND, BECAUSE HE HAS ACTED PROUDLY. — as if to say: God will remove far this northerner, namely the Chaldeans, from you, and will drive them into a trackless and desert land, so that part of them will flee toward the Dead Sea to the east, and part toward the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and there many of them will be slain, so that the stench of their corpses will rise up. The reason why God will do these things to them is because he has acted proudly, that is, because the Chaldeans, though they were only the scourge of God and the lictors of divine vengeance, grew proud and raged against the Jews beyond God's command. Hence Isaiah, chapter 10:12, says: "I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes."
21. Fear not, O land, be glad and rejoice: for the Lord has done great things. 22. Fear not, you beasts of the field: for the beautiful places of the desert have sprouted, for the tree has borne its fruit, the fig tree and the vine have given their strength.
23. And you children of Zion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the teacher of justice, and He will cause the early and the latter rain to come down to you, as in the beginning.
the word of faith, was expelled through the grace of baptism into a trackless land, that is, into the barrenness of the Gentile and Jewish people. Whence Christ says: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest," Matthew chapter 12, 43. Hugo continues: "The Eastern Sea represents the elect, the uttermost the reprobate, the face represents intention, the extremity represents enclosure; or the Eastern Sea represents the firstfruits of the election of the Gentiles, the uttermost represents the cruelty of the Jews: his stench is the death of Antichrist: the putrefaction upon him, the sentence of judgment." Whence Isaiah says concerning these, in the last chapter, last verse: "They shall go out (the blessed), and they shall see the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me: their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be unto the satiation of vision for all flesh." See what is said there. Both Arabic versions translate: The Western (or the West) I will drive away from you. For under the North is understood the neighboring West, toward which the reprobate tend: for the devil drags them toward the setting; just as under the South is understood the neighboring East, toward which the Saints and Blessed tend.
Morally: "The earth is the reprobate soul; it is trackless, because without the visitation of angels: deserted, because without the fruit of virtues, and the seed of good morals: the expulsion of the demon is the confession of sin: the Western Sea is the mind made bitter through compunction, made the East through the devotion of contemplation: the uttermost sea is the mind bitter with the stench of conscience, swallowed up in despair of pardon: his face, the cunning intention of harming: his extremity, fury and the madness of triumphing: the stench is hatred of sin, the putrefaction is contempt of the world." So far Hugo.
THE EASTERN SEA. — "The Eastern Sea" is the Sea of Galilee, or rather the Dead Sea, that is, the Lake of Asphaltites, into which Sodom and the Pentapolis were transformed when they were consumed by heavenly fire, which is therefore called the most salty sea, and is placed as the boundary of Judea, that is, of the land promised to the Jews, on the East, Numbers chapter 34, 3. Just as in the same passage, verse 9, the boundary of the same land on the West is placed as the Great Sea, that is, the Mediterranean. So St. Jerome, Albertus, Lyranus. Less correctly, therefore, some understand the Ocean by the Eastern Sea. For it does not border Judea, and extends as much toward the south and other regions of the world as toward the east.
Secondly, St. Jerome and many others soon to be cited, by this one coming from the North, more fully and better understand Holofernes, who, sent by another Nebuchadnezzar reigning in Nineveh, invaded the Jews who had returned from Babylon, but was overthrown and slain by Judith. For of him it is said: "Assur came from the mountains from the North in the multitude of his strength," Judith 16:5. For when Holofernes was slain, the Assyrian soldiers fled into trackless places, and were scattered toward the Western and Eastern seas. For Judea on the west has the Mediterranean Sea, which here is called the uttermost; on the east it has the Sea of Galilee, which is also called Gennesaret and Tiberias; opposite which was Bethulia, where the Assyrians were routed, as if to say: The immense army of Holofernes, which seemed to stretch from the Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea, I will scatter in every direction to every region of the world. This explanation is proved from the fact that after the return of the people from Babylon to Judea, and into peace and abundance of crops, God promises this victory over the tyrant coming from the North: but neither in Scripture, nor in Josephus, do we read that any other came from the North at that time, except Holofernes. Moreover, what is said here about the flight of soldiers to the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean fits Holofernes better than Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. So Ribera. For although Pererius in chapter 1 of Daniel, Genebrardus in book II of the Chronology, Canus in book XI On Places, chapter 6, a Castro here, Serarius in chapter 1 of Judith, and some others think the history of Judith occurred before the Babylonian captivity under Manasseh king of Judah; yet Suidas, under the word Judith, and Julius Africanus cited by him, St. Augustine, book 18 of the City of God, chapter 26, Eusebius in the Chronicle, Bede in On Times, Rabanus, Hugo Cardinalis, Dionysius on Judith chapter 1, Gerard Mercator in the Chronology, Ribera and many others think it happened after it, under the reign of either Cambyses, or Darius Hystaspis, or his son Xerxes, about which I have already said more in the book of Judith.
Allegorically, that Northern tyrant is the devil, who like the North Wind sends cold, that is, sloth and torpor, into the minds of men, and brings on a winter of virtues and good works: but Christ put him to flight, who like the South Wind breathed warmth and fervor into the minds of the Apostles and the faithful. Whence it is said of Him, Song of Songs chapter 4, 16: "Arise (pass, go away), O North Wind, and come, O South Wind: blow through My garden, and let its spices flow," that is, the spices of virtues, says Theodoret and Gregory of Nyssa there. Whence Richard of St. Victor adds there: "For by the North Wind the waters are bound so they do not flow; hence the North Wind is called Aquilo, as it were, binding the waters." Hence also "God will come from the South," says Habakkuk chapter 3, 3. Moreover, Hugo Victorinus applies each detail individually: He who is from the North is the apostate angel, who through the incarnation of Christ, through
Here the Prophet continually speaks of the army of the Assyrians, or Chaldeans, under the allegory of locusts, and alludes to the plague of locusts inflicted on Egypt by Moses. For these, at Pharaoh's prayer, Moses, taking them up, brought in a west wind, namely the Zephyr, which "seized the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea," Exodus chapter 10, 19. For in a similar manner God scattered the Assyrians from Judea, so that they fled toward its borders, namely toward the Dead Sea, and to the Mediterranean Sea into foreign regions.
HIS PUTREFACTION SHALL ASCEND. — In Hebrew צחנתו tsachanato, which St. Jerome, the Tigurina and others
translate, his putrefaction; the Septuagint translates, βρόμος αὐτοῦ, which the Roman edition likewise translates, his putrefaction. But the Complutensian edition translates, his noise: because βρόμος signifies both putrefaction or foul stench, and noise or cracking, rumbling and bellowing. Here, however, you should rather translate putrefaction and stench: for this is what the Hebrew tsachanato signifies, as St. Jerome, the Tigurina and others translate.
21. DO NOT FEAR, O LAND — of Judea, that is; for to Judea, that is, to its inhabitants, namely to the Jews after their return from Babylon, He promises all manner of temporal goods, and opposes these by antithesis to the individual evils which He threatened against them in chapter 1, verse 4 and following. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Hugo and others. Mystically, under these temporal goods He means the spiritual goods to be given through Christ, to which He gradually rises: "All the things," says St. Jerome, "with which He had threatened above, He now promises their contraries, and mitigates sorrows with joys, and turns tears into laughter."
FOR THE LORD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS. — That is, God has dealt magnificently with you, that is, He will deal: He is about to do magnificent things with you, He will repair the great losses of your goods with greater abundance and magnificence, indeed He will overwhelm you. It is a Hebraism: for the phrase "to do" is repeated, which is already contained in the word "He has magnified."
22. Do not fear, you animals of the region (wasting and pining from hunger and lack of pastures, as he said in chapter 1, last verse): FOR THE BEAUTIFUL PLACES OF THE WILDERNESS HAVE SPROUTED, — as if to say: After the return from Babylon I will make the pleasant places, previously desolate and deserted, sprout; I will make the meadows, indeed even the barren heaths, produce rich pastures, and the fields joyful crops, by which you, O animals, may feed and grow fat.
THE FIG TREE AND THE VINE HAVE GIVEN THEIR STRENGTH, — that is, the fruit of their vigor, says the Chaldean, namely vigorous, flavorful and succulent grapes and figs. It is a metonymy: for the cause is put for the effect, strength or vigor for the vigorous and thriving fruit.
For He has given you the teacher of justice. — For "teacher" in Hebrew is מורה more, which some translate as "rain," and so render this passage: For He has given you rain on account of justice. Whence there fittingly follows: "And He will cause the early and the latter rain to descend upon you." The Septuagint version favors this: For He has given you food (grain from the rain making the fields fertile) in justice, as if to say: After the return from Babylon, God will give you rain, and therefrom a harvest and abundant provisions, as a reward for your piety and justice, and that you may serve Him more zealously in justice. So St. Jerome and Theodoret. Hence also the Syriac, and both Arabic versions translate: He has given you the food of justice.
But it is better to translate more as "teacher." First, because thus translate St. Jerome, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Clarius, Arias and generally others. Secondly, because about rain he immediately adds: "And He will cause rain to descend upon you;" therefore here more signifies not rain, but a teacher: otherwise it would be a tautology, and the same thing would be said twice. Thirdly, because in Hebrew it says: He has given you more for justice, which should properly be understood of a teacher, not of rain: for it is not rain, but a teacher that is given to teach justice. Fourthly, because more is always elsewhere translated by our Vulgate, the Septuagint and others as teacher or legislator: for rain in Hebrew is called not more, but יורה iore. So Psalm 83:8: "Indeed the legislator will give a blessing;" Hebrew more: although Rabbi David translates there: The rain will cover the pools. Isaiah 30:20: "And He will no longer cause your teacher to fly away from you," in Hebrew מורך morecha. And passim elsewhere. Whence from more comes the Syriac mara (whence maranatha, that is, our lord has come), the Arabic mir, that is, master, lord: whence maria means the same as mistress, lady. Yet more alludes to תורה tora, that is, law, and to יורה iore, that is, rain: because the Hebrews call doctrine dew or rain, for the reason that the teacher, like rain, gently, gradually and drop by drop instills it into the ears and minds of disciples, and irrigates, delights and makes them fruitful with wisdom. Whence Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 32, 2: "Let my doctrine grow," he says, "like rain, let my speech flow like dew, like a shower upon the grass, and like drops upon the plants." Therefore in the Hebrew here there is a beautiful paronomasia between more, that is, teacher, iore, that is, rain, and יורד iored, that is, He will cause to descend, as if to say: God will give you more, that is, a Teacher, who iored, that is, will cause to descend, and will as it were distill from heaven upon you iore, that is, the rain of heavenly doctrine. So Isaiah compares Christ to dew descending from heaven
Verse 23: 23. AND YOU SONS OF ZION, EXULT AND REJOICE IN THE LORD YOUR GOD. — Who, although He is the common Lord of all, yet...
23. AND YOU SONS OF ZION, EXULT AND REJOICE IN THE LORD YOUR GOD. — Who, although He is the common Lord of all, yet properly shows Himself to be your God alone, by giving you such great and magnificent gifts, as if He were only your father, provider and protector; and were neglecting all other nations compared to you. Moreover, "Zion" here He takes not in a carnal, but in a spiritual sense. "The sons," therefore, "of Zion"
(1) "Because he has acted proudly," in Hebrew, because he has done exceedingly, is referred by many to the locusts, namely that they produced a great destruction of crops. Others explain it of God: For God does great things; and they think these words were added to inspire confidence in the unexpected deliverance, just as at the end of the following verse the same words are repeated to the same end, namely "he has magnified," etc. (Ackermann.)
(2) "These things, however," says St. Jerome, "because they were promised by the Lord, we believe happened according to the letter, and that the previous barrenness was compensated by new crops, so that whatever the locust, the cankerworm, the rust, and the caterpillar had consumed, was made up in the following years."
and bedewing the earth, chapter 45, 8: "Drop down dew, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One." See what is said there.
You may ask, who is this "teacher of justice?" The Rabbis, whom Rufinus follows, assert it is Hezekiah the king, who roused the people to piety and the worship of God, 2 Chronicles chapter 30, and thereby freed Jerusalem from the siege of Sennacherib. Others would have it be Josiah, an equally pious king, who overturned the altars of idols. But the subject here is not Sennacherib, but Nebuchadnezzar, or Holofernes: for He promises this teacher after the Babylonian captivity, as I said at verse 20. Moreover, this august title "teacher of justice" is not given in the Scriptures to Hezekiah, Josiah or the Prophets, but to the Messiah alone, as is clear from Isaiah chapter 30, 20, and chapter 55, 4: "Behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and teacher to the nations;" to which Joel alludes here, especially because this teacher in Hebrew has the article, and is called המורה hammore, that is, that preeminent and singular teacher of the world, namely the Teacher of all teachers and Prophets, whom we individually eagerly await, as promised by all the Prophets. Whence Jeremiah, chapter 23, 6, speaking of the Messiah: "This," he says, "is the name by which they shall call Him, The Lord our Justice." And Daniel chapter 9, 24: "And everlasting justice shall be brought, and the Holy of Holies shall be anointed," namely Christ.
Thirdly, because the following words in verse 28: "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven, etc. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood: before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes," pertain to no one except Christ.
By the same arguments is refuted the opinion of the more recent Rabbis, whom Lyranus, Hugo and Dionysius follow, who by "teacher" understand teachers, that is, the prophets of the Jews after the Babylonian captivity, such as Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi: I confess, however, that there is an allusion to them, and that they are touched upon in passing (for Joel alludes to the happiness of the people returning from Babylon, to whom God gave an abundance of crops. Whence he adds: "And the threshing floors shall be filled with grain. And I will restore to you the years which the locust consumed"); but in such a way that the Prophet's gaze is primarily and directly fixed, terminated and fulfilled in Christ: just as Moses, Deuteronomy 18:18, promised after himself a Prophet, that is, Prophets, and among them one preeminent and singular one, namely Christ; for Christ is our one master and rabbi par excellence, as He Himself says, Matthew chapter 23, 8. So Remigius, Rupert, Haymo, Albertus, Arias, Vatablus, Ribera, a Castro and others.
AND HE WILL CAUSE THE EARLY AND THE LATTER RAIN TO DESCEND (the Lord) UPON YOU. — Among the Prophets, the early rain is called that which falls in autumn, when sowing takes place in Judea, so that the seeds may be dissolved and take root in the earth. The latter rain is that which descends in April or March, when the crop is ripening. So the Chaldean, the Rabbis and generally the Interpreters. For in Judea, a hot and dry region, throughout the whole summer, that is, from May to October, for five months it does not rain, but the sky is continually clear and serene, both night and day: whence they sleep at night on rooftops in the open air, as I have learned from serious men who lived there. Therefore there is a double rainy season there: the first after summer when seeds are sown, and that is called the morning or early rain with respect to the crop, which then breaks forth from the earth, just as the sun rises in the dawn of morning: the latter, before summer, which fattens and ripens the crops, and that is called the latter rain with respect to the early rain already mentioned. For the crops have, as it were, their own day, whose dawn is the sprout and germination: the evening is the harvest and reaping, namely when they are stored in barns.
Note: By this rain he signifies the harvest and temporal crops to be given abundantly to the Jews after the return from Babylon. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Albertus, Hugo and Lyranus. But under these tropically and metaphorically, he much more intends to signify the spiritual crops and goods to be given through Christ, as if to say: Christ the Teacher of Justice will give you such doctrine and such an abundance of spiritual goods, of the kind and quantity that was formerly foreshadowed in the Old Testament by that early and latter rain. So Rupert, Haymo, Arias, Ribera, a Castro and others. That this is so is clear from the arguments adduced a little earlier, and from the fact that He promises these goods forever; but the eternal goods are the spiritual goods of Christ, not the temporal goods of the Jews. Therefore the early rain is the first preaching, or doctrine, illumination and prevenient grace, which first converts the sinner and makes him just: the latter rain is illumination and consequent grace, which advances the just person in justice and leads him to perfection, and especially is the gift of perseverance; for this leads the just person to consummate grace, that is, to heavenly glory and beatitude. So St. Jerome, Arias, a Castro and others.
Symbolically, the early rain was the Old Testament, which caused the first seeds of piety to sprout: the latter rain is the New, which ripened the seeds of the old, and brought them to the harvest of virtues. So St. Jerome and Haymo.
Again Rupert: The early rain, he says, was the preaching of the Gospel made to the Jews by Christ and the Apostles: the latter rain will be that which will be done by Elijah and Enoch at the end of the world, when all Israel will be saved.
Verse 24: 24. AND THE THRESHING FLOORS SHALL BE FILLED WITH GRAIN. — He touches in passing on the fertility of Judea after the...
24. AND THE THRESHING FLOORS SHALL BE FILLED WITH GRAIN. — He touches in passing on the fertility of Judea after the return from Babylon, but by this he chiefly means the abundance of charisms and virtues given to the fields, threshing floors, olive groves and vineyards, that is, to the particular Churches through Christ. Moreover, the "wine-presses," in which wine and oil are pressed out, are both schools, monasteries, colleges and other houses of asceticism; and persecutions and tribulations, by which the wine of wisdom and fortitude, and the oil of divine consolation, is pressed out and drawn.
Tropologically: "The wine-presses," says Hugo Victorinus, "are the hearts themselves, placed between hope and fear, having constancy above and patience below: constancy in temptation, patience in tribulation. For constancy presses down and wards off from above; patience lies below and sustains the weight. Between these two the holy mind, as if placed in a wine-press, is pressed, purified, refined. It is pressed by scourges, purified from vices, refined from idleness. It is pressed by calamity, purified from iniquity, refined from vanity. From this is drawn the groaning of pure confession: from this flow the tears of anxious compunction: from this spring the sighs of joyful devotion: from this melt the desires of sweetest love: from this are drawn the drops of clearest contemplation. The grain is the perfection of justice; the wine is the clarity of spiritual understanding; the oil is the sweetness of the purest conscience."
Verse 25: 25. AND I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS WHICH THE LOCUST, THE CANKERWORM, ETC. HAS CONSUMED. — As if to say: The past...
25. AND I WILL RESTORE TO YOU THE YEARS WHICH THE LOCUST, THE CANKERWORM, ETC. HAS CONSUMED. — As if to say: The past want which the Chaldeans brought upon you, both literal ones, and still more the mystical ones, that is, demons and vices, I will compensate with an abundance of heavenly graces and riches. Whence the Chaldean translates: I will restore to you good years for the years in which peoples, nations and kings harassed you; for the Chaldeans were my great strength; in Hebrew and Chaldaic, my mighty army. He alludes to what he said about the locusts signifying the camps of the Chaldeans in verse 11: "The Lord has given His voice before the face of His army; for His camps are exceedingly many, for they are strong, and carry out His word."
Moreover, by the locusts and Chaldeans he means the army of spiritual enemies, as if to say: I, God, sent temptations, sins, demons, the flesh and the world, as your enemies and plunderers, upon you (in the sense and manner I explained in Canon 27 on the Major Prophets) to punish your pride and other former sins. These laid waste the fields of your Churches and souls, and consumed every sprout of virtues and good works. But now I, the same God, appeased and reconciled to you, will repair all these losses, and will restore to you the former abundance of heavenly goods, indeed I will heap them up with greater interest, so that you may say with the Psalmist, Psalm 89:13: "We have rejoiced for the days in which You humbled us: the years in which we saw evil."
Tropologically, what is signified here is the power of penance, which restores to one who has fallen but is penitent all former virtues, all former merits, as St. Jerome teaches here, and St. Thomas and the theologians in the treatise On Penance, and therefore causes the fallen person always to rise to greater grace: for besides the past grace, which it entirely restores, it adds over and above its own proper grace, proportioned both to the virtue and to the sacrament of penance. See Francisco Suarez, Opusc. 5, On the Return of Good Works, where in disputation 2, section 3, with John Major, Gabriel, Ockham, Scotus and Durandus; but in the present life, and therefore in the same instant of penance; and not only through acts of penance more intense than the former acts of virtue, as St. Thomas and Paludanus held, but even through less intense acts of the same.
Symbolically Hugo Victorinus: "At the coming of Christ," he says, "the years which the aforementioned pestilence had devoured are restored to us; because in Him, against the true locust, that is, against pride, He gave us humility, saying: Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart: against the cankerworm, that is, gluttony, perfect sobriety, saying: Watch lest your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life: against the rust, that is, anger, perfect patience, saying: If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other also: against the caterpillar, that is, lust, perfect chastity, saying: Let your loins be girded, and lamps burning in your hands. Therefore He exterminated the locust, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit: blessed are those who mourn. The cankerworm, saying: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice: blessed are the merciful. The rust, saying: Blessed are the peacemakers: blessed are the meek. The caterpillar, saying: Blessed are the pure of heart." You see here that these four creatures and pests are devoured by the eight beatitudes, and that these are restored through Christ and through penance.
Verse 26: 26. AND YOU SHALL EAT AND BE FILLED, AND YOU SHALL BE SATISFIED: AND YOU SHALL PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD. — For He...
26. AND YOU SHALL EAT AND BE FILLED, AND YOU SHALL BE SATISFIED: AND YOU SHALL PRAISE THE NAME OF THE LORD. — For He gave you food, and such food so succulent and abundant that it would amply satisfy you, and make you strong, vigorous and cheerful.
Morally, learn here that crops, food, and all natural goods, and much more supernatural goods, are gifts of God, and their praise and glory should be ascribed not to our labor, but to God and His beneficence. He who does otherwise steals from God what is His, and makes himself unworthy of God's gifts, and deserves to be stripped of them. For God is jealous of His glory, as it is owed to Him by every right; whence He Himself says: "I will not give My glory to another," Isaiah chapter 48, 11. Therefore St. Francis wonderfully impressed this upon his followers, and among other things gave this instruction: "When," he said, "a servant of God at prayer is visited by divine grace, he should say: This consolation You have sent from heaven to me, a sinner and unworthy, Lord, and I entrust it to Your keeping, because I feel myself to be a robber of Your treasures," since I steal His praise and glory for myself, and ascribe it to myself. So St. Bonaventure in his Life, chapter 18.
Verse 28: 28. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS AFTER THIS: I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT. — The Hebrews begin a new chapter here. Now the...
28. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS AFTER THIS: I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT. — The Hebrews begin a new chapter here. Now the same Hebrews, and among them Rufinus, just as by the teacher of justice in verse 23 they understood Hezekiah; so they consider the spirit poured out by God to have been poured into his messengers, whom he sent throughout all Judea to recall everyone to their ancestral faith and the worship of God: and that St. Peter in his sermon, Acts 2, merely accommodated these words to his own time, because they also fit; and Rufinus calls those bold who think otherwise.
But bolder is this censure of his, as it conflicts with the Holy Fathers and interpreters almost universally, and with St. Peter himself, Acts chapter 2, 17.
Others, just as by "teacher" they understand teachers, namely the prophets who lived after the return from Babylon, e.g. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; so through these same men preaching ardently, they think the spirit of piety was poured out upon the people. But since it has been proved above that the teacher of justice is to be understood as Christ, it follows that these things pertain to His times, especially because we never read that the Holy Spirit was poured out at any other time. Furthermore, for "and it shall come to pass after this," St. Peter, Acts 2, translates: "And it shall come to pass in the last days," namely in the days of the Messiah. For His age, law and time in Scripture is called "the last:" because no other law, religion or Church will succeed His. Therefore it is a matter of faith that these words are to be understood literally not of Hezekiah, Haggai, or anyone else, but of Christ. For thus defines Pope Vigilius in the Roman Council against Theodore of Mopsuestia, as I said in the Prooemium.
He therefore says and promises, saying: "After this," that is, after Christ the Teacher, and His death and ascension into heaven, I, God, will pour out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and thereafter: in the first century of the Church, visibly upon the Apostles and the disciples of Christ; but in the following centuries, I will invisibly pour out the same upon all who are reborn in Christ through baptism and incorporated into His Church. For St. Peter explains this passage of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, 17, whom all the orthodox Fathers and interpreters follow: St. Jerome, Cyril, Theodoret, Remigius, Rupert, Albertus, Haymo, Lyranus, both Hugos, namely the Cardinal and Victorinus, Dionysius, Vatablus, Arias, Clarius, Ribera, a Castro here, Chrysostom, Oecumenius and others on Acts 2, Didymus and Ambrose, book 1 On the Holy Spirit, chapter 7, Justin Against Trypho, Hilary book 8, On the Trinity, and others. Indeed even the Rabbis, such as the Chaldean, Rabbi Solomon, Rabbi David, Rabbi Jeshua in Lyranus and Galatinus, book 8, last chapter, and others, refer this sending of the Holy Spirit to the time of the Messiah.
Moreover, when He says: "I will pour out," the same one speaks who said: "I will send the teacher of justice," namely God the Father; granted that He Himself together with the Son, as He spirates, so also He sends the Holy Spirit. So Chrysostom in Acts 2. Hence Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 17, held that Christ speaks here, to whom, he says, the Father has given all things into His hands, and the power of giving the Holy Spirit, whom He received not by measure.
Note: The word "I will pour out" signifies the abundance and plenty of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, both those that make one pleasing to God, such as grace, charity, fortitude and other virtues; and those freely given, such as prophecy, etc., to be poured out upon the Apostles and the faithful. Whence in Scripture this effusion is called a baptism, as in Matthew chapter 3, 11, John the Baptist says of Christ: "He Himself will baptize you in the Holy Spirit
and fire," as if to say: He Himself will fill you with the Holy Spirit, and will as it were immerse you in Him and His fire, just as a man is immersed in water when he is baptized. And Christ, about to ascend into heaven, Acts chapter 1, 5, says: "John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Therefore, for "I will pour out," the Antiochene Arabic translates: I will cause my spirit to flood over all people; and the Alexandrian Arabic: I will inundate with my spirit over all people. Just as, therefore, a river or a swelling sea overflows into the fields, so the Holy Spirit into men. So St. Chrysostom and Theophylact, Acts 2. Hear Hugo Victorinus: "Christ," he says, "poured out His Spirit; He did not take it from Moses, nor snatch it from Elijah, but generously distributed His own."
"Note the word 'He poured out.' For first He poured, secondly He poured in, thirdly He poured forth. He poured in paradise, He poured in the desert, He poured forth in the upper room. In paradise by giving the law of nature; in the desert the precepts and ceremonies of the written law; in the upper room the fullness of grace. He poured, therefore, first by irrigating the field of nature; secondly, He poured in the torrent of doctrine; thirdly, He poured forth the river of grace, as if to say: At the beginning of the world I watered the arid nature; in the squalor of the desert I distilled upon Moses at Sinai the doctrine of the law; in the fullness of time I will pour forth the abundance of grace." And shortly after he teaches that this outpouring was necessary: "For there were three evils of man: ignorance of good, concupiscence of evil, malice of impenitence. Therefore the Son came, the Wisdom and Power of God; the Paraclete was sent, His kindness. Wisdom poured forth removed the blemish of ignorance; power poured in cleansed the filth of concupiscence; the sending of the Spirit purified the dregs of malice, since wisdom enlightened, power healed, kindness calmed. Which the Psalmist foreseeing said: According to the multitude of Your mercies, blot out my iniquity. Wash me yet more, O Lord, from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, as if to say: Blot out by pouring, wash by pouring in, cleanse by pouring forth; by pouring wisdom, blot out ignorance from the eyes; by pouring in power, wash concupiscence from the inmost parts; by pouring forth kindness, exterminate malice from the whole body."
Note secondly: For "I will pour out my spirit," St. Peter, Acts chapter 2, 17, says: "I will pour out of my spirit, etc.;" where the particle "of" signifies
this communication of the grace and gifts of God proceeds from the Holy Spirit, as from the Father of lights. Again, that the Holy Spirit distributes His gifts among the faithful, so that to one He gives the grace of teaching, to another of exhorting, to another of miracles, etc., as the Apostle teaches, Romans chapter 12, 6.
Note thirdly: Didymus and St. Ambrose, book 1 On the Holy Spirit, prove from this passage that the Holy Spirit is God: because, they say, nothing is said to be poured out by God except what is participable of Himself. For an angel is not said to be poured out, because being a creature, he is not participable. For although the charity and gifts of the Holy Spirit are also said to be poured out by God, yet no substance or person (such as the Holy Spirit is) is said to be poured out into the soul and mind, so as to possess, enlighten, sanctify, satisfy and fill it, except God: for God alone can enter into the mind, and teach, enkindle, fill, bend and move it wherever He wills; for an angel cannot do this.
Here note that when the soul becomes just and holy, or more just and more holy, not only grace and charity, or their increase, but the Holy Spirit Himself, and therefore the entire Trinity, really enters our mind through sanctification, and dwells in it as in His throne and temple; just as the Word, assuming human nature, entered into it personally, so that the fullness of the divinity dwelt in it corporeally, as the Apostle says, Colossians chapter 2, 9. This is what Christ says, John chapter 14, 23: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him." Just as, therefore, God is really present to the Blessed, since He shows them His essence through the beatific vision and the light of glory, and communicates it to them to be enjoyed and possessed: so the same God is in the holy soul, and therefore diffuses in it His grace, charity and other divine gifts; just as the sun, when it rises, immediately spreads its light, rays and warmth. Therefore, once the final disposition to justice is posited, e.g. contrition, immediately the Holy Spirit and the entire Holy Trinity enters into the soul as into His temple, sanctifying it and as it were dedicating and consecrating it to Himself; and then in the same instant of time, but later in the order of nature, communicates to it His charity and grace. This is what is meant by "We will come to him, and make Our abode with him." For this is the supreme union of God with the holy soul, greater than which none can be given to a pure creature; for through it we become partakers of the divine nature, as St. Peter says, epistle 2, chapter 1, 4. See here, O Christian, the dignity of the holiness to which you are called, and pursue, preserve and increase it with all zeal.
Finally, Gregory Nazianzen, oration 49, near the end, proves that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Son from His own substance, from this passage: "I will pour out of My Spirit;" and from John 16:14: "He will receive of Mine, and will declare it to you": "From what He is as the Son, of course," he says, "because the Son also has it from what the Father is," as if to say: The Spirit, from what He receives from the Son, will declare; just as the Son declares to the Holy Spirit from what He has received from the Father.
UPON ALL FLESH, — that is, upon every person; for by synecdoche the part is taken for the whole, flesh for the person, as when it is said: "The Word was made flesh;" flesh, that is, man; He could equally have said: The Word was made soul, that is, an ensouled man; but He preferred to say flesh, both to signify the supreme condescension of the Word, by which, as St. Augustine says in epistle 120, chapter 4, He humbled Himself to our flesh, which among all the flesh of animals is the most wretched and weakest; and because our disease, namely concupiscence, resides in the flesh; and the heavenly physician, namely Christ, as well as the Holy Spirit, came to cure this; whence the Incarnation is called by the Greeks σάρκωσις, and, as Tertullian says in the book On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 1, incorporatio, that is, the vivification of corrupted flesh, says St. Thomas; and finally, because through it, instead of a heart of stone and hard, we have received a heart of flesh, that is, soft, pliable, obedient, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, 3. The sense, therefore, is as if to say: Upon every person who believes in Christ, of whatever age, sex and state, I will pour out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and thereafter. And so the word "all" is taken simply and plainly; for He speaks of the faithful only, those who believe in and obey Christ.
Therefore some take the word "all" more narrowly, not for individuals of each kind, as if to say: I will pour out the spirit upon every kind of human being, namely upon some men, some women, some young, some old, some slaves, some nobles; but not upon all, that is, each individual. For upon each individual one of His disciples Christ poured out, and continually pours out, the Holy Spirit.
Note: Just as Joel and the Prophets properly and directly promise the teacher of justice, namely the Messiah, to the Jews alone; so to the same Jews alone Joel here promises the Holy Spirit. So Chrysostom, Acts 2. Whence follows: "And your sons shall prophesy." But because by the mercy of God the Gentiles have been adopted through faith into the family of Abraham, namely into the Church and the congregation of the faithful, hence they are equally partakers and heirs of the blessings and promises of Abraham made by God (among which the first is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, justification and adoption), as the Apostle teaches, Romans chapter 9, 10 and 11. And this is what "upon all flesh" signifies. Therefore upon Cornelius the Centurion and other believers from the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit was poured out in a visible form, just as upon the Apostles and the Jews, as is clear from Acts chapter 10, 44. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Albertus, Lyranus and others generally.
Morally, the Holy Spirit shows His munificence and royal spirit, in that He is beneficent and generous to all without distinction, and has no private loves and friendships, and thus excludes all rivalry and envy, says Chrysostom in Acts 2.
AND YOUR SONS SHALL PROPHESY, — both properly by predicting the future, as the Apostles did, the Blessed Virgin, Luke chapter 1, 46; Zechariah, Anna and Elizabeth, Luke chapter 2, 38; Philip, Acts chapter 21, 9; Agabus, ibid. verse 10; St. John in the Apocalypse, and others in the early Church. See Bozius, book 6 On the Signs of the Church, chapter 12; and also by speaking from the breath of the Holy Spirit, and celebrating God in various tongues, which in Acts chapter 2, 11, is said: "We have heard them speaking in our tongues the great things of God." For "to prophesy" in Scripture is taken broadly to mean to teach,
to exhort, to pray, to sing the praises of God, to work miracles, etc., as I said on 1 Corinthians chapter 14, at the beginning of the chapter; under prophecy, therefore, here understand the gift of tongues and other charisms of the Holy Spirit.
YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS, AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS. — By "dreams" understand divine dreams sent by God, and therefore foretelling hidden or future things, such as were those of Pharaoh, Genesis chapter 40 and 41, and of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel chapter 2 and 4. In like manner by "visions" understand divine and prophetic ones. Fittingly he attributes dreams to the old, weary with age and inclined to sleep; but visions to the young, alert and wakeful, which are sent by God to men while awake. For God often adapts Himself and His oracles to the condition of men, and appears to each one suitably and opportunely according to his state and degree; otherwise the old man John in the Apocalypse had many visions, and the young Paul had dreams, as is clear from Acts chapter 16, verse 9. By visions and dreams, therefore, understand any revelations and prophecies. St. Thomas adds, II-II, Question 174, article 3, that although a vision which occurs to one awake is in itself more perfect than a dream, which occurs to one sleeping; yet when in a vision only the appearance and prognostic image of future things is seen, and no voice or word explaining it is heard, which is usually heard in a dream (according to that saying of Moses, Numbers chapter 12, 6: "If there be among you a Prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him through a dream"), then a divine dream is more perfect than a vision. Whence morally some by sons and daughters understand beginners in faith and virtue; by young men, those making progress; by old men, the perfect. The first prophesy, in that their good disposition gives hope of fruit; the second see, in that by meditating and praying they more clearly imbibe divine things; the third dream on account of their pacified passions and tranquil mind. St. John distinguishes these three grades, epistle 1, chapter 2, 12, and to the first assigns the forgiveness of sins, to the second victory in the struggle, to the third the knowledge of God. "I write to you, little children," he says, "because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, youths and young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you. I write to you, Fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning." On visions I have said more in Canon 1 on the Major Prophets; on dreams in Genesis 40, and Daniel 2.
Verse 29: 29. BUT ALSO UPON MY SERVANTS AND HANDMAIDS, ETC., I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT. — The Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint:...
29. BUT ALSO UPON MY SERVANTS AND HANDMAIDS, ETC., I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT. — The Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint: And also upon servants and handmaids I will pour out of my spirit, as if to say: Not only upon you, O Jews, but also upon your servants and handmaids, as well as Mine, I will pour out My Spirit. For lest anyone think that only masters and lords would receive the Holy Spirit, He adds that servants and handmaids also will share in Him. For the Holy Spirit despises no one, however lowly and abject; for there is no respect of persons with God, Romans 2, but He calls all indiscriminately to grace and salvation: for to all He has given an equally noble soul, namely a rational one created in His image, and has destined it from eternity to His grace, glory and happiness. So the Hebrews, Cyril of Jerusalem, catechesis 17, Rufinus and a Castro. Others by servants and handmaids understand the Gentiles; for the Jews in the old law were as children of God, the Gentiles as servants; but through Christ they have been adopted as sons. So Rupert, Ribera and others.
Morally, it is an illustrious and most honorable title, Servant of God; for to serve God is to reign. Hence the Psalmist, Psalm 115:16: "O Lord, for I am Your servant: I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid." So Abraham, Genesis 26:24, calls himself a servant of God. So also Moses is called, Numbers chapter 12, 7, and Job, 1, 8. Indeed even Christ, Isaiah chapter 48, 3. So Obadiah in Hebrew means the same as servant of God, by which name one of the twelve Prophets is called. So Paul at the beginning of his epistles glories in this title: "Paul, servant of Jesus Christ." So the Blessed Virgin calls herself a handmaid of God: "Behold," she says, "the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word," Luke 1. And St. Agatha, when the governor objected to her: Why do you, though you are noble, live the servile life of Christians? replied: "The humility and servitude of Christians far surpasses the wealth and pride of kings." Finally, Blessed Damasus, epistle 2 to Stephen, St. Gregory and other subsequent Popes, by this title: "Servant of the servants of God," signify their humility, indeed their dignity.
Verse 30: 30. AND I WILL SHOW WONDERS. — A prodigy is what "porro dicit" (tells forth), that is, predicts the future, says Cicero...
30. AND I WILL SHOW WONDERS. — A prodigy is what "porro dicit" (tells forth), that is, predicts the future, says Cicero in book 1 On Divination and from him St. Augustine, book 21 of the City of God, chapter 8: "A sign by which something else is signified: and that is in great things and in heaven; this in small things and on earth," says Hugo Cardinalis. Origen however in his commentary on John: Τέρατα, he says, that is, prodigies, "are so called because they are beyond expectation and exceed human custom:" σημεῖα, that is, signs, "are those which signify something," and, as Ammonius says in the Greek Catena on John, "when something happens that is not contrary to nature." But often these two are confused and signify the same thing. Now as to the meaning, the Rabbis, who refer these to Hezekiah, hold that these prodigies really happened in heaven and earth as they sound, when the angel struck the camp of Sennacherib, even though this is not narrated in the Books of Kings. But these prodigies are inventions and fictions of the Jews: for neither Scripture, nor Josephus, nor Josippus, nor anyone else, records that any prodigies appeared in heaven at that time.
Secondly, some Catholics think these prodigies occurred, first, at the birth of Christ, when the star appeared to the Magi, and the angels sang: "Glory to God in the highest." Secondly, at the resurrection of Christ, when flashing angels struck down the soldiers guarding Christ's tomb, and consoled Magdalene and her companions. Thirdly, at the passion of Christ, when the sun was darkened over the whole world in a universal eclipse, the earth trembled, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened, etc.; for then from the side of the dead Christ, opened by a soldier's lance, there came forth blood and water, which kindled the fire of charity in the disciples and the faithful, and this before the day of Christ's resurrection, which was terrible for the Jews. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Hugo. Fourthly, at Pentecost; for then the Holy Spirit appeared in fire and tongues of fire and rested upon the Apostles. So St. Jerome. And St. Peter seems to support this, Acts chapter 2, 17, where in speaking of the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, he cites these prodigies of Joel: therefore they seem to have been produced around the time of Pentecost, namely at the time of the passion and resurrection of Christ. This exposition is probable, but incomplete; for then these prodigies began, but they will be completed near the day of judgment, as I shall soon say.
denser and darker. These signs were predicted by St. John in Apocalypse chapters 8 and 9. So Theodoret, Rupert, Lyranus, Vatablus, Arias, Ribera, a Castro here, St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius on Acts 2, Tertullian, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 39, Origen, tract 30 on Matthew, St. Thomas on chapter 24 of Matthew, and others generally. Indeed St. Jerome also finally inclines to this view, and holds that these signs are to be referred more to the day of judgment than to the passion of Christ. The cause of these signs is given by St. Chrysostom on Matthew chapter 24: "When the father of the family dies," he says, "the household is disturbed, the family mourns, and clothes itself in black garments; so when the human race, for whose sake they were made, is at its end, the mysteries of heaven mourn and, laying aside their brightness, clothe themselves in darkness."
You will say: How then does St. Peter refer these prodigies to Pentecost, Acts 2? I answer: St. Peter recounts them not as if they had then occurred, but in this sense, as if to say: Do not marvel, O Jews, at these prodigies of the Holy Spirit and the fiery tongues which you see at this Pentecost; for you will see greater things given by Christ in vengeance upon unbelievers at the end of the world, as if to say: Either believe now in Christ, or await His terrible hand and vengeance then. For the Prophet, after Christ the Teacher and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, immediately adds these prodigies that will come at the end of the world, to signify that after the law of Christ, no other is to be expected, and therefore it must be embraced by all who wish to be saved. So Ribera. Add that these prodigies began to commence at the time of Christ: for at His passion the sun and moon were darkened, at Pentecost and thereafter the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of fire, etc.; but they will be perfectly and completely fulfilled at the end of the world, as if Joel were saying: O Jews, when Christ comes, though humble and poor, receive Him; because He Himself will pour out the Holy Spirit upon you, and will give prodigies beneficial to believers, harmful and terrifying to unbelievers, and He will begin them during His life, but will complete them at the end of the world, when in place of the fire of the Holy Spirit, which unbelievers rejected, He will give them the fire of the conflagration of the world, and thence the flames of hell. In a similar way Jacob, blessing his sons before his death, Genesis 49, predicts some things that happened shortly after, some that happened long afterward under Christ, and some that will happen at the end of the world.
Symbolically Hugo Victorinus: "The sun," he says, "is Christ, the moon the Church: the sun turned to darkness, Christ affixed to the cross. Whence Jeremiah, speaking of the blindness of the Jews, Lamentations 3: You will give them, Lord, the shield of the heart, Your labor. The moon turned to blood, the Church imitating the passion of Christ. Blood designates the profession of martyrs; fire the choir of virgins burning with the ardor of love. Vapor is the frequent and devout compunction of the continent. The great and terrible day is the day of the passion and resurrection: great for the faithful, terrible for unbelievers, terrible for those
Thirdly, St. Chrysostom and Oecumenius think these prodigies were wrought shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; for this day was terrible for the Jews. For then a great quantity of Jewish blood was shed, the city and the temple, burned by fire, went up in smoke and vapor. And Father Prado on Ezekiel chapter 10, 2: "I will give Jerusalem three punishments," namely, "blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke, that is, the slaughter of citizens, the burning of buildings, and what is more serious, the ignorance of truth and the blinding of the eyes, which same three things Christ predicted for the Jews in Psalm 68:25: Let the fury of Your anger seize them. Let their dwelling be made desolate, let their eyes be darkened so they do not see." But only the Christians escaped this disaster, invoking the name of the Lord: because, divinely forewarned about the destruction of the city, they fled from it to other regions and cities, as Eusebius teaches, book 3 of the History, chapter 5.
Fourthly and genuinely, it is certain that the subject here is the signs and prodigies that will precede the day of the last judgment; for this will be the great and terrible day. And that this is the subject here is clear from what follows at the beginning of chapter 3, to which these words are to be connected (indeed the Hebrews refer these to chapter 3, as I said at verse 28): "For behold, in those days, etc., I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will contend with them there." But this will happen on the day of judgment. Moreover, before the day of judgment there will be the prodigies that Christ predicted, Matthew chapter 24, 29, and Luke chapter 21, 25, saying: "There shall be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars; for the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give its light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." Again, the moon will appear blood-red, Isaiah chapter 24, 23; likewise the sea will appear bloody, Apocalypse chapter 8, 8. Much blood also of the faithful will be shed by the Antichrist, and finally the blood of the Antichrist himself and of his army of Gog and Magog. There will be fire from lightning and from stars falling from heaven: again the fire of the conflagration of the world, by which all worldly things will pass into smoke and vapor. Whence the Syriac and Arabic distinguish smoke from vapor, and assign four prodigies; for they translate: "I will give blood, and fire, and vapor, and smoke." For vapor is a subtler and whiter exhalation, while smoke is
AND TERRIBLE. — In Hebrew it is נורא nora, which, first, properly derived from the root ירא iare, that is, he feared, signifies awe-inspiring, terrible; and by catachresis, wonderful, glorious, august and venerable on account of supreme power, equity, majesty and glory. Hence the Chaldean translates נורא dechila, that is, formidable. Secondly, nora can be derived from ראה raa, that is, he saw, so that raa borrows its tenses from iara: for often the conjugations of irregular verbs among the Hebrews are interchanged with one another, so that one takes its inflection from another, and then nora signifies illustrious and manifest. Whence the Septuagint translates ἐπιφανῆ, that is, bright, conspicuous. St. Peter follows them, Acts 2, saying: "Before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes." For on that day there will be a great light, and great brightness of Christ in glory and of all His angels and saints. And: "A fire will blaze in His sight," Psalm 49:3, all of which will strike extreme terror into the guilty and those to be damned. For they will see that they and their deeds cannot be hidden in such great light: they will see that they can nowhere escape the eyes and hands of the Judge, they will see that there will be no place for excuse, pretense, fraud, or appeal: they will see the blazing fires of hell prepared and decreed for them forever, and that they will most certainly be cast into them.
Pathetically St. Basil, on Psalm 33: "Come, children, I will teach you the fear of the Lord," describes the horror of this day, and says: "When the desire of sinning has seized you, I would wish you to think of that terrible and intolerable tribunal of Christ, at which the Judge will preside on a high and exalted throne, and every creature will stand trembling at His glorious sight. We too shall each be brought forward, to render an account of what we have done in life. Then beside those who have perpetrated many evils in life, terrible and hideous angels will stand, bearing fiery faces and breathing fire, with countenances like the night, because of sorrow and hatred toward the human race. Think besides of the deep abyss, and the inextricable darkness, and the fire lacking brightness, having the power to burn but deprived of light; then the species of worms emitting poison and devouring flesh, insatiably hungry and never feeling fullness, and inflicting intolerable pains by their very gnawing. Finally, which is the most grievous punishment of all, consider that reproach and everlasting confusion. Fear these things, and equipped with this fear, restrain your soul from the concupiscence of sins, as with a kind of bridle."
Of this terrible day God gave a pattern and vivid representation in the judgment of Udo, bishop of Magdeburg. For when he was living impurely and scandalously, a voice was sent to him from heaven: Put an end to the game, for you have played enough, Udo. And this was heard by him a third time. But when he, although
31. Before the day of the Lord comes. — The days of this life are ours, in which we do what we please: that day will be the Lord's, that is, the Judge's, on which He will demand an account of all our other days, according to Psalm 74:3: "When I shall take the time, I will judge justices." So the individual days of the week belong to the students, but Saturday is the master's day: on which he demands an account of progress and behavior from each one, and scourges the negligent and insolent.
Great. — The day of judgment will be great, because, first, it will put an end to the world, to crime, to merit and demerit; secondly, because it will be the horizon of time and eternity; for it will divide and separate the one from the other: for this day will be the last of time and the first of eternity; thirdly, because great things will happen on it, namely Christ with all His angels will descend into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there on a magnificent throne the Judge will sit: all people who have ever lived, are living and will live, will stand before Him to be judged: the thoughts, words and deeds of all will be examined most precisely: a final sentence will be passed on all, irrevocable for all eternity: the saints will be assigned to heaven, the wicked to hell: a great gulf and barrier will be established, which will forever separate the latter from the former, so that the wicked will never see the Saints, never heaven, never God; but shut up in an eternal prison they will burn in fire, as long as heaven is heaven, as long as God is God. So Hosea, chapter 1, 4, it is called "the great day of Jezreel." So among the Romans a "great day" was what they called the day that gave victory and put an end to war or to grave evils, as Cornelius Tacitus teaches in the Life of Agricola, and Turnebus, book 1 of the Adversaria, chapter 24.
who said: His blood be upon us and upon our children; great for those who said: Truly this was the Son of God. Otherwise: the sun turned to darkness, Christ is darkened in the hearts of the elect at the moment of death. Whence they also said: But we were hoping that He was the one who would redeem Israel. The moon turned to blood, the Synagogue blinded by the passion of Christ." Then by blood he understands the slaughter of the Jews under Titus; by fire, the burning of the city and the temple; by vapor, the banishment of the Jews across the seas and to the islands.
Tropologically: "The vision is one's own self-knowledge, the dream is the ecstasy of the mind, the prophecy is the contemplation of the Spouse, heaven is the soul, earth the flesh: or heaven represents the contemplatives, earth the active: vapor is the compunction of the mind, blood the mortification of the flesh, fire the fervor of love. The sun turned to darkness is the soul confounded in self-knowledge. The moon turned to blood, the flesh in its own mortification." So far Hugo.
And further on: "After the prodigies given in heaven, after the light of self-knowledge, after the smoke of devout compunction, after the blood of just mortification, after the fire of perfect love, only the sweetness of contemplation remains." This is the invocation of the name of God, of which follows: "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." So Hugo.
startled for the moment, soon returned to his amorous pleasures, he was summoned to the tribunal of God. For St. Maurice, holding an unsheathed sword, in his church (of which Udo was the bishop) mightily cried out: "All saints whose relics are kept here, arise and come to the judgment of God." Immediately a very great and resplendent multitude of both sexes appeared: Christ, more brilliant than the sun, attended by the Blessed Virgin and the twelve Apostles, sat upon a royal throne, and ordered Udo to be brought forward. He was snatched from his bed and brought in. St. Maurice accused him, all cried out: "He deserves death." Christ therefore pronounced the sentence of death upon him, which St. Maurice carried out by beheading him. A certain canon witnessed this; and at the same time another saw his soul being dragged by demons to the fires of hell, and there cursing the day of his birth and his mistresses; and in the morning, when the clerics came to the church, they found Udo dissolved in his own blood. Moreover, the blood of Udo still clings to the pavement so indelibly that it seems to be part of the very essence of the marble. And when new bishops are installed, they prostrate themselves there to pray, so that seeing the blood of Udo, they may take care lest they perish as he did. The event is narrated at length and vividly by Nauclerus, volume 3, Generation 34; our Canisius, book 5, Marian, chapter 20; Fulgosius, book 9, chapter 12 and others.
A similar pattern of judgment, indeed a real example, exists in the case of Chrysaorius, whose terrifying vision of his own judgment and death St. Gregory narrates in homily 12 on the Gospel, and in the courtier of Coenred king of the Mercians, in Bede, book 5 of the History of the English, chapter 14, and in the vision of the Emperor Maurice, who, summoned to the tribunal of God on account of his sins, asked to be punished rather in this life than in the future one, and obtained this: whence by Phocas he was stripped of both empire and life together with his wife and children, as narrated by Eutropius book 17, Zonaras book 3, Nicephorus book 18, chapter 40; and in the vision of Peter the Tax Collector, who, avaricious and unmerciful, saw himself presented before Christ the Judge, and all his sins placed in one scale of the balance, but in the other only a single alms of his, by which, freed from the hands of the demons, he heard: "Go, add to this loaf, and work." Therefore, changing his life and habits, he gave himself entirely to works of mercy and charity, as is narrated in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver. Indeed even St. Jerome, caught up to the tribunal of Christ, heard: "You are a Ciceronian, not a Christian;" and therefore was severely beaten, as he himself relates in his epistle to Eustochium, which begins: "Listen, O daughter." Behold how the life of the Saints is a commentary on the written law, indeed it is itself a living law, proclaiming by its manner of life what we ought to fear and flee, what to love and pursue. Daniel also vividly describes this day of judgment in chapter 7, and St. John in Apocalypse chapter 1, and Christ in Matthew 24 and 25, and St. Peter in epistle 1, chapter 3.
Pathetically also St. Jerome to Heliodorus: "Then," he says, "at the sound of the trumpet the earth with its peoples will tremble, but you will rejoice. As the Lord judges, the world will low mournfully, and tribes will beat their breasts against other tribes. The once most powerful kings will tremble with bare sides. The foolish Plato will be brought forward with his disciples: the arguments of Aristotle will be of no use. Then you, a rustic and poor man, will exult, and say: Behold the Judge, who wrapped in swaddling clothes cried in a manger," etc. St. Chrysostom on chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew: "On that day," he says, "there is nothing we can answer, where heaven, earth, air, water and the whole world will stand against us as testimony of our sins: and if all be silent, our very thoughts and our very deeds will stand specifically before our eyes, accusing us before God."
St. Bernard, sermon On Virgins: "Rightly," he says, "that day is proclaimed as a day of wrath, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, in which: As a sign of judgment the earth shall be damp with sweat; From the heavens shall fall a river of fire and brimstone, And the earth gaping open shall reveal the abyss of Tartarus. "For fire shall go before the Lord, and shall inflame His enemies round about, whom it will then find naked and unprotected like the Sodomites."
And a little before: "The trumpet shall sound, at whose blast the world shall tremble. The crash of that trumpet, then, while the angel sounds it, while men are being roused, shall shake even the dark regions of hell. The wretches who are there shall hear, those shall hear then who now hear and refuse to act: Go out to meet Him: when the Lord shall summon heaven from above and earth, wishing to discern His people before Him, and to separate the wise virgins from the foolish. He shall summon heaven from above, that the powers of heaven be moved from their seats, and all the angels be gathered with Him for the judgment. Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. Then they shall say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us." The same in the Song of Songs: "That day shall come, on which pure hearts shall avail more than cunning words; a good conscience more than full purses: since the Judge will not be deceived by words, nor swayed by gifts."
St. Anselm, in the book On Similitudes: "On the right," he says, "will be sins accusing, on the left infinite demons, beneath the dreadful abyss of hell, above the wrathful Judge, outside the burning world, inside the burning conscience. There the just man will scarcely be saved. Alas! wretched sinner, thus caught, where will you flee? For to hide will be impossible, to appear intolerable."
How wise are those who always keep this day before their eyes, and order themselves and their actions toward it, so that they say or do nothing that could create danger to their salvation on that day, and that might undergo the just censure and vengeance of God! "Nothing," says St. Ambrose in On Duties, "is so effective for an honest life as to believe that He will be our Judge, whom hidden things do not deceive, unseemly things offend, and honorable things delight." So St. Jerome: "Whether I eat," he says, "or drink, or do anything else, that trumpet always sounds in my ears:
Arise, you dead, come to judgment." This is what Christ seriously forewarned, Luke 21:36: "Watch at all times praying, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that are to come (on the day of judgment), and to stand before the Son of Man." For this reason nocturnal vigils and prayers were formerly prescribed, because it was believed Christ would come to judgment at midnight, according to Matthew 25:6: "At midnight a cry was made, behold the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him," says St. Jerome and Hilary in the same place, and Lactantius book 7, chapter 19. See what is said at the end of Apocalypse 6. Therefore St. Bernard, in his last epistle, sets forth this rule for a holy life: "Strive to live in such a way as you desire to be found at the last judgment."
Verse 32: 32. AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED, — as if to say: On the day of...
32. AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED, — as if to say: On the day of judgment, from this terror of His, and from the terrible sentence upon so many guilty and condemned, there will be delivered and will escape (for this is what the Hebrew פלט palat signifies), and the true worshipers of God will be saved, namely those who in this life have worshiped God with a pure heart, in true faith, hope and charity, have called upon Him, proclaimed Him and celebrated Him. For all these things are signified by the word "to call" or "to call upon" among the Hebrews, namely every form of both internal and external worship of God, and the public profession of true faith and religion in His Church. For the Church is called in Hebrew מקרא micra, from קרא cara, that is, he called: in Greek ἐκκλησία, from ἐκκαλεῖν, that is, from calling and invoking, because she was called by God to His sincere and public worship and invocation. Whence he adds of her: "For on mount Zion," etc. Moreover, the name of the Lord is the Lord Himself, whom we invoke by name. Again, it is Christ Himself, who is the name, that is, the notion and definition of the Father, says St. Cyril, book 11 on John, chapter 20.
Symbolically the name of God is His virtue, glory, power and every perfection. Hence Psalm 8:2 says: "O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Your name," that is, Your wisdom, power, clemency, etc., "in all the earth!" And the Blessed Virgin sings: "He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name;" for in the incarnation of the Word all the holiness, virtue and perfection of God shone forth.
Morally, learn here how pleasing to God is the invocation of Himself, and how He is present to those who invoke Him, bringing them help and salvation. The reason is that whoever invokes God confesses his own misery and powerlessness, but the glory and omnipotence of God, from which he hopes for and requests help. God therefore counts it an honor to Himself that someone should flee to Him in tribulation, and should wish to use His help and mercy rather than that of another, according to Psalm 49: "Call upon Me in the day of tribulation: I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me;" because whoever invokes God places faith and hope in Him, and as it were makes Him his God. Whence Martial, book 8, epigram 24, teaches that gods are made not so much by those who fashion idols, as by worshipers who invoke them: He who fashions sacred faces in gold or marble, Does not make gods; he who prays makes gods. Hence throughout the Psalms the Psalmist invokes God, and commands Him to be invoked in affliction. For God Himself promises, Jeremiah 33:3: "Cry to Me, and I will hear you."
FOR ON MOUNT ZION AND IN JERUSALEM THERE SHALL BE SALVATION. — By "Zion" and "Jerusalem" he means the Church, which Christ first established on Zion and in Jerusalem, as if to say: Those who have followed the faith and piety of the Church, which Christ taught in Judea and Jerusalem, will be saved. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Lyranus, Arias and others. He alludes to Isaiah 4:3: "And it shall be: Everyone who is left in Zion, and who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, everyone who is written in the book of life in Jerusalem." See what is said there. Whence Joel adds: "As the Lord has said," namely both to me here, and to Isaiah in chapter 4 and chapter 2, 2, and to other Prophets.
AND IN THE REMNANT. — Repeat, "there shall be salvation," as if to say: On the day of judgment only those will be saved who on Zion, that is, in the Church, have called upon God and worshiped Him holily; likewise the remnant, that is, the remnants of the Jews, who at the end of the world, called and chosen by God, will be added to Christ and the Church, and so will be saved, as the Apostle teaches, Romans 11:26. Secondly, a Castro explains, as if to say: Those who in past centuries died calling upon God in the grace of Christ, these will be saved on the day of judgment: moreover the remnant, that is, those who in the persecution of the Antichrist, while others fall, stand firm in the faith and profession of Christ, and so remain as survivors of so great a slaughter and ruin of the faithful.
Note: For "remnant" in Hebrew is בשרידים basseridim, which some Rabbis, according to St. Jerome, think is a place name, namely of a mountain or city, as if to say: Those who have fled to Zion, to Jerusalem, or to Seridim, shall escape the disaster of that day. The Septuagint read בשרים bassurim, that is, those who have been evangelized, whom the Lord has called, as the Roman codices read: although Theodoret reads evangelizing or announcing actively, and St. Jerome reads evangelizing or announcing in the singular, which thus
he explains: "These remnants the Lord has called, or He evangelized those whom He called: for thus the Septuagint have interpreted." For all who are to be saved are either evangelizing or evangelized; and no one is saved except through the Gospel of Christ. For this "is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes," as the Apostle says, Romans 1:16.
Similar to this passage is what Isaiah pathetically proclaims in chapter 1, 9: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed (some remnants and survivors, who would sow and propagate the stock of Israel) we would have been like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah." So St. Jerome.