Cornelius a Lapide

Aggaeus II

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

We heard the first prophecy of Haggai in chapter I; here we shall hear three others that followed. The first is at verse 1, in which he urges the Jews to build the temple by promising that its glory will be greater than that of Solomon's temple, because Christ will teach and perform miracles in it, whose coming he predicts will be desired by all nations and the whole world, so that for it heaven and earth, sea and dry land will be shaken. The second is at verse 11, in which he rebukes the Jews, who were growing slower in the begun construction and were affected by weariness, saying that the altar sufficed for sacrifices and there was no need for a complete temple — asserting that God does not want an altar without a temple, for the temple is the altar's place, house, and adornment. But if they continue to build, he promises them abundance of crops. The third is at verse 21, in which he promises to Zerubbabel, on account of the diligence he showed in the construction, that Christ will be born from his lineage, to whom God, having overthrown other kingdoms, will give an eternal kingdom.

We heard the first prophecy of Haggai in chapter 1; here we shall hear three others that followed. The first is at verse 1, by which he urges the Jews to the building of the temple, promising that its glory will be greater than that of Solomon's temple, because Christ will teach and work miracles in it, and he predicts that His coming will be desired by all nations and the whole world, so much so that heaven and earth, sea and dry land will be shaken at it. The second is at verse 11, by which he rebukes the Jews who were slower in the begun construction and weary, because they said that the altar sufficed for victims and there was no need for a complete temple, asserting that God does not want an altar without a temple: for the place, house, and adornment of the altar is the temple. If they continue to build, He promises them an abundance of crops. The third is at verse 21, by which He promises to Zerubbabel, on account of his diligence rendered in the building, that Christ will be born from his line, to whom God, having overthrown other kingdoms, will give an eternal kingdom. the Lord of hosts: and do (for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts) 6. the word which I covenanted with you when you came out of the land of Egypt: and My spirit shall be in the midst of you, fear not. 7. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet one little while, and I will move heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the dry land. 8. And I will move all nations: and the Desired of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 9. The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts. 10. Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first, says the Lord of hosts: and in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. 11. On the twenty-fourth of the ninth month, in the second year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: 12. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests the law, saying: 13. If a man carry sanctified flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with the tip thereof touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food: shall it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. 14. And Haggai said: If one unclean in soul touch any of all these things, shall it be contaminated? And the priests answered and said: It shall be contaminated. 15. And Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before My face, says the Lord, and so is every work of their hands: and all that they have offered there shall be contaminated. 16. And now set your hearts from this day and upward, before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord. 17. When you went to a heap of twenty measures, and they became ten: and you entered the wine press, to press out fifty vessels, and there were twenty. 18. I struck you with a burning wind, and with blight, and with hail, all the works of your hands: and there was none among you that returned to Me, says the Lord. 19. Set your hearts from this day and henceforward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month: from the day that the foundations of the temple of the Lord were laid, lay it up in your heart. 20. Is the seed yet in the barn? and as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not flourished? From this day I will bless. 21. And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth of the month, saying: 22. Speak to Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, saying: I will move heaven and earth together. 23. And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdom of the nations: and I will overthrow the chariot and its rider: and the horses shall come down, and their riders: every man by the sword of his brother. 24. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant, says the Lord: and I will make you as a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts.

Haggai therefore began in chapter 1, 1 to exhort the Jews to the work on the first day of the sixth month, and he continued urging them to it every day for 23 days, and at last drove them to begin the work on the 24th day. Let preachers imitate him, so that they persevere constantly in reproving vices, and not cease until they move the hearts of their hearers to root them out. For just as 'a drop hollows a stone not by force, but by often falling,' so the hard and stony hearts of men are softened not by force but by frequent admonition and incul-

Vulgate Text: Haggai 2:1-24

1. On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius. 2. In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying: 3. Speak to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying: 4. Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 5. Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua son of Jozadak, high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord of hosts; and work (for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts), 6. according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt: and My Spirit will remain in your midst. Do not fear. 7. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 8. And I will shake all nations, and the Desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 9. The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts. 10. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts. 11. On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius the king, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet, saying: 12. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests concerning the law, saying: 13. If a man carries sanctified meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge of it touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, will it become holy? And the priests answered and said: No. 14. And Haggai said: If one who is unclean in soul touches any of these, will it be contaminated? And the priests answered and said: It will be contaminated. 15. And Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, says the Lord, and so is every work of their hands; and all that they offer there is contaminated. 16. And now, set your hearts from this day onward, before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord. 17. When you came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; and when you came to the wine vat to draw out fifty vessels, there were but twenty. 18. I struck you with blight and mildew and hail, all the works of your hands; and none of you turned to Me, says the Lord. 19. Set your hearts from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid — set it upon your heart. 20. Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. From this day I will bless you. 21. And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth of the month, saying: 22. Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: I will shake the heavens and the earth together. 23. And I will overturn the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overturn chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother. 24. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you as a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts.

Verse 1

1. On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius. — These words belong to the end of the preceding chapter and depend on it. For they signify that the Jews had begun the work and construction of the temple on the 24th day of the sixth month — that is, they then began to prepare materials, to cut and fit timber. For the actual construction was begun on the 24th of the ninth month, as will be said at verse 11. Therefore the second chapter properly begins at verse 2; otherwise verse 2 would conflict with verse 1, as is clear to anyone looking at it. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Remigius, Haymo, Lyranus, Vatablus, and others generally. St. Jerome and others think a similar verse division error crept into Jeremiah chapter XXVIII, 1. See Canon 33 in the Prooemium.

Haggai therefore began in chapter I, 1 to exhort the Jews to the work on the first day of the sixth month, and continued to urge them to it every day for 23 days, and finally persuaded them to begin the work on the 24th. Let preachers imitate him, persevering steadfastly in rebuking vices, and not ceasing until they have moved the hearts of their hearers to uproot them. For just as "a drop hollows a stone not by force but by often falling," so the hard and stony hearts of men are softened and bent not by force but by frequent admonition and repeated insistence. with whom and in whom the Lord always was; but to the people, who had feared from the face of the Lord, as if to say: I will be your helper, build My house which has been destroyed among you; with Me established in your midst, no one will be able to prevent your building. of the Lord in the Gospel of the Lord, or a messenger in the announcement of the Lord. For he festively announces the birth and redemption of Christ in chapter II, 7. In a similar manner, the last Prophet is called Malachi, that is, the angel of the Lord. And John the Baptist, on account of his angelic life and preaching, is called an angel in Malachi III, 1: 'Behold, I send My angel, and he shall prepare the way before My face.' So Christ, in Isaiah IX, 6, is called by the Septuagint the angel of great counsel, that is, the messenger. Let the Prophets, that is, doctors and preachers, see here their own dignity, and let them know that they are the ambassadors and messengers of God. So St. Paul, II Corinthians v, 20: 'For Christ,' he says, 'we are ambassadors, as though God were exhorting through us. We beseech you for Christ, be reconciled to God.'

'I am with you.' — 'He does not speak,' says St. Jerome, 'to Zerubbabel and Joshua, since

These words belong to the end of the preceding chapter, and depend on it. For they signify that the work and construction of the temple was begun by the Jews on the 24th day of the sixth month; namely, that they then began to prepare materials, to cut and fashion timbers. For the actual construction was begun on the 24th day of the ninth month, as will be stated at verse 11. Chapter two therefore properly begins at verse 2; otherwise verse two would conflict with verse one, as is evident to anyone who examines it. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, Rupert, Remigius, Haymo, Lyra, Vatablus, and others throughout. St. Jerome and others judge that a similar displacement crept in at Jeremiah chapter XXVIII, 1. See Canon XXXIII in the Prooemium. cation of the same thing they are to be softened: so St. Chrysostom, in his homilies to the people, frequently inveighs against the habit of swearing, and to those murmuring about this matter he replies that he will not desist until they have corrected it; for constancy and perseverance conquer all things. Wherefore St. Paul commands Timothy, Epistle II, chapter IV, 2: 'Preach,' he says, 'the word, be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.'

Verse 2

2. In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, THE WORD CAME.

Therefore this prophecy, which is the second in order, was almost a full month after the beginning of the construction; for this was begun on the 24th day of the sixth month, as was stated at verse 1.

Verse 4

4. Who is there among you that is left, who saw this house in its first glory? who, namely, saw the former temple of Solomon in its grandeur, before it was destroyed together with the city by the Chaldeans.

AND WHAT DO YOU SEE OF THIS NOW? — As if to say: How mean and paltry do you see this second house of God that you are building will be, if it is compared with the temple of Solomon? For its foundations had long since been laid under Cyrus, and from their smallness and meanness one could conclude that the building would be small and mean. But the most magnificent temple of Solomon some had seen, and others had heard from their fathers that it had been such. For the Jews returning from Babylon, being few and poor, were building the temple from common and rough stone, whereas Solomon had built it from the finest hewn stones, both strong and precious, III Kings 6. Secondly, this temple, by the command of Cyrus, was to have a height and a width of only sixty cubits, I Ezra VI; whereas Solomon's was twice as high and wide: for it was 120 cubits high and equally wide. Therefore this second temple was built within the enclosure of the former one, with its ruins left outside round about; which ruins Herod, having demolished them down to the foundations, built upon with his own temple, if we believe Josephus, book XV of the Antiquities, chapter XIV. Therefore, when this temple was first founded in the first year of Cyrus, 'the chief of the fathers and of the elders who had seen the former temple, wept with a loud voice,' says Ezra, book I, chapter III, 12.

From this it is clear that many had seen both temples; for from its destruction, which occurred in the 11th year of Zedekiah, up to the first year of Cyrus, 59 years had elapsed; thence up to the second year of Darius, 11 years elapsed, which added to the former make 70. Those therefore who were 80 years old could have seen the earlier temple and remember its magnificence very well. It is certain that Ezra saw it: for his father Seraiah the high priest was killed in the destruction of the city and temple; therefore Ezra must have been begotten by him before that. Moreover Ezra prolonged his life after Darius until Artaxerxes, whose cupbearer he was, as he himself recounts in book I, chapter VII. Likewise Daniel, 8 years before the destruction of the city and temple, namely in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim, was taken to Babylon, as he himself says in chapter 1, 1. Daniel moreover lived until the end of the reign of Cyrus, as is clear from his chapter X, 1; indeed, if we believe the Hebrews, he lived until Artaxerxes Longimanus. The same is clear about Mordecai, the uncle of Esther, Nehemiah chapter VII, 7.

As though it were nothing. — The Septuagint: And how do you see it now, as though it did not exist? The Chaldean: Is it not as a thing of nothing, so also is it in your eyes? If, namely, it is compared with the magnificence of Solomon's temple, which you either saw, or heard about from those who saw it.

Verse 5

5. Do. namely, the work in My house, says St. Jerome and others to be cited shortly. But the Hebrew and the Roman [Vulgate] with force refer 'do' to 'the word' which shortly follows, as if to say: Do the word which I covenanted, etc. Hence the intervening words, namely 'for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts,' they interrupt and enclose in a parenthesis.

Verse 6

6. The word which I covenanted.

There is here a twofold punctuation, and consequently a twofold meaning. The first takes 'word' in the nominative case, and refers it to what follows, as if to say: Do the work in the temple which I command, because the word, that is, the pact and covenant which I covenanted with you through Moses at Sinai, by which I also promised to be your God and protector, will protect you against the Samaritans wanting to hinder the building of the temple, and against any other enemies: because, namely, what I formerly promised in this covenant, I will now accomplish in deed and actually carry out. So the Septuagint, the Chaldean, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Haymo, Lyra, and Pagninus. Thus mystically the Word is the Son of God, promised to the Jews as Messiah, so that here the Holy Trinity is signified, namely the Father says: 'I am with you.' The Son is the Word, the Holy Spirit is the spirit who will be with them, namely through the effect of grace, help, and protection, which He will provide them. So St. Jerome, Albert, Nyssa, Haymo, and others to be cited shortly. The Chaldean supports this when he translates: My Word will be your help. Hence the Prophet immediately goes on to prophesy about Christ saying: 'Yet one little while, etc., and the Desired of all nations shall come.' The latter punctuation is clearer, so that 'word' is in the accusative case (for the Hebrew particle את et, which ordinarily serves the accusative, rarely the nominative, marks this) and it is referred to 'do,' as if to say: Do the word, that is, the law, which in the pact made with you I demanded as the condition of the covenant to be fulfilled by you; I in turn will perform what is Mine, namely the help which I promised you, and I will cause My spirit, provident, vigilant, keen, powerful and effective, to be in your midst, and protect, strengthen, help, and defend you. So the Hebrews and Arias. This meaning is required by the parenthesis interposed in the Roman Bible, and the Hebrew particle et, as I said a little before.

And My spirit shall be in your midst.

'Spirit,' both uncreated, and this of two kinds. The first, essential in God, which is the divine mind and power itself, whose qualities the Wise Man describes in chapter VII, 7, say- ing: 'For in it (divine wisdom) there is a spirit of understanding, holy, one, manifold, subtle, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving the good, keen, which nothing hinders, beneficent, kind, benevolent, firm, sure, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and which reaches all spirits.' The latter is notional, namely the Holy Spirit, of whom St. Jerome, Theodoret, Remigius, Haymo, Arias here, and St. Athanasius in his epistle to Serapion, Cyril in Catechesis 19, and Gregory of Nyssa in his book of Testimonies against the Jews concerning the Most Holy Trinity understand this passage, where he reads thus: Be strong, Zerubbabel, for I am with you, and My good word, and My spirit in your midst; and from this he proves that in the one essence of the Godhead there is a trinity of persons. 'For what need,' he says, 'was there to mention three, if each is not proper in its own personal subsistence?' For to the Holy Spirit are appropriated love, care, protection, favor, and help, which God here promises to provide to the Jews by His Spirit; that He may be in their midst, just as our spirit is in the middle of the body, and the Holy Spirit is in the midst of the Church. Secondly, this uncreated Spirit diffuses from Himself a created spirit similar to Himself. Hence Albert by this spirit understands the spirit of wisdom, virtue, and fortitude, which God inspired in Moses, and through him in the seventy elders for judging, directing, and governing the people of Israel, Numbers XI, 23. The Hebrews agree, who by spirit understand prophecy. Hence the Chaldean translates: My prophets will teach you, fear not, as if to say: I will give you Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as prophets, who will direct you in the work, encourage, strengthen you, and consult God in all doubtful matters. For Malachi was the last of the Prophets, and after him the Jews had no other up to Christ, says St. Jerome, and the Hebrews themselves admit the same. We can, however, understand this spirit more generally and fully, as if to say: I will be present to you by My spirit, and will inspire in you the spirit of providence, fortitude, eagerness, and also of architectural art, so that, enlivened by it, you may undertake and accomplish this work of building the temple eagerly, strongly, providently, and also wisely and skillfully. And so this spirit among other things signifies architectural art; for this was most necessary in the building of the temple. It signifies therefore that, just as He formerly inspired that art by His spirit in Bezalel for the building of the tabernacle, Exodus chapter XXXI, 2, so now He will inspire the same in the Jews for the building of the temple, and will give them distinguished architects, craftsmen, and artisans. Let architects and artisans learn here that even mechanical arts are gifts of God. Hence those who are devout and invoke God for this purpose often excel in them.

Verse 7

7. Yet one little while, and I will shake.

It is a Hebraism, as if to say: After a short time I will shake heaven, etc. It is certain that the Prophet is speaking of Christ, and of His first coming in the flesh into the world. For the Apostle explains it of Him in Hebrews XII, 26, and the Fathers throughout: St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Haymo, Albert, Hugh, Lyra, Arias, Clarius, Vatablus here, and St. Augustine, XVIII City of God, XXXV, St. Ambrose, book III, epistle 12, Cyril, book V on Genesis, and even the Hebrews according to Galatinus, book IV, chapters IX and X. For the Prophet consoles the faint-hearted and sad Hebrews, because they saw that the construction of the second temple would be so small, mean, and as it were of no account, if compared with the construction of Solomon's. He consoles them, I say, with this argument: that God would glorify the second temple more than the first, because in the second He would give Christ as teacher and savior, and therefore at His coming He would shake heaven and earth, and all the elements, in which He would perform wonderful, magnificent, and glorious things for the glory of Christ, and consequently of the temple.

Note: From this prophecy, made in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, up to the birth of Christ, 517 years elapsed, as I said in the Prooemium. Yet these are called here 'a short time,' both because to the Prophets, elevated to God and God's eternity, all times, as well as earthly and secular things, seem, and truly are, something small, indeed merely a point or a moment. In a similar way, St. John, Epistle I, chapter II, 18, calls the time of the new law 'the last hour: Little children,' he says, 'it is the last hour.' And because it was a short time in comparison to the time elapsed from the creation of the world and from the fall of Adam, from which God soon promised the Savior Christ, Genesis III, 15. For when Haggai said this, 3,434 years had elapsed from the beginning of the world. So Lyra and Vatablus. Arias adds that it is a short time in comparison to the Christian law, which has already lasted 1,624 years, and will last more.

For 'one little while,' the Septuagint, and St. Paul following them in Hebrews XII, 26, translate hapax, that is, once; because the Hebrew achat, that is, 'one,' is taken for 'once'; for paam is understood, that is, 'time,' as if to say: One time, that is, once. The word 'once' signifies that only the one law of Christ and the Gospel will succeed the Mosaic law and the Prophets, after which no other is to be expected, so that when it is finished, the judgment of Christ will come, the resurrection, and eternal life and glory for those who have observed it.

I WILL SHAKE HEAVEN AND EARTH — so that I may rouse all men and angels by many and great prodigies to attention to the great work that I am about to accomplish, namely the incarnation, legislation, and redemption of Christ; just as I formerly roused the Jews by similar things at Sinai, to receive the old law through Moses, so as to win authority for both Moses and the law, and add weight to them. So St. Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Matthew. Note that, although St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XLVIII, and Rupert here, take this shaking of heaven and earth as referring to the signs and portents preceding the day of judgment, and to Christ the Judge, and to the resurrection and glorification of the blessed, about which see Matthew chapter XXIV; nevertheless it is to be taken literally of what happened at Christ's first coming in the flesh, namely shortly before His incarnation, as Hugh, Lyra, and Clarius judge; or after He was incarnate, teaching, suffering, rising, and sending the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Albert, Arias here, Ambrose book III, epistle 12, and Augustine book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXV. For this shaking was brought about to signify that the old law was to be changed into the new, Moses into Christ, the Prophets into the Gospel, Judaism and paganism into Christianity, as St. Chrysostom teaches in Homily 14 on Matthew.

You may ask FIRST: What shaking took place in heaven when Christ came? I answer: The first was that on that very day, indeed at the very hour and moment when Christ was born, angels appeared to the shepherds and announced His birth with joy, singing: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men,' Luke II, 14.

The second, that a star of unusual splendor appeared to the Magi, and called and led them from the East to Christ, Matthew II, 1.

The third, that shortly before Christ's birth, at the beginning of the empire of Augustus, 'about the third hour, suddenly in a clear and pure sky, a circle resembling a celestial rainbow surrounded the orb of the sun, as if to point out that he alone was the most powerful in this world, and the only most illustrious one on earth (Augustus Caesar), in whose time He would come who alone had both made and ruled the sun itself and the whole world,' says Orosius from Suetonius, book VI of the History, chapter XVIII. For what did this circle clothing the sun signify, if not the humanity which veiled and clothed the divinity of Christ like a parhelion?

The fourth, that a globe of golden color was seen by the Romans to descend from heaven to earth, and there, having become larger, to ascend again to heaven and cover the sun. So Orosius in the same place.

The fifth, that one year before the empire of Augustus, under whom Christ was born, three suns were seen to converge into one, says Eusebius in the Chronicle. The following year, says Dio, and from him Baronius, the sun was seen to shine within three circles, one of which was surrounded by a crown of fiery ears of grain; which however Dio judged to be a prognostication of the triumvirate of Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, when more truly it signified the true Sun, Christ the Lord, who as God exists in three circles, that is, the divine Persons, through perichoresis, that is, circumincession; and who as man is constituted of three substances, namely divinity, soul, and flesh.

The sixth, that while Christ was living, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him while He was being baptized, in the form of a dove from heaven. The voice of the Father was heard: 'This is My beloved Son,' Matthew III, 17. The same was heard at the transfiguration, where Christ shone resplendent with heavenly glory, and Moses and Elijah, come down from heaven, were present, Matthew XVII, 5.

The seventh, that angels ministered to Him both in His passion, and in His resurrection, and at other times frequently, John chapter I, 51.

The eighth, that during His passion the sun at full moon — when it is farthest from the moon, which normally causes its eclipse — was completely obscured by a universal eclipse, and mourned in darkness the death of its Creator, so much so that Dionysius the Areopagite exclaimed: 'Either the God of nature suffers, or the fabric of the world is being dissolved,' as he himself reports in writing to Apollophanes.

The ninth, that on the fortieth day after the resurrection He visibly ascended into heaven in glory before His disciples, Acts I.

The tenth, that thence on the fiftieth day He sent the Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues, with a mighty sound, upon the Apostles, Acts II.

The eleventh, that the Virgin Mother of God appeared from heaven to Augustus Caesar on the Capitol, carrying the Infant in her arms, since he had already been instructed by the oracle of Apollo that a Hebrew Boy had been born who had imposed silence on the oracles of the idols, and had erected an altar to Him on the Capitol with this inscription: Altar of the Firstborn God. Wherefore Constantine the Great erected a temple there in memory of Mary the Mother of God, which still stands and is commonly called the Ara Coeli, where the place of Augustus's vision is also shown. So from Suidas, Nicephorus, and others, Baronius in the Apparatus of the Annals. Many add that this was shown to Augustus through the Sibyl, but by the Sibyl they understand some prophetess of that age. For among the Sibyls properly so-called, the last was the Cumaean, who lived long before Augustus under Tarquinius Superbus.

You may ask secondly: What shaking took place on earth at the birth of Christ? I answer: The first is what Orosius describes in these words, book VI, chapter XX, and book VII, chapter II: 'I think it is sufficiently well known, even without my saying so, with how many, how new, and how unusual blessings the year of Christ's nativity abounded. Throughout the whole world there was one universal peace, not by the cessation but by the abolition of wars; the twin gates of Janus were closed, the roots of wars having been pulled up, not merely suppressed. That first and greatest census took place, when the entire creation of great nations swore allegiance to the one name of Caesar, and at the same time was united through the shared census into one society;' namely so that Augustus by his monarchy might prepare the way for the true monarch, Christ, and for the propagation of His Gospel throughout the whole world through its capital, namely through Rome, as St. Leo observes in Homily 1 on St. Peter: 'For it was most fitting for the divinely ordained work,' he says, 'that many kingdoms should be joined under one empire, and that the universal preaching should quickly have access to peoples whom the government of one city held together.' Moreover, as to what Orosius asserts about Janus being closed for the third time in the time of Christ, Baronius expresses some doubt, because the ancients mention the closing of Janus only twice. But it is probable that Orosius, an ancient and serious historian praised by St. Augustine, received this from still older sources, and did not fabricate it himself, as our Barradius rightly observes in volume I, book VIII, chapter XII.

The second, that from the oracles of the Sibyls proclaiming that at that time a king would come from the East who would rule the world, the Romans and other nations were moved, partly by fear and partly by expectation. Hear Tacitus, book XXI: 'Many were persuaded that it was contained in the ancient writings of the priests that at that very time the East would grow strong, and that men coming from Judea would obtain dominion; which cryptic prophecies had predicted Vespasian and Titus.' Thus he, being a pagan, twisted the oracle about Christ to apply to Vespasian. Suetonius says the same in his Life of Vespasian, chapter IV, and he adds that the Jews for this reason — namely, the hope that their king the Messiah would soon come — had rebelled against the Romans, and had therefore been destroyed by Titus.

The third, that before Christ the Delphic oracle and others fell silent, as Cicero attests in book II On Divination, Arnobius in book III Against the Pagans, and others. Hence also from the island of Paxos this voice was heard: 'Great Pan is dead,' according to Eusebius, book V of the Preparation, chapter IX.

The fourth, that in the third year of Augustus's triumvirate, about 40 years before the birth of Christ, in Rome across the Tiber, from an inn, throughout the whole day a most abundant fountain of oil flowed from the ground. 'By which sign,' says Orosius, book VI, chapter XX, 'what was more clearly declared than the future birth of Christ in the days of Caesar Augustus? For Christ means anointed. And so when at that time perpetual tribunician power was decreed for Caesar, at Rome a fountain of oil flowed throughout the whole day;' it signified 'that throughout the entire time of the Roman Empire, Christ, that is, the Anointed One, and from Him Christians, that is, the anointed ones, would flow forth from the charitable inn, that is, from the hospitable and generous Church, abundantly and unceasingly.' This flow of oil from the earth, therefore, portended that Christ would be born on earth and would pour out the depths of His mercy upon us. Hence it is also said of Him in the Song of Songs, chapter I, 2: 'Your name is oil poured out.' That place deserved, says Baronius, to be distinguished by the noblest memorial, namely a most spacious church, under the title of the Mother of God, the first of all whose memory survives, erected long ago by Pope Callistus; where in the very spot from which the oil flowed, in testimony of the ancient miracle, this inscription is read: 'In this first shrine of the Mother of God, formerly an inn, a fountain of oil bursting from the ground portended the birth of Christ.'

The fifth, that 'on the Capitol,' says Dio, book XXXVII, 'many statues were struck by lightning and had melted and flowed, and other images had been thrown down, including one of Jupiter standing on a column; moreover the image of the she-wolf, consecrated with Remus and Romulus, had fallen: the letters also on the columns on which the laws were written had been obliterated and confused.' Hence Suetonius in his Life of Augustus, chapter XCIV, says: 'A prodigy occurred at Rome, by which it was announced that nature was bringing forth a king for the Roman people. Wherefore the terrified senate decreed that no one born that year should be reared.'

The sixth, that Augustus refused to be called Lord any longer, says Suetonius in his Life of Augustus, chapter LIII, as if by an inner divine instinct sensing that Christ, the true Lord of heaven and earth, was approaching.

The seventh, that when Christ as a child was fleeing the infanticide of Herod, as soon as He entered Egypt, the idols of Egypt fell, as the ancients universally report, whom I cited at Isaiah XIX, 1.

The eighth, that when Christ suffered, the rocks were split, and the whole earth, with a great earthquake as though indignant and preparing to avenge the death of its Creator, was shaken, and, if we believe Origen, was torn from its center. Hence Pliny says of this, book II, chapter XLVIII: 'The greatest earthquake in the memory of mortals,' he says, 'occurred during the principate of Tiberius Caesar, twelve cities being laid low in a single night.'

The sea and the dry land. — By the dry land opposed to the sea, either understand the islands with Lyra; or certainly the entire remaining space of the world that land occupies; so that the Prophet subdivides the earth, which he named a little before, that is, the globe of the earth consisting of water and land, into sea and dry land; just as in the creation of the world God separated them: 'And He called the dry land earth, and the gatherings of the waters He called seas,' Genesis I, 10.

Moreover, various shakings in the sea occurred around the time of Christ. The first, through naval battles, and especially the Battle of Actium, by which Augustus, having routed Antony's fleet, became sole ruler, as Suetonius attests. The second, that in Britain a great storm of the sea was raised, so that the islanders said that some demon or hero had perished. So from ancient historians, as Castro reports. The third, that Christ calmed the storms of the sea, and indeed made St. Peter walk upon them. Moreover, in the passion, when He shook the earth with an earthquake, He likewise shook the sea. The fourth, that God moved all the islanders, upon hearing the fame of Christ and the Gospel, to embrace His faith; while others obstinate in unbelief He moved, that is, gave occasion to persecute and root it out. Hear St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, chapter XXXV: 'He moved heaven,' he says, 'by the testimony of angels and stars, when Christ was incarnate. He moved the earth by the great miracle of the Virgin's child-bearing. He moved the sea and the dry land, since both in the islands and in the whole world Christ is announced. Thus we see all nations being moved to faith.' Hear also St. Ambrose on these words of Haggai, near the end of volume II: 'God had moved these before (heaven and earth) when He freed His people from Egypt, when in heaven there was a pillar of fire, earth amid the waves, a wall in the sea, a way in the water, in the desert the daily harvest of heavenly fruits (manna) was multiplied, the rock was dissolved into fountains of water: but He moved them also afterwards in the passion of the Lord Jesus, when heaven was covered with darkness, the sun fled, the rocks were split, the tombs opened, the dead raised, the vanquished dragon in his waves saw fishers of men, not only sailing on the sea but also walking without danger. The desert too was moved, when the unfruitful people of the nations began to ripen into a harvest of devotion and faith, etc., so that more children belonged to the desolate than to her who had a husband, and the desert should bloom like a lily,' Isaiah XXXV.

The reasons why heaven, earth, sea, and dry land were shaken at the incarnation of Christ are many. The first, because they were, as it were, amazed and astonished at so great an emptying of Christ, and equally at His charity. The second, to rouse the sluggish hearts of men to so unusual a prodigy, and to soften their stony hearts to receive this condescension of Christ with worthy love and gratitude. The third, because all creatures were restored through Christ, indeed quasi-deified, since through Christ they were united to the Word of God; for man is the compendium and microcosm of all creatures. When therefore Christ assumed man, He assumed all creatures; hence at His incarnation they were moved, because they rejoiced and, as it were, leaped for joy; especially because through Him they hoped, and still hope for, liberation from the corruption and misery which they incurred along with man through the sin of Adam, according to the words of the Apostle, Romans VIII, 19: 'The expectation of the creature waits for the revelation of the sons of God; for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope: because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that every creature groans and travails in pain even until now.'

And I will move all nations.

First, through the civil wars that were waged among the triumvirs Augustus, Antony, and Lepidus, by the defeat of whom Augustus established himself as sole ruler. So Mariana. Secondly, in the census, by which all, having gone to their own cities, were compelled to profess their subjection to Augustus. Thirdly, through the preaching and miracles of Christ and the Apostles, and through the portents wrought in heaven and on earth, both at the birth and suffering of Christ, which I have already reviewed, the nations were moved to repentance and to embrace the faith of Christ. Hence for 'I will move,' the Hebrew is hirasti, that is, I will strike, I will make tremble, I will cast fear and trembling upon them; the Septuagint seiso, that is, I will shake, I will convulse: so St. Jerome and his followers; hence our Emmanuel: 'I will move,' he says, 'all nations with the wonder of so great a mystery, and with joy, and with the renewal of life.'

And the Desired of all nations shall come.

'And,' that is, 'because,' as if to say: I will shake heaven, earth, sea, and dry land, because the Messiah will come, whom all nations, indeed all creatures, desire. For Christ is the principle, the exemplar, the end, the knot, the bond, the center, the life, the salvation, the happiness of the entire universe. Hence the Apostle in Ephesians I, 10: 'God proposed in Him, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to restore all things in Christ, both those in the heavens and those on earth.' Where for 'restore,' the Greek is anakephalaiōsasthai, that is, to recapitulate, to bring back to the head; for Christ is the anakephalaiōsis, that is, the sum, the head, and the recapitulation of all the works of God, visible and invisible. See what was said there. Therefore all things are borne toward Christ, as toward the center with which they desire to be joined.

Again, all desire Christ as the great priest, who removes all evils from all and procures all goods. This is what Christ says: 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself,' John XII, 32. For Christ is the high priest and pontiff of the great temple, that is, of the whole world. For, as Philo says in book I of On the Monarchy, the world is like a sacred temple of God, whose high priest is man, so that he may give thanks to God for all and obtain from Him good things for each and avert evils. Hear Lactantius in his book On the Anger of God, chapter XIV: 'It follows that I should show why God made man. Just as He contrived the world for man's sake, so man He made for Himself, as the high priest of the divine temple, the spectator of heavenly works and things: for he alone is the one who, having sense and being capable of reason, can understand God, admire His works, perceive His virtue and power, etc. Therefore he alone receives speech, and the tongue as the interpreter of thought, so that he may declare the majesty of his Lord.' But since men are not sufficient for this, and most, being sunk in earthly things, do not look up to heaven or acknowledge God as their Author, Christ was therefore sent, who as the high priest of the world might accomplish this, and pay to God the gratitude and worship owed by all, and impel men to do the same. Hence in His type the Aaronic high priest bore the whole world on his vestment, according to Wisdom XVIII, 24: 'In the priestly robe which he wore, the whole world was represented.' Hence also Christ is said to uphold all things by the word of His power, Hebrews I, 2. Hence again He Himself is called the desire of the everlasting hills, that is, of the Prophets, Patriarchs, and illustrious Saints, Genesis XLIX, 26. Hence Jacob in the same passage, verse 17: 'I will wait,' he says, 'for Your salvation (that is, the Savior Christ), O Lord.' And Isaiah chapter XLV, 8: 'Drop down dew, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One: let the earth be opened and bud forth the Savior.' Indeed even the Cumaean Sibyl in Virgil's Eclogue IV, thus sings, thus exults at the birth of Christ:

Now comes the last age of the Cumaean song, A great order of ages is born anew: Now a new offspring is sent down from high heaven; Now the Virgin returns, the Saturnian kingdoms return. Dear child of the gods, great increase of Jupiter, Behold how all things rejoice at the coming age, etc.

The Hebrew literally has: And the desire (or desires: for chemdat in the singular, with a different vowel-pointing, can be read as chemdot in the plural) of all nations shall come; the Septuagint: And the chosen things of all nations shall come, or, as Sts. Jerome and Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, XLVIII, read: The things which are chosen of the Lord from all nations shall come. which they thus explain, as if to say: Not only the Jews, but also all nations that have been chosen by God will come to Christ: for not all nations, but only a part selected by God, and as a precious and desirable treasure, comes to Christ. So St. John inscribes his second epistle: The elder to the elect Lady. Hence the Arabic of Antioch translates: The peoples shall come with desire; the Arabic of Alexandria: The elect nations shall come; the Syriac: They shall bring the desire which belongs to all nations. It is more true that the Septuagint by 'the chosen things of the nations' signified Christ, who is the one chosen from all nations, through whom all others are chosen and beloved by God, whom therefore all nations have chosen, loved, desired, and embraced. For this is what the Hebrew chemdat signifies; Pagninus: And the things that are the desire of all nations shall come. Less correctly R. David and Clarius translate: And all nations shall come with desire, namely to offer themselves and all their precious and desirable things as a gift to Christ. For they supply this, although the same thing must be sought in the Prophet: since he here assigns no other epithet to Christ than 'desire,' it follows that the desire of the nations is nothing other than Christ. And so the Chaldean, the Tigurina, and R. Akiba according to Galatinus, book IV, chapter IX, explain it. Hence from this you may draw a strong argument against the Jews, by which you prove that the Messiah has already come, namely: Haggai consoles Zerubbabel and the Jews in the construction of their small and mean temple, and encourages them to continue it, because the Messiah will come to it. But that temple has already passed away and was destroyed by Titus and the Romans. Therefore Christ has likewise already come and gone. As for Arias's interpretation that by 'desire' or 'the desired one,' the Holy Spirit is meant, whom all nations were awaiting to cure their infirmity, not Christ — this is absurd and contrary to all interpreters. For the Messiah, as He was promised to the Jews, so also was He desired by them, not the Holy Spirit, whom few among the Jews and almost none among the Gentiles knew. Hence the Holy Spirit was promised and given not to the Jews but to Christians by Christ at Pentecost. The common opinion, therefore, of the Hebrews, Latins, and Greeks is that by 'desire' Christ is understood. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Haymo, Albert, Hugh, Lyra, and others.

Note here that Christ is called the desire, or the desires, of all nations, because He is supremely desirable. For although the infidel nations did not desire Him, and indeed did not know Him, yet He in Himself was, and is, supremely desirable, so that it is a metalepsis, as if to say: Christ was desired by all nations, that is, all nations were in the greatest need of Christ's coming, so as to be freed from their miseries, and therefore they desired Him not with a rational but with a natural appetite, just as dry earth by gaping desires rain (for to lack is to silently desire that which alleviates one's need: hence some explain 'to desire' here as 'to need.' So Martin de Roa, book I of Singularia, chapter XIII, at the end). Therefore the nations, as soon as they heard about His life, teaching, holiness, and miracles through St. Paul and the Apostles, as soon as they were moved and touched by the Apostles' preaching, began to desire Him; and the more they knew Him, the more they desired and loved Him, so much so that they willingly poured out not only their wealth but also their blood and lives for Him, as is clear from the many hundreds of thousands of martyrs who arose throughout the whole world in the first three hundred years after Christ. Hence Christ is called by the patriarch Jacob, Genesis XLIX, 10, 'the expectation of the nations;' especially when they learned through the Apostles that they, with the unbelieving Jews excluded, were to be substituted into the family and blessing of Abraham through Christ. This therefore is an express prophecy of the calling of the nations. Moreover, the Hebrew chemdat signifies concupiscence and desire not of any ordinary sort, but immense, burning, and fervent. Hence Daniel, chapter IX, 23, is called ish chamudot, that is, a man of desires, because he burned with inflamed desires, praying most ardently to God for the liberation of the people. So the believing nations, inflamed by faith, hope, and charity through the Apostles, burned with desire for Christ, and incited others to love Him with the same ardor, saying: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for from Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem,' Isaiah chapter II, 3. So Cicero in book XIV, epistle to his wife and daughter: 'Farewell,' he says, 'my desires.'

Secondly, because Christ fully satisfied and sated all the desires of the nations.

Thirdly, this desire can be understood not as belonging to the nations, but to Christ, as if to say: Christ will come in the flesh, because He wonderfully desires to redeem and save all nations, and especially the elect from among the nations, as the Septuagint translates; for just as a bridegroom ardently loves his bride, so Christ loves the Church, which is almost entirely gathered from the nations, and in turn by His grace He causes the Church to love Him back with burning love, as a bride her bridegroom. This love of the bridegroom and the bride is described in many parables throughout the whole book of the Song of Songs. The Church pours forth the same in the Office of the Ascension of the Lord:

Jesus, our redemption, Love and desire, God, redeemer of all, Man at the end of the ages. What mercy conquered You, That You should bear our crimes, Suffering a cruel death, To take us from death?

And shortly:

Be our joy, You who shall be our reward. May our glory be in You, Through all ages forever. Amen.

Finally, the nations before Christ, those believing in God under the law of nature, or proselytes and converts to Judaism, equally with the Jews awaited and desired Christ, as the savior of the world, as a celestial light, as the brightness of eternal light, as the sun of justice, who would illuminate the whole world shrouded in the darkness of unbelief and ignorance, and would rescue, heal, justify, and bless those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Such was Job with his friends, such were the Sibyls; such were Adam, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc.

Anagogically, Christ in heaven is the desire of all the blessed and of the angels, both because all desire to enjoy His divinity and humanity and to be blessed; and because He Himself fills, satiates, and inebriates the desires of all. So St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, XXXV, and Rupert here. Indeed St. Augustine thinks this is the literal sense, moved by this reasoning: 'For in order that He might be desired by those who awaited Him,' he says, 'it was first necessary that He be loved by those who believed.' But I answered this a little before. For 'desired' is the same as 'desirable,' 'to be wished for.' John Alba responds differently in Electorum chapter LXVIII, namely that these datives, 'to all nations,' do not depend on the word 'desired' but on the verb 'shall come,' as if to say: To all nations will come Christ the Savior, whose name in Scripture is 'the Desired,' namely by the Prophets and Patriarchs: but the Hebrew chemdat, that is, 'desired,' since it is in the construct state, necessarily governs col goiim, that is, 'of all nations,' as those skilled in Hebrew know, unless with a different vowel-point you read in the plural chemdot, that is, 'desires,' in the absolute nominative. For then it would aptly correspond to the plural verb bau, that is, 'they shall come,' and would not necessarily govern 'all nations.' Yet this sense is narrower and colder.

Tropologically, Christ is the entire desire of holy souls, which desire nothing else but to please Him, to love Him more and more each day, to worship Him more. So St. John, Apocalypse XXII, 20: 'Come, Lord Jesus.' So St. Magdalene desired Him, who could rightly say those words of the Song of Songs III, 2: 'I will rise and go about the city: through the streets and lanes I will seek Him whom my soul loves.' So Isaiah chapter XXVI, 8: 'Your name and Your memorial are the desire of the soul. My soul has desired You in the night: but also with my spirit within me I will watch for You in the morning.' So St. Ignatius, going forth into the amphitheater to be thrown to the lions, when he had looked around at the crowd of spectators with a joyful face and greeted them: 'I have come,' he said, 'to be thrown to the beasts, not for any crime, but to unite myself to my Christ, for whom I thirst insatiably.' So St. Bernard in his hymn:

I desire You a thousand times, My Jesus, when will You come, When will You make me glad, When will You satiate me with Yourself? Jesus, admirable King, And noble conqueror, Ineffable sweetness, Wholly desirable. When You visit our heart, Then truth shines upon it, The vanity of the world grows cheap, And charity burns within. Jesus, supreme kindness, Wondrous joy of the heart, Incomprehensible goodness, May Your charity bind me. O my sweetest Jesus, Hope of the sighing soul: Pious tears seek You, The cry of the inmost mind. Now what I sought I see, What I desired I hold: I languish with love of Jesus, And my whole heart is ablaze. O blessed fire, And burning desire! O sweet refreshment, To love the Son of God!

For what? Are you hungry and craving food? Desire Jesus. He is the bread and refreshment of the angels; He is the manna containing in Himself all the sweetness of flavor. Are you thirsty? Long for Jesus. He is the well of living waters, so satisfying that you shall thirst no more; He is the wine that inebriates the mind, He is nectar and ambrosia. Are you sick? Go to Jesus. He is the Savior, He is the physician, indeed He is salvation itself. Are you dying? Sigh for Jesus. He is the life and the resurrection. Are you perplexed? Consult Jesus. He is the angel of great counsel. Are you ignorant and astray? Ask Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Are you a sinner? Implore Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins: for this He came into the world; this is all His fruit, that sin be taken away. Are you tempted by pride, gluttony, lust, or sloth? Call upon Jesus. He is humility, sobriety, chastity, love, and fervor; He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows, and bears and carries them still. Do you desire beauty? He is fairer in form than the sons of men. Do you desire riches? In Him are all treasures, indeed in Him the fullness of divinity dwells. Do you seek honors? Glory and riches are in His house; He is the King of glory. Do you seek a friend? He loves you most, He who for love of you descended from heaven, labored, sweated, endured the cross and death; He prayed for you by name in the garden and shed tears of blood. Do you seek wisdom? He is the eternal and uncreated Wisdom of the Father. Do you wish for consolation and joy? He is the sweetness of afflicted hearts, the joy and jubilation of the angels. Do you wish for justice and holiness? He is the Holy of Holies; He is everlasting justice, justifying and sanctifying all who believe and hope in Him. Do you wish for a blessed life? He is eternal life, He is the happiness and blessedness of the saints. Desire Him therefore, sigh for Him. In Him you will find every good; outside Him, every evil, every misery. Say therefore with St. Francis: 'My Jesus, my love and my all. Jesus, beauty of the angels; in the ear a sweet song, in the mouth wondrous honey, in the heart heavenly nectar.' Come, good Jesus, burst the floodgates of Your love, that its rivers, indeed its seas, may flow and rain down upon us, and inebriate us, indeed engulf and overwhelm us.

Dom Blosius, abbot of Liessies, a man of great piety and taught by God, wrote many pious works, very savory and profitable for those who desire to advance in the spirit; among which there stand out his ardent and frequent aspirations throughout the day to Jesus, to be frequently employed by those who desire Jesus. Out of many I will here subjoin a few: 'Pierce, lovable Jesus, the marrow of my soul with the most sweet dart of love- with its dart; pierce my heart with fiery charity, so that my soul may utterly languish with desire for You, may be wholly dissolved in love, wholly melted, wholly pass into You.'

'Separate my mind, O Lord, from all things that are under heaven, so that it may strive to live for You alone; may You alone dwell in it as its rightful possessor. Let Your most sweet fragrance descend upon me, let the unspeakable perfume of Your divine charity come to me, which may stir up in me pure and everlasting desires. I will love You, because You first loved me.'

'O ocean of holy love and sweetness! My God, come and give Yourself to my soul. Grant that with a whole heart, with full desire, and with burning affection I may continually aspire toward You, and most sweetly rest in You; that I may prefer You to every creature, and for Your sake renounce every passing delight, O my true and supreme exultation!'

'O superabundant abyss of divinity! Draw me and plunge me into Yourself; so seize and attach to Yourself the whole affection of my heart, that it may be utterly dead to all other things. O my beloved, beloved of my vows! Grant that I may find You, and having found You, may hold You, and embrace You most tightly with spiritual arms. I desire You, I yearn for You, O eternal blessedness! Would that You would give Yourself to me and unite me intimately to Yourself, and inebriate me wholly with the pure wine of divine charity!'

Verse 9

9. The silver is Mine.

First, as if to say: Do not plead your poverty in the construction of the temple; I promise that I will supply you with wealth for it abundantly; for all gold and silver is Mine, and therefore I distribute it to whomsoever I will.

Secondly, and more connectedly to what follows, as if to say: You grieve at the smallness and meanness of the construction, because you cannot equal the magnificence of Solomon, who abounded in gold and silver. But know that I do not seek these things, nor am I in need of them; for all the gold of the whole world is Mine. Therefore do not estimate the magnificence of the construction from its gold, but from the holiness and magnificence of the priests and the people who will frequent this temple. Behold, I will send Christ the great priest, who will adorn this your temple by His presence, teaching, and miracles more, and make it more magnificent, than all the gold with which Solomon filled his temple. So Hugh, Clarius, Vatablus, Burgensis, Emmanuel, Mariana, and Galatinus in the passage cited above. It is parresia, or a rhetorical concession. Similar is Psalm XLIX, 12: 'If I should be hungry, I will not tell you: for the world is Mine and the fullness thereof;' and Isaiah I, 11: 'What is the multitude of your victims to Me, says the Lord? I am full.'

Thirdly, others explain it thus, as if to say: Although you are poor, I, who am the richest, will give you so much gold and silver for the temple's construction that its glory and opulence will be greater than that of Solomon's temple. So Theodoret, Remigius, Haymo, Lyra, and Ribera. But this does not seem true, because Solomon's construction was most splendid; nor is it apposite, because he prefers this construction to Solomon's not on account of gold but on account of Christ, as will shortly be clear.

Anastasius of Nicaea notes in Question IX on Scripture that to these words of Haggai, 'The silver is Mine,' foolish people added: 'To whomever I wish, I give it.' 'For no one,' he says, 'who has gathered riches from wars, slaughter, thefts, perjury, plunder, and the corruption and injustice of bribes, can say that he was enriched by God, but by the wickedness of sin.' Wherefore Lucian in his Timon satirically introduces Plutus, the god of gold and silver, as walking lamely and with difficulty when sent by Jupiter, as by the best and most just God, to someone; but when dispatched somewhere by Pluto, the lord of the underworld, going on straight feet, as if with wings unfurled, flying immediately: 'For he too,' he says, 'is a bestower of riches and gives great things, as his very name declares.' Namely, those who serve the devil are often enriched more than those who serve God, since they heap up gold by usury, plunder, and by fair means and foul, with no regard for conscience; but nevertheless not even they are enriched without God, at least permitting it, who can at will take away their gains and wealth from them and assign them to pious men, as He not rarely does. For:

The third heir does not rejoice in ill-gotten gains.

Tropologically, the silver is God's law and doctrine, likewise the graces and gifts with which He enriches and adorns the Church. So St. Ambrose, book III, epistle 12, Albert, Rupert, and St. Jerome, whom hear: 'I consider,' he says, 'the silver with which the house of God is adorned to be the words of Scripture, of which it is said in Psalm XI, verse 17: The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tested by fire, proven on the ground, purified seven times.' So the Apostle, I Corinthians III, 12, teaches that the saints build upon the foundation of 'Christ gold, silver, precious stones; so that in the gold there is the hidden sense, in the silver the fitting word, in the precious stone works pleasing to God. By these metals the Church of the Savior becomes more illustrious than the Synagogue once was.'

Again St. Augustine, Homily 30, among the 50, from here hurls a powerful weapon against the avaricious in favor of almsgiving. If, he says, the silver and gold belong to God, then when He commands that you share them with others, He commands concerning what is His own; and when you give alms, you give from the property of Him who commands you to give, not from your own. He adds that God gives gold to the generous for the exercise of kindness, and to the avaricious for the punishment of greed. 'God,' he says, 'truly and properly declares the gold and silver to be His own, which He both created with the most generous goodness and administers with the most just authority, so that without His will and dominion neither the wicked can have gold and silver except for the punishment of avarice, nor the good except for the use of mercy.' He causes, therefore, that 'its abundance does not exalt the good, nor does its lack harm them; but that it both blinds the wicked when offered, and torments them when taken away.'

Verse 10

10. Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first.

'Great,' that is, greater. For the Hebrews lack the comparative degree and use the positive with the preposition min, that is, 'more than,' as if to say: This latter temple which you poor people are building will be greater and more glorious than the first temple of Solomon, though it was glorious and shining with gold; because, namely, Christ, who is the glory and splendor of the Father, and consequently of the city and the world, will be offered to the Father in this your temple at the feast of the Purification, will teach, will often be present there, will work miracles, will institute the new law of grace, and will found a new Church, which leads straight to heaven. For that Christ is here called the glory of the house, that is, of the second temple, is clear from verse 8, where He says: 'I will move all nations; and the Desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory,' as if to say: The Desired of all nations, that is, the Messiah King, whom you await, who will move and subject all nations to Himself, will fill this house with glory by His presence and magnificence.

Here there is a twofold question: the first with the Jews, the latter with Christians. The first is: Can it be solidly demonstrated from this passage that the Messiah has already come? Christians assert it; Jews deny it. Christians prove it by this argument: Haggai says that Christ will be the glory of the second temple, and therefore the glory of the second temple will be greater than that of the first, Solomon's: therefore Christ came and was born while the second temple stood, and accordingly He was present in it and taught, and thus He conferred this great glory upon it. For as regards gold, wealth, and other things, it is certain that the first temple of Solomon was more glorious than the second of Zerubbabel: and the Jews admit this, indeed they themselves assert that five most noble things were in the first temple which the second lacked: namely, the ark of the covenant, the Urim and Thummim, the celestial fire, prophecy, and God sitting on the mercy-seat and giving oracles therefrom. The Jews, to escape this weapon, turn themselves in every direction and quibble; but they do not untangle the knot.

First, some answer that here the subject is not the second temple of Zerubbabel, but a third which the Messiah will build, whom they await: for its glory will be greater than that of Solomon's temple. But this contradicts the Prophet, who, pointing to the second temple, says: 'Great shall be the glory of this house,' namely which you, O Zerubbabel, and Joshua are now building with the people. For the pronoun 'this' cannot point to the temple of the Messiah, which had not yet been begun, indeed was not going to exist for many centuries.

A more recent Jew, named Barbanella, to evade this argument, punctuates differently, namely he places a half-stop after 'this' and gives this meaning: Great shall be the glory of this house, which you, O Jews, are now building with Zerubbabel, and — repeat 'great,' that is, greater will be the glory of the last house, that is, of the third and final temple which the Messiah will build, than of the first. For the Jews say that three temples were promised to them: the first of Solomon, the second of Zerubbabel, and the third and most magnificent of the Messiah, which they await.

But that this is forced, and perverts the text, is clear, first, from the fact that here there is a single continuous sentence, in which the Prophet compares and prefers the second house, that is, the temple of Zerubbabel, to the first of Solomon: but Barbanella makes it into two sentences and two comparisons, so that according to him the conjunction 'and,' or 'likewise,' or 'but' should be inserted; and many other words would need to be added, namely these: but greater, or the greatest will be the glory of the last house, than of the first.

Secondly, there would have to be a zakeph accent, that is, a half-stop, between 'this' and 'last'; but this accent is not in the Hebrew: therefore it is one continuous sentence, not two.

Thirdly, because the Septuagint, the Chaldean, the Syriac, and others throughout translate as our Vulgate, by a single sentence, not two. So also the ancient Rabbis according to Galatinus, book IV, chapter IX, and even Solomon, R. David, and other more recent ones.

Fourthly, the same is clear from the whole context and flow of the chapter. For with these words God consoles the faint-hearted Jews, from whose perspective He says in verse 4: 'Who is there among you that is left, who saw this house in its first glory? and what do you see of it now? is it not as though it were nothing in your eyes?' These He consoles and encourages to continue in the building of the temple, removing this faint-heartedness and promising that the glory of this latter house will be greater than that of the first. Hence He immediately adds: 'And now be strong- be strong, Zerubbabel, etc.; yet one little while, etc., and the Desired of all nations shall come (namely the Messiah, who being present in this temple, teaching and working miracles, will give to this second temple a greater glory than Solomon with all his magnificence gave to the first), and I will fill this house with glory. Great (that is, greater) shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first.' These last words plainly correspond word for word in Hebrew to the faint-heartedness and plaintive words of the Jews in verse 4: 'Who among you, etc., saw this house in its first glory?' In Hebrew it is et habbait hatze bibcodo hariscon.

For He responds to them with the same words, opposing and promising the contrary, namely: gadol iie kebod habbait hatze haacharon min hariscon, that is, 'greater shall be the glory of this last house than of the first.' Where He plainly posits only two houses, that is, temples, namely the former of Solomon and the latter of Zerubbabel, and comparing one with the other, indeed preferring it, says that the latter will surpass the former in glory. Therefore mention and talk of a third house, that is, a temple of the Messiah, is irrelevant here, since it was going to be something entirely different, and that after many centuries, which neither Zerubbabel nor any of the Jews then present would see, so as to rejoice over it and thus dispel their present sorrow. This is confirmed because he opposes haacharon to the word hariscon, that is, the latter house to the former, both here and in verse 4; therefore he recognizes here only two houses, not three.

You may object: Why then does he add the demonstrative article he, saying haacharon? As if to say: That house, namely the third of the Messiah. For if he were speaking of the same house of Zerubbabel, the article prefixed to the word bait and the pronoun ze would have sufficed; for he says habbait, min hatze: behold, two articles; why does he add a third, saying haacharon? I reply: He does this, first, to designate that this latter house would be most illustrious through the Messiah, so that all would point to it with their finger and celebrate it with their mouth, saying: This is that, that, I say, house of our Messiah, as much the second and last, so much the eminent, magnificent, divine.

Secondly, he does this so that haacharon may correspond to hariscon, that is, the former to the latter. For since the former house has the article he, it is fitting that the latter, which is going to be more illustrious, should also have the same. Moreover, he determines the word 'house' and signifies that this house is not only the second but will also be the last, or the final, as if to say: This house which will be the last. So the Italians say, Alessandro il Magno, Ptolemeo il Ultimo, to indicate by the article il that they are speaking of Alexander, not just any, but the Great; of Ptolemy, not the first, but the last. So also the French say: Alexandre-le-Grand, Ptolemee-le-Dernier. So also the Greeks: 'This is that power of God which is called great,' Acts VIII, 10. So also the Flemish, Germans, and many others.

Finally, the Hebrews are accustomed to multiplying articles through pleonasm, as here they add hatze to habbait, as if to say: Of this, of this.

Thirdly, I reply that hariscon does not properly refer to habbait, that is, 'house,' but to kebod, that is, 'glory.' Hence the Septuagint clearly translate: 'For the glory of this house, the last, shall be great above the first,' that is, the last glory of this house shall be great above the first. For he speaks of the temple of Solomon and of Zerubbabel as of one and the same house of God: because one succeeded the other and was built on the same site; and he says that the latter glory, namely that of the house of Zerubbabel, will be greater than the former glory, namely that of the house of Solomon. And this answers precisely the plaintive Hebrew words of the Jews in verse 4: 'Who is he that saw, etc., this house in its first glory?' As if to say: Who saw the former glory of the former temple of Solomon? Does he not grieve and groan that this latter glory of the latter house falls far short of it? But let him take courage: for I promise that I will cause the latter glory to surpass the former. And so the article he is repeated here because it does not properly refer to bait, that is, 'house,' but to kebod, that is, 'glory,' which was going to be greater in the latter than in the former, that is, in the latter temple of Zerubbabel than it had been in the former of Solomon, and therefore by adding the article he, He points it out as something illustrious and unheard-of. The fabrication of the Jews, therefore, is plainly contrary to the context, namely that the Prophet here distinguishes three temples and opposes them to each other, when it is clear that only the latter is opposed to and preferred over the former. Hence our Vulgate, faithfully rendering the sense rather than the word, clearly translates: 'Great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first;' for the Hebrews call 'glory' the glorious construction of the temple, that is, the glorious temple itself. And the latter or last temple of Zerubbabel was more glorious than the first of Solomon. Hence Isidore of Pelusium, book IV, epistle 17, reads: 'And the glory of this last house will be above the first;' and from the word 'last' he refutes the Jews, who expect another and later temple from the Messiah. For if it was the last, then after it — already destroyed by Titus — no other is to be expected.

Finally, the Prophet explains this greater glory, saying: 'Yet one little while, and I will shake heaven and earth, and the Desired of all nations shall come,' that is, the Messiah, as not only Catholics but also the ancient rabbis according to Galatinus, book IV, chapter IX, explain. Among whom R. Akiba thus explains, as if to say: Yet a short time remains until the Messiah's revelation. Therefore the Messiah has already long since come. For from this prophecy of Haggai until now, more than two thousand years have elapsed, which is certainly not a short but a very long time. Add that in Scripture only two temples are promised to the Jews, one of Solomon, the other of Zerubbabel: and when this is destroyed by Titus and the Romans, 'the abomination of desolation will be in the temple: and even to the consummation and the end, desolation shall continue,' says Daniel chapter IX, 27. In vain, therefore, do the Jews await a third temple under the Messiah, especially since they themselves have tried many times to rebuild it — namely under the emperor Hadrian, Constantine, and Julian the Apostate, with his permission, indeed urging — but in vain and with an unhappy outcome. For fire, partly sent down from heaven and partly erupting from the foundations, consumed the builders along with the building, as St. Chrysostom recounts in Oration 3 Against the Jews; Baronius, Eusebius book X of the History, chapter XXXVII and following; Socrates book III, chapter XVII; Theodoret book III of the History, chapter XVII; Sozomenus book V, chapter XXI, and others.

It is necessary, therefore, that Christ came during the second temple, and was present in it, as the Evangelists teach He was present, and therefore it is in vain [that the Jews deny He came]: moreover Solomon's fleets, sailing to Ophir, brought Indians from there to Jerusalem. as though He were still to come, being awaited by the Jews. Having therefore blown apart this forced and twisted exposition, or rather fabrication,

Secondly, R. Solomon concedes that the subject here is the second temple, but responds that its greater glory compared to the first consisted not in Christ being present in it, but in the fact that it lasted more years than the first. For the first, he says, lasted 410 years, the second 420: 'Friends admitted to the spectacle, could you refrain from laughing?' A fine praise and glory of the second temple indeed, worthy of the Prophet's grandiloquence — that in so many centuries the second temple stood ten years longer than the first! Josephus gives somewhat more years. For in book X of the Antiquities, X, he says the first temple stood 470 years, and assigns to the second 639 years in book VII of the War, chapter X. But there is an error in the numbers, for according to the more accurate chronology, the first temple lasted 426 years; the second stood from the beginning of the reign of Darius Hystaspes until Titus and Vespasian, who destroyed it, 588 years. See the chronological table which I prefixed to Genesis. The second therefore lasted 162 years more than the first. But during these years it was frequently polluted and profaned: first, by Antiochus Epiphanes, I Maccabees I; secondly, by Pompey, as Josephus attests, book XIV of the Antiquities, VIII; thirdly, by Cassius, as the same Josephus attests in chapter XIII, and finally it was completely destroyed along with the city and the nation by Titus and the Romans. Wherefore it is truly said of it in I Maccabees I, 41: 'Its sanctuary was desolate like a wilderness;' and verse 42: 'According to its glory, its ignominy was multiplied.' These years, therefore, were not to the temple's glory, as Haggai says, but to its ignominy. Let the Jews glory in this — just as the orthodox Bohemians of Pilsen much more truly glory and reproach the heretics that the gallows of thieves stood longer among them, and is more ancient than the Church and faith of the Hussites and Lutherans. Secondly, Haggai does not mention duration or time, nor does he prefer the second temple to the first in that regard; but in this, that the Desired of all nations, namely the Messiah, will come to it, who will fill the temple with His majesty and glory. Thirdly,

I ask when in the second temple that shaking took place, of which Haggai says in verse 7: 'Yet one little while, and I will shake heaven and earth, and the sea and the dry land,' if not in Christ? From this it is clear how frivolous R. Solomon's interpretation is.

Thirdly, R. David seeks another escape. He says the second temple had greater glory than the first because many nations flowed together to the second temple and offered their gifts to God in it: but equally many, indeed more, flowed together to the first. For Solomon its builder was the most powerful and famous among the nations, and had all neighboring peoples either subject to him or allied. Those therefore who came to Solomon came likewise to the temple, so much so that even the Queen of Sheba, stirred by this fame and glory, came there: moreover Solomon's fleets sailing to Ophir brought Indians from there to Jerusalem. Secondly, the nations profaned and defiled the second temple more than they honored it, as I have already shown regarding Antiochus and his successors, Pompey, Cassius, and Titus. Thirdly, what shaking occurred in heaven, earth, sea, and dry land, if not in the time of Christ and on account of Christ? Moreover, it is a Jewish fable, which Theodoret recounts, that neighboring nations exhausted themselves in mutual wars and slaughter, and that God gave their spoils and riches to the Jews who were building the temple, and that this was the greater glory of the second temple. For neither Josephus nor anyone else mentions this history. See more in Galatinus book IV, chapters IX and X, Adrian Finus book V of the Scourge of the Jews, chapter II, and Paul of Burgos here in addition three, and Lyra.

The latter question is with certain Christians, who concede indeed that the principal glory of the second temple was Christ: but they add that the same temple, as regards its construction, although it was meaner than Solomon's insofar as it was restored by Zerubbabel, nevertheless insofar as the same was rebuilt by Herod, it was more magnificent than Solomon's, and therefore God says here: 'The silver is Mine, the gold is Mine,' by which, namely, I will enrich you and the temple more than I enriched Solomon. For which note: Herod the Ascalonite, who was the slayer of the innocents and persecuted Christ, when from the prophecies of the Jews, especially that of Jacob, Genesis chapter XLIX, 10: 'The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a ruler from his thigh, until He come that is to be sent, and He shall be the expectation of the nations,' he understood that the time of the Messiah, king of the Jews, was at hand (for he saw that the scepter had departed from Judah, and had been transferred to himself, a foreigner, namely an Idumean); he began to believe and hope that he would be the Messiah, from the flattery of certain Pharisees. Wherefore, so that he might be regarded as such by the people, having torn down the temple of Zerubbabel, he built on the same site another most magnificent one and began it in the 18th year of his reign, and built it over 8 years, during all of which time, says Josephus book XV of the Antiquities, XIV, it never rained during the day. Moreover this

Ribera contends to prove that Herod's temple was more magnificent than Solomon's. First, because Solomon's temple was 70 cubits long, while Herod's was a hundred. Secondly, because Herod employed white and most solid stones, 25 cubits long and 12 wide, for his construction, and joined them solidly and skillfully with iron. Thirdly, because he covered the temple with very heavy golden plates, with which it was externally covered on every side, so that at the first rays of sunrise it radiated with a fiery splendor, such that when spectators looked at it, their eyes were, as it were, dazzled and turned away as if repelled by the sun's rays. Fourthly, because he leveled the very deep valley near the temple mount and made the temple's court there: hence he adorned it with 162 immense columns and with porticoes. Fifthly, because to the first court of the priests and the second of the laypeople who were ritually clean, he added a third in which the unclean and the Gentiles might stay. Josephus reports all this in the passage cited, and Josippus son of Gorion, book V, chapter XXVI. Ribera adds that this should not seem surprising, because although Solomon was the richest and most glorious, Herod also had become very powerful through the friendship of the Romans and of Augustus. Hence for this construction he collected and exhausted the greatest riches. Moreover, he used stones and other materials suitable for building from the demolished temple of Solomon and Zerubbabel: also the golden and silver vessels of Solomon, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away, were restored to the temple by Cyrus, I Ezra chapter I and VI; and although Antiochus Epiphanes seized them, I Maccabees I, 23, yet the Maccabees restored them, I Maccabees IV, 49, and that in gold, as Josephus attests, book XII of the Antiquities, chapter XI. The same whose wealth and glory Scripture and all antiquity so celebrate, and which was regarded as a wonder of the world. What was Herod compared to Solomon? says Rupert. Certainly the Jews, who are so hard pressed by this passage, compelled nonetheless by clear truth, confess that the second temple was far inferior to the first in structure, cost, and glory. Again Josephus, book XV of the Antiquities, chapter XIV, teaches that the royal palace which Herod built for himself was more magnificent than the temple built by the same. But who would dare say that Herod's palace was more magnificent than the temple of Solomon, when not even the temple built by Herod can in any way be compared to it, much less preferred to it? says Villalpando in Part I of the Apparatus, book II, chapter V. Finally, the text of Scripture is clear in I Chronicles XXII, 14, where David recounts the wealth he had gathered for the building of the temple and left to Solomon: 'I have prepared,' he says, 'the expenses of the house of the Lord, a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver,' etc. Now a hundred thousand talents of gold make one thousand two hundred million French gold pieces: an equal amount is made by a thousand thousand talents of silver. For the Hebrew talent of gold contained three thousand shekels, that is, half-ounces of gold, which make twelve thousand French crown-pieces. And the talent of silver contained three of Solomon the Jews preserved, both in memory of the old temple and hoping that upon them a temple would someday be restored that would approach the pristine magnificence of Solomon's. Hence they did not allow Herod to dismantle them until he had first prepared all the material needed for the new construction. Hegesippus teaches the same clearly, book I of the Destruction of Jerusalem, and from him Genebrardus, book II of the Chronology. The temple of Zerubbabel therefore remained, though enlarged and adorned by Herod, up to Titus, and Christ was present in it, who conferred all its glory upon it. Otherwise the oracle of Haggai would be false: 'Great shall be the glory of this house,' which, namely, you, O Zerubbabel, are building with your people, not of another which Herod will build. Add that some doubt the reliability of Josephus here; indeed Baronius, at the year of Christ 31, says he contradicts himself, since in book XV of the Antiquities, chapter XIV, he insinuates that the entire temple of Zerubbabel was demolished by Herod, while the same Josephus, in book XX of the Antiquities, VIII, asserts that the porch of Solomon remained untouched. Hence the Rabbis also recognize only two temples, namely Solomon's and Zerubbabel's; they do not mention Herod's. And Sanchez in chapter I of Zechariah says that Josephus errs when he implies that the temple of Zerubbabel was demolished by Herod; and in this passage he demonstrates the same at length. Certainly the reliability of Josephus often wavers, as Baronius teaches in volume I of the Apparatus. Hegesippus also, an ancient and serious author, book I, chapter XXV, teaches that Herod did not so much build a new temple as adorn the old one.

The latter error is their claim that Herod's temple was more magnificent than Solomon's in its construction; St. Jerome and St. Chrysostom, in his Demonstration that Christ is God, volume V, seem to agree with Ribera, deceived by the authority and words of Josephus, whose reliability here, as elsewhere, wavers.

But this opinion errs in two respects. First, in asserting with certainty that Herod completely demolished the temple of Zerubbabel. For this is very doubtful, and is judged false by many: for thus he would have erected a completely different temple, a new one, I say, as distinct from the temple of Zerubbabel as this was distinct from the temple of Solomon; even though all three were built on the same site, and thus what the Prophet says here would be false, namely that the glory of the temple of Zerubbabel would be Christ, since Christ was not present in it but in the new temple that Herod built. Herod therefore merely enlarged the temple of Zerubbabel and enclosed it within his own, and 'having removed the old foundations remaining from the temple of Solomon, he laid new ones, upon which he erected a temple one hundred cubits long, one hundred wide, one hundred and twenty high,' says Josephus book XV of the Antiquities, XIV, while the temple of Zerubbabel was only sixty cubits wide and the same in height. Therefore Josephus only asserts that Herod removed the foundations of Solomon's temple, but does not assert that he demolished the temple of Zerubbabel. For these foundations of Solo- thousand silver shekels, which make three thousand Brabantine florins, of which two and a half are contained in a scutum, or Roman gold piece, as I showed in the treatise On Measures at the end of the Pentateuch. In total, therefore, David left Solomon for the building of the temple two thousand four hundred million gold pieces, as much gold as there scarcely is in all of Europe. Where could Herod have obtained so many millions? Moreover, this gold had almost entirely perished, either by fire or by the plunder of the Chaldeans. Again, Solomon had seventy thousand who carried burdens and eighty thousand stonecutters in the building of the temple, besides overseers numbering three thousand three hundred: 'And he commanded that they should take great stones, precious stones for the foundation of the temple,' as is said in III Kings V, 17. What had Herod in comparison? He employed only ten thousand craftsmen for the construction, and only a thousand wagons for conveying the stones, as Josephus attests in the passage cited. Moreover, Herod, after completing the construction of the temple, when asked by the people to restore also the eastern porch of Solomon, refused, because that porch would require a long time and very large sums of money, says Josephus book XX of the Antiquities, chapter VIII. How then did he equal the temple of Solomon, who could not restore even one of its porches? But even if we were to grant that the Herodian temple surpassed Solomon's in the magnificence of its construction — which is nonetheless incredible — that is certainly irrelevant here. For Haggai assigns no other glory to the second temple than Christ, saying: 'And the Desired of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory.' For all the glory of gold and silver, that is, of white and red earth, is slight compared to Christ, God and Lord of all, indeed it is nothing.

I say therefore that the glory of the second temple, of which Haggai here prophesies, is the Messiah, or Christ. For how great was the glory of the temple, in that Christ the Son of God was offered to God as a child in it, in that He sat there in the midst of the doctors, in that on its pinnacle He was tempted by the devil, in that He taught in it and declared things hidden from the foundation of the world! For just as the glory of Solomon's temple was that in it the majesty of God appeared, veiling Himself in a cloud: so the greater glory of the second temple was that in it the same majesty, not merely veiled but actually united to flesh and embodied, showed Himself visible and conspicuous. This is what Malachi jubilantly sings in chapter III, 1: 'And presently the Lord whom you seek shall come to His temple, and the Angel of the covenant, whom you desire.' Moreover, the outstanding glory of the second temple was that in it through Christ not only the mysteries of the Word incarnate and of our redemption and salvation were accomplished, but also the first faithful and the Apostles were gathered together, and the first foundations of the Christian Church were laid, according to Isaiah chapter II, 3: 'From Zion shall go forth the law.' Christ therefore began His Church in this temple on Zion, built by Zerubbabel. So Rupert, Hugh, Burgensis, Clarius, Vatablus, and others.

Wherefore, allegorically, Cyril of Alexandria, whom our Turrianus cites in book II in Defense of Pontifical Letters, chapter XX, judges that Haggai here speaks of the churches of the Christian Church, which surpass the temple of Solomon both in number, because they are very many throughout the whole world, and in glory, especially because in them we have the same majesty of God veiled in the Eucharist, according to Malachi I, 11: 'In every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation,' in Hebrew mincha, that is, a grain offering, or bread, which is the matter of the Eucharist.

Anagogically, the glory of the new temple is greater than that of the old, that is, the glory of the Church is greater than that of the Synagogue, of the Gospel than of the law, of the Apostles than of the Prophets, as the Apostle teaches in I Corinthians III. And this will be most apparent in heaven, where from the living and chosen stones of the Church a mystical, holy, and glorious temple will be built for God. So St. Jerome, Albert, Remigius, Hugh here, and St. Augustine book XVIII of the City of God, XXXV, and St. Ambrose book V, epistle 12, who seem to judge that this is the literal sense; but in reality it is mystical.

Finally, the glory of the second house is greater than that of the first, that is, of the Church Triumphant than of the Church Militant; indeed to the former properly belong glory and the crown, just as to the latter properly belong the struggle and the victory.

Symbolically, the first house is the state of man as created: the second is the state of the same after the fall, repaired and restored: the former belongs to creation, the latter to redemption: the former to Adam, the latter to Christ: the former to innocence, the latter to patience: the former to paradise, the latter to pilgrimage and exile. For the Apostle teaches in Romans V, 15 and following, that a greater glory, that is, grace, was given to fallen man through Christ than was given to Adam in paradise.

Tropologically, the virtue of repentance after the fall is greater than that of innocence before the fall: Paul is greater than Saul: Magdalene fallen and penitent is greater than when she was a virgin and innocent: Peter denying Christ and weeping is greater than when confessing Him and presuming on his own constancy. 'Generally,' says St. Gregory, book III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 29, 'a life burning with love after sin is more pleasing to God than innocence languishing in complacency.'

I will give peace.

Ribera understands this of the peace and abundance of resources that Herod had for restoring the temple of Zerubbabel. But the subject here is the temple of Zerubbabel, not of Herod. For Haggai encourages Zerubbabel and the people not to fear Darius, the Samaritans, and other enemies: for God will cause them to favor the building, or at least not to hinder it. That God indeed accomplished this is clear from I Ezra VI, 14, where, after recounting the letters of Darius commanding the temple to be restored, Ezra adds: 'And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered according to the prophecy of Haggai the prophet,' namely none other than this: 'I will give peace,' that is, prosperity. The sense therefore is, as the second in this chapter, verse 2; the third in this verse. St. Jerome says: "Because I know that nothing contributes so much to the building of the renowned house, which will surpass the former one, as peace; therefore I also promise this: for I will give peace in this place." Tropologically, He will cause "the peace which surpasses all understanding to guard His house, and His place to be at peace." For nothing is so necessary for one who wishes to advance in virtue and to build the house of perfection as quiet of conscience and peace of soul. As a symbol and type of this, King Solomon, that is, the Peaceful One, built the temple in complete peace, which David could not build because of continual wars (1 Chronicles 22:8). So also Theodoret, Haymo, and Hugh.

Secondly, and more properly, "I will give peace," that is, blessing and every good thing, "in this place," through Christ: for Christ, teaching in the temple, preached the Gospel and gave peace to those who believed in Him. Hence the angels at Christ's birth sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace" (Luke 2). And this peace, as the supreme good, which Christ would bring from heaven to earth, Isaiah foretold in chapter 2:4 and chapter 11:6. For this peace harmonizes the mind with God, and consequently with neighbors and with oneself, so that when the movements of concupiscence are suppressed, reason and spirit may rule over the flesh, the senses, and all the members: by which it comes about that the faithful person begins here the heavenly, blessed, and angelic life. So St. Jerome, Hugh, Lyra here, and St. Augustine, City of God, book 18, chapter 48. In this peace, that is, in a pacified mind as in His temple, God dwells, according to Psalm 75:3: "His place was made in peace, and His dwelling in Zion." Hence the Septuagint translates this passage: I will give peace, says the Lord Almighty, and peace of soul as a possession to everyone who builds, that he may raise up this temple. For so the Roman edition reads, though the Royal edition has only: I will give peace, says the Lord of hosts.

Wherefore St. Ambrose, writing on this passage of Haggai at the end of volume 2, understands the greater glory of the latter house compared to the former as peace: "For peace," he says, "and tranquility of soul surpasses all the glory of a house, because peace surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4). This is the peace upon peace that will be given after the third shaking of heaven, sea, earth, and desert, when He will destroy all powers and principalities" on the day of judgment, etc. "And so there will be peace in all things, that with no resistance from bodily passions or impediments of an unbelieving mind, Christ may be all in all, presenting to the Father the hearts of all in subjection. Hence to Him alone it is mystically said: I will take you, Zerubbabel, and I will make you like a signet, because I have chosen you. For when our soul has become peaceful, then it will receive in itself Christ as a signet, that is, the image of God, so as to be in the image. Since as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly ones. And we must bear the image of the heavenly one, that is, peace."

Verse 12

12. Ask. He here proposes two questions to the priests through the Prophet, so that from their answers he might convict the Jews of neglecting the building of the temple. The first is: if a man carries sanctified meat, that is, meat sacrificed to God, in the fold of his garment, and with the edge of the garment (that is, of the garment, not of the meat), that is, with its extremity, he touches bread, wine, etc., will the bread, wine, etc. be sanctified by this contact with the garment? The priests answer: By no means; and rightly so: because although the sanctified meat, if it touches the garment, sanctifies it, as is established in Leviticus 6:27; nevertheless the garment, sanctified by contact with the meat, if it then touches bread, wine, etc., will not transfer its sanctity to them or sanctify them. Understand sanctification here as the legal and ceremonial sanctification of the Old Law, by which a holy thing was to be separated from profane use, given to God, and treated as holy. The Prophet then applies the response to his purpose, saying: "So is this people," etc. verse 15, as if to say: Just as a garment touching sanctified meat is not so sanctified that it can sanctify bread, wine, or people who touch it; so likewise, although you, O Jews, have an altar without a temple on which you offer and consecrate victims to God, as is clear from 1 Ezra 3:3; nevertheless these victims and meats sacrificed there, even though they sanctify the one who touches and eats them legally, that is, externally and by way of ceremony, can by no means further sanctify your actions and offerings, and all the things that you touch and handle, and much less can they wash away from you the internal impurity of disobedience and the external impurity of neglecting the building of the temple, according to Jeremiah 11:15: "Shall the holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried?" Therefore do not excuse yourselves, O Jews, from the building by saying: We have a temple, in it we offer victims, which, while we offer and eat them, sanctify us and all our actions and works, and if there be any fault or sin in them, wipe it away and cleanse it. For your expiatory victims cannot cleanse and purge the mind from disobedience and guilt. Hence He proposes the second question, which presses harder, and says:

Verse 14

14. AND THE LORD STIRRED UP THE SPIRIT OF ZERUBBABEL, AND THE SPIRIT OF JOSHUA. — 'So that kingship and priesthood might build the temple of God,' says St. Jerome, 'the spirit of the people is also stirred up, which had been sleeping in them before; not the body, not the soul, but the spirit, which knows better how to build the temple of God.'

Tropologically, 'The Holy Spirit is stirred up in us, so that we may enter the house of the Lord and do the works of the Lord.' Moreover, God stirred up the spirit, that is, the mind and soul of the people, by arousing them to attend eagerly and diligently to the building.

14. If one who is unclean by reason of a soul [i.e., a dead body] touches. "Soul" is used here by Hebrew antiphrasis for a corpse, as also in Leviticus 19:27; 21:1; and Numbers 5:2: "Let not the priest be defiled by the dead;" in Hebrew, "by a soul." See what is said there. "Unclean in soul," therefore, means one who is unclean from contact with a corpse or dead body, who, according to the rite of the Old Law (Numbers 19:13 and 22), defiled everything he touched by his contact and rendered it unclean. Concerning this, then, he says: "If one who is unclean by a soul touches any of these things," namely bread, wine, etc., "will" the bread, wine, etc. touched by him "be contaminated? And the priests said: It will be contaminated" -- the bread, wine, etc. that the unclean person touched: for by touching he defiled and contaminated them. Now he applies this as follows: "So is this people," etc., as if to say: So you, O Jews, because you are unclean, both on account of other sins and especially on account of disobedience and neglect of building My house, likewise defile everything you touch and handle, namely all your offerings and works, all your buildings, all your actions: for these you continually and persistently prefer to Me and to My building, and you devote yourselves to them when you ought to be devoting yourselves to My building. This neglect, therefore, is a vitiated circumstance that flows into all your works and vitiates and defiles them. So St. Jerome. For good arises from an integral cause, but evil from individual defects, as the Philosopher says. For in order that a work be good, it must have all its required circumstances, both positive and negative: if even one is lacking, it will cease to be good and will be evil. For example, if a student or religious person wishes to go to the church and pray at the time when the rule commands going to school and studying, he does a work that is not good but evil: because although praying is good, nevertheless to pray at the time when one ought to be studying is evil. Similarly, although building houses and managing domestic or public affairs is good, nevertheless to do this at the time when the house of God ought to be built and attended to, as you Jews are doing, is evil. Therefore Calvin wrongly argues from this passage and similar ones that all the works of unbelievers and the ungodly are sins, when he reasons thus: Whatever an unclean person touches, he defiles; but sinners are unclean; therefore whatever they touch and do, they defile; therefore all their works are sins. For the major premise in the Old Law was true only regarding bodily uncleanness and corporeal contact, namely if a person who was corporally unclean touched any thing, he defiled it corporally and legally, and that from the pre- script of the law, which so decreed: but it is false regarding spiritual uncleanness, namely sin. For not everything that a sinner touches is immediately infected or defiled by sin: otherwise all the possessions of Turks and heretics would be defiled and contaminated by sin; but he only defiles those things when he touches them with the contact of sin, that is, when he uses them as means or instruments for sinning: for then the sin, that is, the will to sin, touches them with its uncleanness and rubs and breathes it upon them, and so defiles them. For in a similar manner in the Old Law, one who was defiled from contact with a corpse defiled everything he touched: because his defilement and uncleanness was considered to be spread throughout his whole body, and so to touch and defile whatever the defiled person himself had touched.

Morally, from this passage conclude that impure priests are not sanctified by touching the altar, or the chalice, or a sacred object; but rather they defile and befoul those things. So Theodoret.

Hence St. Augustine rightly infers in his book Against Fulgentius the Donatist, chapter 16, and Nazianzen in Apology Oration 1, that virtue is far surpassed by vice, and that vice is more powerful than virtue. For vice immediately communicates and rubs its malice upon the one who touches it, and makes one vicious: but virtue does not do this. Associate with a holy person, and you will not thereby become holy: associate with a wicked person familiarly, and he will immediately breathe his wickedness upon you. "A little wormwood," says Nazianzen, "imparts its bitterness to honey very quickly; while on the contrary, honey, even in double quantity, does not infuse its sweetness into wormwood. When a small stone is removed, the whole river is drawn downward: yet its force can hardly be restrained even by the strongest embankment." And St. Chrysostom says: "Wicked companionship troubles many." Touch pitch, and you will immediately be defiled: touch soap or lye, and you will not immediately be cleansed, unless you rub your hands or body with it long and thoroughly. Aelian relates in book 13 of his History that the courtesan Theodote objected to Socrates that she could alienate all his disciples from him and call them to herself whenever she wished, while Socrates could not draw her lovers to himself; and Socrates replied: "You speak truly, because you drag everyone down an easy path: but I compel them toward virtue, to which the ascent is steep and unfamiliar to most." Furthermore, the Donatists abused this passage in support of their heresy, namely that impure priests vitiate baptism, and that no one receives grace in it unless baptized by a holy person, from the fact that Haggai here says in verses 14 and 15 that every work and offering of the defiled is defiled and contaminated. But St. Augustine responds at the passage cited that they use this testimony against themselves: "For if," he says, "the touch of a holy person does not remove the contaminations of the unclean, then what you perform, what you consecrate, what you wash is in vain. If, says Haggai, that which is holy touches the creature of bread, or wine, or oil, will it be sanctified? And the priests answered: No. Where then is what you boast of, that you boast of conferring your sanctity and purity? That touch signifies works. If a holy person, he says, touches what is unclean, it will not be sanctified. If an unclean person touches what is holy, it will be contaminated -- that is, more easily is a holy person who has been joined to this wicked nation made wicked, than is that nation changed for the better; because people run more readily to imitate the evil than the mind is stirred to the virtues of the good: just as a little wormwood thrown into a large quantity of honey quickly produces bitterness; but even if double the amount of honey is added, its sweetness cannot be obtained." So Augustine himself says tropologically in his usual manner. See also the same author after the Conference Against the Donatists, chapter 20.

Verse 16

16. And now set your hearts from this day and above. That is to say: Consider the poverty, barrenness, and all the adversities that have befallen you from this day through all the past years in which you neglected the building of the temple, and learn from this that there was no other cause for these things than this neglect of the temple. For when any of you came to the heap of the harvest, which seemed likely to yield twenty measures of grain, upon threshing he found only ten measures. Likewise, he who came to the winepress full of grapes, which seemed likely to produce fifty flagons of wine, upon pressing them found only twenty. Why was this? Because I blew away your crops and grapes, as I said in chapter 1:9. Note: The word "measures" is not in the Hebrew, but is understood as the common and ordinary measure of grain. So our translator, the Chaldean, Pagninus, and Vatablus. But the Septuagint understands "seah." Similarly, for "flagons" the Hebrew is פורה pura, which the Septuagint translates as amphorae; the Chaldean as casks; Pagninus as botos; the Zurich version as urns. Properly pura signifies a winepress: thence by catachresis it signifies the ordinary measure of wine, which, expressed from the winepress, is received in a vessel such as a flagon, amphora, etc.

Verse 18

18. I struck you with a burning wind and blight. Blight is a disease of the crop when, from excessive moisture, it turns pale, withers, and wastes away, so that at last the grains are reduced to ash. See what was said at Joel 1:4.

Verse 19

19. Set your hearts from this day and into the future. In Hebrew ומעלה vemala, that is, "and above," as he translates it in verse 16. Now "above" means "beyond," "henceforth," whether you look to the future, as here, or to the past, as in verse 16. The sense is, as if to say: I commanded you in verse 16 to consider the past years of barrenness and adversity during which you neglected the building of the temple; now I likewise command you to consider the future years of fertility and prosperity, because you have resumed the building of the temple: so that from the differing outcomes and opposite fortunes of both sets of years you may conclude with certainty that there was no other cause of your adversity than neglect of the temple; nor will there be any other cause of your future happiness than care for and devotion to the temple.

Learn here that it is the mark of a prudent person to consider the times and to compare the past with the future: for time teaches prudence. Hence Thales, when asked "what was the wisest thing," answered: "Time: for it discovers all things." So Laertius reports in book 1 of the Lives of the Philosophers, chapter 1. Hence also Plutarch in his Life of Pericles: "Time," he says, "is the best of all counselors." And Livy, decade 3, book 2: "Time and the passage of days," he says, "makes us better, wiser, and more steadfast." And Menander:

Time brings truth to light, Time reveals all things and brings them to light. No counselor is better than time.

Finally, the Philosopher acutely and truly said that "truth is the daughter of time."

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month: from the day on which the foundations of the temple were laid. These had begun to be laid ten years earlier, namely in the second year of Cyrus, in the second month, on the first day, as is clear from 1 Ezra 3:8 and following. But when the building was halted by Cambyses, the work stood still until Darius, when with Haggai prophesying they resumed the work in the second year of Darius, on the 24th day of the sixth month; namely on that day they began to cut wood, transport stones, and prepare all the materials, so that by the 24th day of the ninth month, as is said here, the foundations, long since begun under Cyrus, were completely and perfectly laid on every side. So Arias, Ribera, and others reconcile these passages, which seem contradictory.

Verse 20

20. Is the seed still in the sprout? That is to say: The seed has not yet sprouted, so that from an abundant and luxuriant sprout you might conjecture and hope for an abundant harvest; yet I now promise it to you, on account of the diligence you are showing in the building of the temple, because I will bless your seed and cause it to sprout and produce many stalks, ears, and grains.

For "sprout" the Hebrew is מגורה megura, which the Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint translate as "threshing floor"; the Rabbis, Pagninus, Vatablus, and Arias translate it as "granary," which R. Solomon explains thus: Is not all the seed still in the granary, because this year you have not yet sown, and the trees have not yet sprouted? But you will sow, and I will bless your crops and make them fruitful and multiply them. But our translator better renders it with the Zurich version as "sprout": for the harvest is placed on the threshing floor and in the granary, but the seed is placed in the field to sprout. The sprout therefore is called megura from the root gur, that is, to dwell, to inhabit: because in the sprout the seed, as it were, dwells, namely the ear and the grain swelling forth from the seed. Hence it is clear that Sacred Scripture uses the reckoning of the sacred year, not the common and profane one. For the ninth month it here calls that month in which the sown seed sprouts: and this in Palestine happens in November. The ninth month, therefore, is November, and consequently the first is Nisan, or March, from which the sacred year began.

Morally, learn here that saying of the Apostle: "Bodily exercise (such as sowing, planting, trade) is useful for a little: but godliness is useful for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:8). For God here promises to the pious, and to those who promote His building and worship, blessing, that is, an abundance of temporal goods, and much more of spiritual goods to those who build up, teach, and sanctify others, so as to construct in their minds a spiritual house and temple for God. Whence follows:

Note in passing here that there were two temples of God, and two builders of them, and that each one, as a reward for building the temple, received a promise from God concerning Christ who would be born from him. The first is David, who provided all the expenses for building the temple and entrusted them to his son Solomon, and therefore heard from God: "He (the son who will be born from you) will be a son to Me, and I will be a Father to him: and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever" (1 Chronicles 22:10). The second was Zerubbabel, who restored the second temple, and therefore God likewise here promises him the Son Christ, namely that He would be born from his lineage. From this we learn how generous God is, who for a small work and obedience promises so great a reward as Christ. Again, how pleasing to God is religious devotion, namely the building of monasteries, temples, and their adornment and worship: much more pleasing to Him is the building of a living temple of virtues in the soul, both our own and our neighbors', and especially the conversion of whole cities and nations.

Here belongs the exposition of Remigius, Lyra, and Vatablus, who hold that these things are promised not to Zerubbabel but to Christ, namely that He Himself, to be incarnated, would be the future King of the world, and therefore all kingdoms, all kings and princes must be shaken and subjected to Him. For this amounts to the same thing. Whether you say these things are promised to Zerubbabel not in himself but in his descendants, namely Christ; or whether you say they are promised to Christ Himself who would be born from Zerubbabel, it comes to the same thing. More fittingly, however, we assign these things to Zerubbabel himself: because both Haggai and Ecclesiasticus 49:13 assign them to him as a reward for building, saying: "How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? For he also was as a signet on the right hand." So Scripture promises to David what was to be fulfilled in Christ his son: "I will raise up My servant David as shepherd" -- that is, Christ, David's son and antitype (Ezekiel 34:23). So the blessing made to Abraham, that in him all nations would be blessed (Genesis 18:18), was fulfilled in Christ, descended from Abraham. So the promise of the land of Canaan made to the same in Genesis 13:15 was fulfilled 400 years later in his descendants.

Anagogically, St. Jerome, Haymo, and Hugh explain these things of Christ's second coming for judgment, for the resurrection, glory, and the kingdom. For then God will shake all the kingdoms of the world and subject them to Him as judge and lord, as the Apostle teaches in 1 Corinthians 15:24 and following.

Mystically, God does these things daily in Christ's descendants, namely Christian kings, prelates, and pontiffs, whose rights and kingdoms He extends by conquering heretics, Turks, and unbelievers, and subjecting them to them, so that the Church and the kingdom of Christ may be expanded and magnified.

Verse 21

21. The word of the Lord came a second time. For on the 24th day of the ninth month, Haggai received two oracles from God. The first was at verse 11; the second is this one, in which He promises Zerubbabel, on account of the work he performed in building the temple, that from his descendants Christ would be born, who would build the Church, in which He would reign and have dominion over all nations. So St. Jerome, Remigius, Albert, and others. This is the fourth and final prophecy of Haggai, in which as usual he rises to Christ, and in Him, as the end and goal, terminates and concludes his oracles.

Verse 22

22. Speak to Zerubbabel. First, Theodoret thinks that what is here promised to Zerubbabel concerns himself and his own person, namely that God would defend him and the people from the invasion of Gog and Magog, and indeed would cause them to destroy each other in mutual slaughter, and the Jews would seize their spoils. But Gog and Magog did not exist in Zerubbabel's time but will come at the end of the world, as is clear from Ezekiel 38 and 39, and Revelation 20:7.

Secondly, the Hebrews think that what is here promised to Zerubbabel is the destruction of the Persians, whom he feared, as if he himself would see it and in it be unharmed, to be preserved by God like a signet ring. But these are fables. For the Persians were destroyed by Alexander the Great 200 years after the time of Zerubbabel and Darius Hystaspis. Therefore others, less improbably, refer these things to the descendants of Zerubbabel, whom God protected from Alexander the Great. For when Alexander was subjecting all nations to himself, God exempted the Jews and bent Alexander's proud spirit to modesty and benevolence, so that he venerated Jaddua the high priest of the Jews, and kindly embracing the Jews, dismissed them free and exempt from tribute.

I say therefore that these things are promised to Zerubbabel, not in himself, but in his descendants, namely in Christ, as if to say: Because you, O Zerubbabel, were the leader and director of the building of My temple, therefore I promise you as a reward that amidst so many wars, and amidst so many kings and monarchies of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, which after your death will struggle against each other and mutually clash and destroy each other, I will preserve you and your princely house and family unharmed, like My signet ring, and will propagate it in continuous succession; indeed I will cause Christ to be born from you, who, when all kingdoms have been overthrown, will take possession of all things and will be King of kings and Lord of lords. This promise, therefore, is made to Zerubbabel: because although it is to be fulfilled in Christ, it nevertheless touches and concerns Zerubbabel himself: for it is his great honor and glory that he is the leader of the princely family is the originator, from which Christ would be born, and that God would preserve and propagate it for 500 years until Christ. This is what God here promises him.

I will move heaven and earth alike -- that is, by the commotions and transfers of monarchies, of which I spoke a little earlier, and by the others that I reviewed at verse 8. So St. Jerome.

Verse 23

23. And I will crush the strength of the kingdom of the nations. Thus God crushed the Persians, who were then ruling over the Jews, through the Greeks; the Greeks through the Romans; the Romans through mutual and civil wars.

And they will descend -- that is, they will fall, or collapse to the ground, slain and dead, as if to say: There will be most bitter wars and slaughters among the Greeks, Persians, and Romans; and yet in the midst of them I will preserve you alone, that is, your family, O Zerubbabel, because these slaughters prepare the way for the kingdom and monarchy of Christ who will be born from you, according to the vision of Daniel, chapter 2, where after he had recounted the crushing of the fourfold statue -- signifying the four world monarchies -- by the little stone cut from the mountain without hands, that is, by Christ, he adds about His monarchy in verse 44: "In the days of those kingdoms, the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, etc., and it will consume all these kingdoms: and it will stand forever."

Verse 24

24. My servant. Not only Zerubbabel, but also Christ, whom all these things concern, is called -- and truly is -- as man, the servant of God, as I said on Isaiah 42:1: "Behold My servant, I will uphold Him: My chosen one, My soul is pleased in Him."

I will make you like a signet -- in Hebrew חותם chotam, that is, a sealing signet, especially on a ring, with which the ancients sealed and safeguarded, first, both decrees and letters, and also chests and other secrets or precious things, and specifically testaments. For the root Chatam means to close up, to seal, to confirm with a seal, to close and to secure. Thus Darius ordered the mouth of the lions' den, into which Daniel had been cast, to be sealed with his ring, lest anyone kill or harm him (Daniel 6:17).

Secondly, this signet of the ring was engraved on a plate of jasper or another precious gem: therefore they wore the ring on the finger as an ornament, so as to display through it their nobility, coats of arms, and insignia engraved on the gem. Thus Africanus engraved his father's image on a ring: Augustus a sphinx, and then the likeness of Alexander the Great: others, lions, dragons, etc. Hence to the prodigal son received back into favor, the father commands a ring to be given, as a sign of restored dignity (Luke 15:22). Hence the Syriac translates chotam as "seal"; both Arabic versions translate it as "ring," namely a signet ring, which is in fact a signet and seal.

Thirdly, a ring was given to ambassadors who were sent to foreign nations, both for honor and to secure authority and trust for them: likewise to victors and those celebrating triumphs, as Pliny attests in book 33, chapter 1, but especially to the dearest and most faithful friends. Thus Pharaoh gave Joseph his ring (Genesis 41:42), and Ahasuerus gave his to Haman, his intimate (Esther 3:10). Hence Cicero admonishes his brother Quintus: "Let your ring," he says, "be not the servant of another's will, but the witness of your own."

Fourthly, among spouses the ring was a sign of marriage and mutual love, which, just as it bound both fingers, so also bound the heart and mind with a ring, that is, with the bond and symbol of charity. Hence it is a sign of conjugal fidelity and admonishes the spouses of it. Therefore it is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand, which is hence called the ring finger, because it has a vein running to the heart, as St. Ambrose says in his book On the Patriarchs, and Gellius in book 10. So that the finger which is the indicator of the heart may be honored with a ring as with a crown, says Pierius in book 41. Hence the ancients also wore the image of the one they loved in their rings, so that they might always gaze upon him and think of him constantly. Hence the bridegroom asks of the bride in Song of Songs 8:6: "Set me," he says, "as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm" -- namely, so that you see, think of, and love nothing other than me; so that your heart and arm may appear to be sealed with my ring, indeed with myself, as the guardian and lord of your heart and all your works, so that you may exclude all others from them. Moreover, so that you allow yourself to be molded like soft wax, and express nothing in your conduct that I have not first impressed upon you. For this is fitting in this divine marriage, by which you are bound to me. So Cicero in his book On Ends testifies that the disciples and friends of Epicurus wore his image on their rings.

Fifthly, the ring was held by the ancients as a symbol and instrument of prudence, namely so that by it they might know the course and changes of the times, and what ought to be done at any given moment. Thus Jarcha gave seven rings to Apollonius of Tyana, says Philostratus in his Life, book 3, chapter 13, inscribed with the names of the seven planets, which Apollonius wore one on each day of the week. It is likely these were magical, such as Clement of Alexandria in Stromata book 3 records Excestus, the tyrant of the Phocians, as having: by clashing them together and producing a sound from them, he would learn the opportune times for action: but the wicked man perished miserably along with his rings. The Scholiast of Aristophanes writes that the philosopher Eudemus made physical rings against demons and serpents. The Arabic codex concerning the ring of Solomon relates that Solomon had a fateful ring in which that marvelous power of wisdom was held bound, which his concubines cast into the Jordan and thereby with their allurements drove the wisest king mad. But when afterwards the ring was found in the belly of a fish and returned to Solomon, wisdom immediately revived in him. Pineda relates these things in book 3 of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 29. I consider it a Jewish fable. Famous is the ring of Gyges, by which he himself, seeing everything, was seen by no one; and so he killed the king of the Lydians and seized the kingdom, about which St. Ambrose writes in his book On Duties, chapter 3, following Plato. But this too was magical. For thus even today magicians have familiar demons in rings, from whom they learn secrets. It is true, however, that a most skilled craftsman enclosed in the ring of Emperor Charles V a complete clock, with all its balances and revolving and returning wheels. They marveled at so great a thing in so small a ring. Indeed, the wise man has the moments of times and affairs in his hand.

Happy the one to whom heaven and earth lay open On his fingers.

So Nicolaus Causinus, book 11 of Parallels of History, chapters 66, 67, and 68. Thus astronomical rings teach the celestial signs, the progress of the sun, and the intervals of the hours. Rings made from seahorse [hippocampus] restrain spasms. Others, made from certain gems that resist melancholy, mania, and epilepsy, aid mental serenity, judgment, and wisdom.

Now to apply these things to Zerubbabel and open up the genuine sense of this passage, it should be noted that Haggai is alluding to Jeremiah 22:24, where God threatens the impious King Jeconiah of Judah with these words: "As I live, says the Lord: even if Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, I would tear him from there. And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, etc., into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar," as if to say: Even if Jeconiah were as necessary, dear, and precious to Me as a signet ring that is never removed from the hand of the one who wears and seals with it, as were his grandfather Josiah and his ancestors David, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, nevertheless because of his crimes I will tear him away from Me and transport him to Babylon and deliver him into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Jeconiah was the grandfather of Zerubbabel: for Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. What God took from the grandfather on account of impiety, namely being the signet or sealing ring of God, He here restores to his grandson Zerubbabel on account of piety. Hence He also brings it about that, just as Jeconiah had been the leader of those going into Babylonian captivity, so Zerubbabel his grandson would be, in God's name, the leader of those returning from there to Jerusalem. Just as princes return the royal seal, which they took from the chancellor on account of his crime, to his son or grandson on account of his merits, so God does here. Hence Ecclesiasticus 49:13 says of him: "How shall we magnify Zerubbabel? For he also was as a signet on the right hand."

Furthermore, the five qualities of the signet already enumerated apply to Zerubbabel, both in his own person and in the person of Christ descended from him, of whom this passage properly speaks, as the interpreters commonly teach, whom Emmanuel and Mariana follow.

In his own person: first, because just as a signet ring is guarded above all other things, so God guarded Zerubbabel and his lineage above the lineage of other kings. For He contrasts him with them, saying: "I will overturn the thrones of kingdoms and crush the strength of the nations; but I will take you, O Zerubbabel, and make you like a signet, because I have chosen you," as if to say: I will destroy other kings and kingdoms, but you I will guard like My ring, hold you close to My heart and care, and cause you to be like a seal that seals and guards not only the body of King Darius (3 Ezra 3:3, joined with 4:13), but also the whole people of Israel, of whom in My name you will be the liberator and leader of return.

Secondly, you are to Me an honor and ornament like a golden ring, both because you are building My house for Me, and because you maintain and promote the commonwealth of My people in My worship. Therefore you are likewise the beauty and glory of the commonwealth, just as Judith, to whom the people acclaim as victress in chapter 15:10: "You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you are the honor of our people."

Thirdly, you are My ambassador, both to Darius and to the people, to set forth My will, law, and commands to both, and therefore you are to Me like a ring: because I have secured for you authority and trust with both, so that in all things they may trust you as an ambassador sent by Me and wearing My ring.

Fourthly, you are dear and close to Me like a ring, so that I may always keep you before My eyes, close to My heart and care. Hence the Chaldean translates: I will set you as the engraving of a ring upon My hand. Hence I will make you like My son-in-law, so that My only Son may take flesh from you, and you may thus beget My same Son as man, whom I begot as God. Hence Arias explains it thus, as if to say: Just as a seal is usually placed in a certain part of a ring, so I will insert your name, O Zerubbabel, into the family and genealogy of Christ, so that it may be eternal and glorious, and can never be effaced by any time or forgetfulness, as in fact it was inserted there (Matthew 1:12).

Fifthly, I give you the wisdom represented by the ring; hence in the riddle contest, "What is the strongest?" Zerubbabel, answering that it is truth, won the prize of wisdom from Darius (3 Ezra 4:13 and 42). Hence he also governed the people wisely, defended them against the Samaritans, and gained Darius's favor for them. Therefore, after he led the people back to Jerusalem, he himself returned to Babylon to plead the people's cause before the king, and there he died.

But more properly these things apply to Zerubbabel not in his own person but in the person of Christ; for Haggai speaks of Him literally, saying: "In that day," namely in the time of Christ, as if to say (according to a Castro): I will take your flesh, O Zerubbabel, and insert it like a golden signet ring into My right hand, namely into My Son, who is My arm, My right hand, My power and strength (Isaiah 53:1), so that through such a Son descended from you, you may be honored and glorified by all, indeed exalted above all kings and, as it were, deified in the human nature which My Son will assume from your posterity and unite to Himself and deify, and that forever, so that it may always cling to Him throughout all ages, as a ring to a finger. Or, I will make you like a signet, that is, I will make your lineage and offspring like a ring going in a circle, whose ends are joined in a bezel containing a sardonyx, that is, Christ the Son of God, who is the seal and character of the Father. For just as of Adam, who in this circle of Christ's genealogy is the first, it is said in Luke 3:38, "Who was of God"; so the last in it, Christ, is likewise the Son of God. Moreover, just as a hand is adorned by a ring, so I will adorn My Son with the flesh that He will assume from your lineage, as with a ring. For so Isaiah says of the Church in chapter 62:3: "You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God."

Furthermore, Zerubbabel was a type and figure of Christ in seven ways: first, by his leadership and bringing back the people from Babylon, as Christ freed us from sin, death, and hell; secondly, because he built the temple, as Christ built the Church; thirdly, by his protection of the people before Darius, as Christ is our advocate before the Father; fourthly, by his defense, fighting against the Samaritans who wished to impede the building of the temple, as Christ fights for His martyrs and faithful; fifthly, because just as Zerubbabel lived and died for the people in Babylon, so Christ did in the world, which is Babylon, that is, the confusion of all vices and evils; sixthly, just as Zerubbabel was dear and close to God, so Christ was most closely united to Him, and indeed united and joined His humanity to the Word hypostatically; seventhly, because just as Zerubbabel was wise, so Christ is most wise.

The true Zerubbabel, therefore, that is Christ, the son and antitype of Zerubbabel, is a sign, that is, a seal -- not merely signifying, as Rosenmuller thinks, that Jehovah would preserve this Zerubbabel safe; but it pertains to the preservation and singular destination of the whole tribe of Judah, from whose lineage that leader of the Jews had arisen and the Messiah was to come; nor did the Prophet dream that the times of the Messiah were immediately at hand, since it is not necessary that chotam and bochar pertain to the life and fate of Zerubbabel. For how, unless he had been utterly insane, could they have expected at that age the overthrow of the kingdoms of the nations, the hope of which the Jews supposed to be connected with the times of the Messiah? On the contrary, from the passages in Daniel 7, 9; Psalm 45ff., and others, it is established that the Prophets of the Hebrews long after the Babylonian exile, when the empire of the Macedonians and Syrians had already been broken and removed, expected the coming of the Messiah, and believed that the Messiah would indeed die for sins (Isaiah 53ff.), but would be raised from the dead (Psalm 16:10); would ascend to heaven (Psalm 68:19; Psalm 110:1), after which, with the worship of Jehovah propagated everywhere under the new (that is, the fourth of Daniel's) empire, the Jews scattered among all nations, and the nations themselves corrupted by wickedness and depravity, the Messiah would come again and celebrate His final victory; concerning which ideas, more accurately set forth in Isaiah 62ff.; Ezekiel 38:9, and in Joel chapter 3, this is not the place to discourse more copiously. Let it suffice to add that this notion is repeated in Matthew 24; Luke 21, and Revelation 11, 12ff., and that concerning the time of the Messiah's coming, neither the opinion of Jesus nor of the Apostles can be understood and learned without a more accurate and truly Hebraic interpretation.

Hence in chotam, "signet," said of Zerubbabel, are the marks of divine power, majesty, and glory, as well as of the stars, in which, as in torches, it sparkles and gleams.

Hence secondly, Christ as a seal was an honor and ornament to the Father equally as to the Church, indeed to the angels and all creatures and to the whole universe, and so He Himself was the beauty and glory of all. For the incarnate Word not only reconciled man to the Word, earth to heaven, and all creatures to God, but also physically joined and united them in His own hypostasis.

Thirdly, Christ was a seal, as an ambassador of the Father to men, according to Isaiah 55:4: "Behold, I have given Him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and teacher to the nations."

Fourthly, Christ was a seal, that is, most beloved, most precious, and most closely united to the Father, and His and likewise the whole world's delight, exultation, and jubilation. For His humanity was, as it were, betrothed as a bride to the Word as bridegroom: hence the Wise Man sings His nuptial hymn throughout the entire Song of Songs.

Fifthly, Christ was a seal, that is, the uncreated Wisdom of the Father, as the Word; and created, as man. Hence He Himself revealed to us the secrets of the Father, and things hidden from the foundation of the world (Matthew 13:35).

Mystically, Christ is the seal of God, because with His likeness, namely His faith, grace, virtue, and character, as well as with the sacramental character, He seals His faithful in baptism and the other sacraments. For God sent Christ because "He willed that we be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29), so that "as we have borne the image of the earthly Adam, so we may also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49). And let us say with the Apostle: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

Note here: Christ is here called by Haggai a signet, or seal of God, as man, not as God; for He assumed humanity, not divinity, from the flesh and lineage of Zerubbabel. Christ therefore, as man, is the seal of God: first, by the communication of idioms, through which the attributes of God are attributed to the man: for since the Son of God is the seal and image of the Father, hence also this man hypostatically united to the Son of God, namely Christ, is the seal and image of the Father. Secondly, formally, because the Word impressed His likeness upon the humanity, namely His knowledge, virtue, holiness, His thoughts, words, actions, and ways. Thirdly, because Christ as man was a signet, that is, the most evident sign and testimony of God's attributes, namely power, justice, wisdom, and especially His love of humanity and immense love toward men; for to show these things, God willed His Son to become incarnate. Christ incarnate, therefore, is like an impressed seal, in which we read, indeed in which we see expressed and depicted God's love, power, justice, wisdom, etc. Fourthly, because Christ, like a signet, testified and made certain to us what the will of God was, what His doctrine, law, and commands were, namely that which He promulgated and taught in the Gospel: "No one has ever seen God," says St. John 1:17 [18]; "the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him to us." For this reason God gave Christ the power of working miracles, so that with this, as with a seal, He might confirm His words and demonstrate that they had been revealed and commanded to Him by God, according to John 6:27: "For the Father, God, has set His seal upon Him."

God, therefore, overturning the monarchs and monarchies of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, as Haggai teaches, took up Zerubbabel, that is Christ the son of Zerubbabel, and set Him as a sign, so that He might be the seal of the divine kingdom and of the King of kings, namely God the Father, who, having excluded all others, wished to reign alone through Christ in the world through His faith, grace, and the law of the Gospel. For God, since He is invisible in Himself, therefore clothed and veiled His Son in flesh, so that through it He Himself might, as it were, shine through and be translucent, just as He shines through heaven and the stars, according to Job 9:7: "He closes up the stars as under a seal," that is, God closed and hid the stars under storms and darkness, which are like seals, coverings, and marks of divine power, majesty, and glory, as well as of the stars, in which, as in torches, it sparkles and gleams. as a seal in the hand of the Father, both passively, namely as expressed by Him: for He is His Word and image; and actively, by which God seals His majesty, His thoughts and words, and impresses His image upon angels, men, and all creatures, and especially upon His Apostles and His Church, and this according to the five qualities of the seal enumerated at the beginning. For Christ, as the Apostle teaches in Hebrews 1:3, is the image of the invisible God, namely "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance," who seals it as the Word, and seal, and character, as the Greek text has it.

Christ was a seal, as an ambassador of the Father to men, according to Isaiah 55:4: "Behold, I have given Him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and teacher to the nations."

Secondly, Christ as a seal seals and guards His faithful against all temptations and enemies. Moreover, Christ's seal is the cross, according to Ezekiel 9:4: "Mark the thau upon the foreheads of the men who sigh." And Revelation 7:2: "I saw another angel, etc., having the seal of the living God." For the cross fortifies us against the allurements of the flesh, the world, and the devil, and makes us followers, soldiers, and martyrs of Christ crucified. Hence the Apostle says: "I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body" (Galatians 6:17). Therefore Christ through the cross is the standard and military banner against heretics, Jews, and pagans, says Rupert. Again, the cross of Christ is a medicine curing the spasm of pride, the epilepsy of wrath, the madness of lust, the melancholy of sloth, etc. Where, therefore, you see the cross, know that the thing is good and pleasing to God, because you see the seal of Christ impressed upon it. Such things are penance, mortification, self-denial, austerity, persecution, humiliation, patience, contempt, reproaches, prisons, martyrdoms. Conversely, the seal of the devil is pleasure; where therefore you see it, beware as of a serpent. Such things are following one's appetites, softness, license, ambition, self-esteem, praises, flattery, applause, etc. Therefore what the bridegroom says to the bride in Song of Songs 8:6: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm" -- let us in turn say this to Him, and ask that He Himself seal all our thoughts, words, and deeds, so that we think, say, and do nothing except from Him, through Him, in Him, for Him. For You, O sweetest Jesus, are the target of archers, the standard of combatants, the prize of runners, the mark of the sheep, the guardian of hearts, the exemplar of workers, the form and rule of servants, the seal and character of soldiers, the ring, crown, and diadem of the triumphant. Come, Lord, impress upon my soul Your image, indeed Yourself; seal it with the ring of Your love, so that once sealed it may henceforth love nothing except You: for You are the entire possession and entire beatitude of my heart. You are the perennial life through which I live, without which I die: the life through which I rejoice, without which I grieve: the sweet and lovable life. Grant, O Lord, that my soul, fused by the power of Your burning charity and by the sweetness of Your penetrating love, may like melted wax flow entirely into You. Possess it, O supreme and unchangeable good; possess it, that it may possess You. Grant that I may embrace You, and lulled in sweet love to sleep in You, who are most welcome peace, may fall holily asleep. Grant that all transitory things and all the heights, appearances, and delights of the world may become worthless to me: may You alone please me; may I think of, love, speak of, and pour forth You alone.

Because I have chosen you. The Chaldean: Because in you I am well pleased. So at Christ's baptism in the Jordan the heavenly voice came from the Father: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). For Christ was the love and delight of the Father, and therefore He appeased His wrath against the human race, and became the propitiation and reconciliation of the world, as St. Paul teaches everywhere. Therefore what antiquity said of Scipio: "Neither will Rome fall while Scipio stands, nor will Scipio live when the city falls" -- this you may say far more truly not so much of Zerubbabel as of Christ: Neither will the Church fall while Christ stands; nor will Christ stand if (God forbid) the Church should fall.

In conclusion of Haggai's prophecy, note that the whole prophecy looks to and urges the restoration of the temple literally; but allegorically through the building of the temple it represents the building of the Church to be erected by Christ; and tropologically the founding of Orders and Religious congregations to be made by Saints Basil, Anthony, Benedict, Augustine, Jerome, Bernard, etc., and likewise the building of virtues in the holy soul. Furthermore, there are many analogies between the building of a corporeal temple and a mystical one, namely the Church, a congregation, a college, a Religious Order, and any holy soul. For first, just as a temple is the house of God, dedicated and consecrated to Him with certain rites, so too is the Church, a Religious Order, and a holy soul. The rites of consecrating a temple are five: sprinkling, inscription, anointing, illumination, and blessing. The sprinkling of the faithful person and religious, says St. Bernard in his sermon On the Dedication of a Church, is penance. The inscription of religious law and discipline is made in ashes, that is, in a heart crushed like ashes, and that by the Bishop, namely by Christ. The anointing is the abundance of grace poured into the same by the same. The illumination consists in the works that proceed from religion, so that they may shine before men, that they may glorify the heavenly Father, and that people may see what to imitate. The blessing is the sign of eternal glory, which will both complete the grace of sanctification and copiously reward past works.

Secondly, angels keep watch in a consecrated temple, as is evident from the many apparitions they have made there: so also "angels and archangels frequently visit and honor the holy soul, as the temple of God and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. Be therefore a temple of God, and the most high God will dwell in you. For a soul that has God within it is a temple of God, in which divine mysteries are celebrated," says St. Bernard in On the Interior House, chapter 3.

Third: "Holiness befits the house of God," both corporeal and spiritual: "because He is delighted not so much by polished marbles as by adorned conduct, and loves pure minds more than gilded walls," says St. Bernard in his Address to the Knights of the Temple, chapter 5. The same author in On the Nature of Divine Love, chapter 13: "When this temple," he says, "has been adorned with the arrangement of the prescribed virtues and dedicated with the above-mentioned order of dedication, it can no longer receive any foreign titles, no inhabitant except God who founded and created it. Nothing earthly, then, does that holy soul love or care for any longer, nothing material, nothing corruptible, since it has returned from the place of burdens; although it sometimes uses one of these things as if in passing, it disdains to enjoy them. If anything prosperous of this kind happens, it passes through; it is not disturbed if something adverse occurs. Whatever pertains to the body, whether good or bad, is outside and cannot reach the one who is within." And St. Augustine, explaining Psalm 64: Your temple is holy, wonderful in equity, or as he himself reads, in justice: "He did not say," he says, "your holy temple wonderful in columns, wonderful in marbles, wonderful in gilded roofs, but wonderful in justice."

Fourth, the construction of a temple is made from many stones, but polished ones; so the Church rises from the faithful who are polished by the cross and mortification, according to that hymn from the ecclesiastical office for the dedication of a church:

By blows and pressures The stones are polished, Fitted into their places By the hands of the craftsman, Arranged to remain forever In the sacred edifices.

Fifth, the stones of the building, joined and bound together, make up the temple: so too the fellowship of the faithful makes up the Church. Therefore first, just as one stone placed on high or at the altar does not despise another that is placed in the pavement or the foundation; nor does the latter envy the former, but willingly sustains the whole weight of the edifice: so in the Church, prelates and teachers do not despise their subjects and the common people; nor do these envy them: but both, content and happy with their lot and vocation, and the place and rank in which they have been placed by God and His vicars, construct the whole fabric of the Church together. Secondly, just as the stones of a temple are joined together by mortar, otherwise they would collapse and destroy the building: so the faithful are bound together by charity; for this is the glue, the bond, and as it were the soul of the Church, which would otherwise dissolve and scatter. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 10: "He violates the temple of God," he says, "who violates unity." Thirdly, just as in a building one stone bears another; so in the Church and in a Religious Order, one faithful person bears another, one brother bears another, and tolerates and supports his ways and infirmities, thinking, as St. Gregory says, that he in turn is borne by another; and if perhaps he is not now being borne, that he was once borne, so that he might learn to repay the same favor of bearing to others in turn. Moreover, a holy person not only bears a brother's infirmity but also strives to heal and correct it, just as the hand hastens to bind and cure an afflicted limb.

St. Gregory, book 20 of the Morals, chapter 26: "Sometimes," he says, "it is more to have compassion from the heart than to give; because to the degree that someone has compassion for the needy, he esteems less everything he gives." And shortly after: "Because a person who does not have compassion often gives something; but one who truly has compassion never denies what he sees is necessary for his neighbor." Again, no one is so rough, so lowly and wretched, that he cannot become a distinguished instrument, indeed a temple of God's glory, if he is stripped bare with due care. These three things are equally present in the faithful and holy soul. For first, the eye does not despise the foot, nor does the foot envy the eye; but content with their place and function, they conspire toward the same body, as the Apostle teaches in 1 Corinthians 12, throughout the whole chapter. Secondly, all the powers and faculties of the soul are bound together by charity. Hence St. Bernard in his treatise On Conscience, near the beginning: "Let the soul see to it," he says, "and carefully beware lest its members disagree with one another, that is, reason, will, and memory. He prepares a worthy dwelling for God whose reason is not deceived, whose will is not perverted, and whose memory is not defiled." Thirdly, the members and faculties mutually tolerate one another and support each other's burdens.

A suitable means for these things is suggested by St. Bernard at the passage just cited: "Return," he says, "to your heart, and diligently examine yourself: consider where you come from, where you are heading, how you live, what you are doing, what you are losing, and how much you profit or decline each day; by what thoughts you are most assailed, by what affections you are most frequently touched, or by what devices of temptation you are more fiercely attacked by the evil spirit. And when you have fully understood the entire state and condition of the interior and exterior person, as far as is possible, not only what you are, but also what you ought to be, from the contemplation of yourself you will be able to be raised to the contemplation of God."

Sixth, just as God is worshipped in a temple with prayers, vows, offerings, and sacrifices, so He is worshipped in the same way in the Church, in a Religious Order, and in the holy soul, which offers itself to God as a holocaust through the three Religious vows: the body through penances, as a sacrifice for sin; thanksgiving and supplication, as a peace offering. Hence St. Augustine in City of God, book 10, chapter 6: "The man himself," he says, "consecrated and devoted to the name of God, insofar as he dies to the world so as to live for God, is a sacrifice. For the body becomes a sacrifice when we chastise it with temperance for God's honor: and the soul, when it refers itself to God, so that kindled by the fire of His love, it loses the form of worldly concupiscence, and is reformed by being subjected to Him as the unchangeable form; thus pleasing Him because it has received from His beauty." The same St. Augustine, in On Nature and Grace, chapter 6, section 4, praises the saying of St. Sixtus, Pope and martyr, whose deacon was St. Lawrence: "God," he says, "granted men freedom of will, so that by living purely and without sin, they might become like God." And: "A pure mind is a holy temple to God, and a clean heart is His best altar." In this sacrifice, then, the priest is the faithful and religious person himself: the knife is hatred of self, of the flesh, and of the world: the fire is charity: the victim is the body and soul with their members and faculties, which die to the world but begin to live better for God. To this St. Paul exhorts in Romans 12:1: "I beseech you," he says, "brethren, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service." And St. Peter in his first epistle, chapter 2, verse 5: "You yourselves also," he says, "as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

Seventh, God in the temple, like the master of a household in his house, is present and presides: there He hears the prayers and vows of those who pray, there He bestows benefits, there He gives oracles: so also in the Church, in a Religious Order, and in the holy soul, God is present, indeed He presides: hence He illuminates it with His lights, drives and directs it by His impulses toward every good, and grants whatever is asked. Hence St. Augustine infers in Sermon 210 On the Seasons: "As often as," he says, "we commit any sin either by thinking, or speaking, or even doing, we destroy the temple of God and inflict injuries upon Him who dwells in us."

Here it is worthy of consideration that the Holy Spirit, and consequently the entire Holy Trinity, is present in the just soul not only through charity and His gifts, but also through Himself substantially and personally, so that if, per impossibile, He had not previously been present through substance, He would now through justice and holiness become substantially present, as St. Thomas, Bonaventure, and others everywhere teach at length, especially Francisco Suarez in book 12 of On the Triune and One God, chapter 5. This is indeed of marvelous divine condescension, as well as of our dignity. Therefore let the holy soul know that in itself, as in a living temple, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell livingly and substantially, according to that promise of Christ in John 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." Therefore it is not necessary for the soul to seek God outside itself and go out to Him; for it has Him within itself. And so let it gaze upon Him continually through faith, always conduct itself worthily and reverently in the sight of such great majesty, converse with Him piously and affectionately: let it do nothing that would offend Him even slightly: let it fix all hopes and concerns upon Him, cast all tribulations upon Him, love Him with the whole heart, revere and worship Him: let it rest completely in Him, and say with the Psalmist: "In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and I will rest" (Psalm 4:9). Therefore St. Bernard rightly says in On the Interior House, chapter 22: "A good conscience," he says, "is the title of religion, the temple of Solomon, the field of blessing, the garden of delights, a golden couch, the joy of angels, the ark of the covenant, the treasury of the King, the court of God, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, a book sealed and closed, to be opened on the day of judgment. Nothing is more pleasant, nothing more secure, nothing richer than a good conscience: let the body be oppressed, let the world shatter it, let the devil terrify it -- it will be secure. When the world spins around with all its fickleness, weeps, laughs, perishes, passes away, a good conscience never withers. Let the body be subjected to punishment, worn down by fasts, torn by scourges, stretched on the rack, slain by the sword, nailed to the torment of the cross -- the conscience will be secure." The reason is what Mo- ses gives in Leviticus 26:12, and from it St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 6:16, because "God says: I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." For who would fear, having within himself God as protector, strengthener, and comforter? Thus Christ in His passion and agony on the cross stood firm, calm, and magnanimous. Why? "I saw the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted, and my flesh will rest in hope" (Psalm 15 [16], and Acts 2:25). Let the holy soul therefore rejoice, even when placed in pains and torments, because it has God within it, for whose love it suffers and by whose right hand it is upheld. For God is the jubilation of the angels and saints, especially of those who suffer. The martyrs experienced this while they were tortured and torn on racks, in fires, and with hooks. This is the prelude, the foretaste, the beginning of the heavenly and blessed life. For where God is, there are angels, there is jubilation, there is happiness, there is glory. Therefore let us follow the admonition of St. Cyprian in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "When," he says, "we call God our Father, we ought to act as children of God, so that as we take pleasure in God the Father, so He may also take pleasure in us. Let us conduct ourselves as temples of God, so that it may be evident that God dwells in us, so that we who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual may think and do nothing but what is heavenly and spiritual."

Furthermore, in this building one must first lay the solid foundation of faith -- not just any faith, but a living and efficacious one. For this inspired the saints to the arduous works of virtue, as the Apostle teaches throughout chapter 11 of Hebrews. Then upon it one must build two walls, of fear and magnanimous hope; upon these add the four cardinal virtues and all the others connected with them. Let the pavement be laid with humility. Let the roof be covered with charity. Let a tower of prayer and contemplation be erected, from which we may both watch for the ambushes of enemies and implore the help of God and the heavenly ones.

Tropologically, the faithful person ought to be a seal of God, both passively -- namely expressed from the divine exemplar and marked with His image, in which he was created and by Christ recreated, so that he may reflect and express God and God's virtues in heart, mouth, and deed; and actively -- namely so that he may impress that same image of God upon all others, so that all may experience that verse of Psalm 4:7: "The light of Your countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us," and accordingly may break and cast away all the seals of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nicolaus Causinus, drawing from Ptolemy, relates in book 11 of Parallels of History, chapter 6, section 5, that Helena sealed her letters with an Asterite stone, whose property is that when exposed to the sun it catches fire, with the figure of the fish Panis impressed upon it; and he explains symbolically: This can be turned, he says, against those who mix heaven with earth, the profane with the divine, the love of God with the love of the flesh and the world. For on the same ring, the figure of Panis was joined to a heavenly stone: for this fish also resembles Pan, from whom it takes its name: but Pan is an impure and lustful god. What has a star to do with the earth, light with darkness, purity with immodesty, the love of God with the love of the world, the image of God with the image of the devil? Just as wax reflects no other image than that of its seal, so let the faithful person reflect no other likeness, no other life, no other character than that of Christ and God, according to Paul's words: "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Paul was a seal of Christ, impressing His doctrine and character upon all. Let us be such also: thus we will likewise be a seal of Christ and a signet ring in the hand of God; thus there will apply to us the words of the same Apostle, 1 Corinthians 9:2: "You are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord"; indeed those words once addressed to the Cherub and the king of Tyre: "You are the signet of likeness, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in the delights of the paradise of God: every precious stone was your covering" (Ezekiel 28:12). And at last God will seal us, indeed gift us, with the seal and ring of His glory: for this is the seal of God's predestination and election, of which the Apostle speaks in 2 Timothy 2:19: "The firm foundation of God stands," he says, "having this seal: The Lord knows who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

Therefore pious and zealous kings, princes, rulers, teachers, preachers, etc., after the manner of Zerubbabel and Christ, are like a seal and golden ring in the hand of God, with which He Himself seals His faithful and impresses upon them His image and His divine character. Let this, then, be for them a sharp spur to virtue and zeal, so that with Elijah they may be zealous for the house of God and for the sanctity and salvation of the souls entrusted to them. Indeed, let them know that they will be the mouth of God, according to what God promised in Jeremiah 15:19: "If you separate the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth."

Finally, St. Ambrose understands by the "signet" the peace of the soul, through which the soul is, as it were, sealed and marked with the image of God. I cited Ambrose's words at verse 10.