Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Luke does three things here. First, from verses 1 to 14 he describes the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, under the appearance of a mighty wind-spirit and fiery tongues. Second, from verses 14 to 42, he relates the first sermon of Saint Peter, by which he converted three thousand men. Third, from verse 42 to the end, he describes the continuous prayers, gatherings, charity, and holy manners of the first Christians.
Vulgate Text: Acts 2:1-47
1. And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in the same place; 2. and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them; 4. and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Spirit gave them to speak. 5. Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6. And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded in mind, because every man heard them speak in his own tongue. 7. And they were all amazed and wondered, saying: Behold, are not all these that speak Galileans? 8. And how have we heard, every man our own tongue wherein we were born? 9. Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10. Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome. 11. Jews also, and Proselytes, Cretans, and Arabians: we have heard them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. 12. And they were all astonished, and wondered, saying one to another: What does this mean? 13. But others mocking said: These men are full of new wine. 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke to them: Ye men of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known to you, and with your ears receive my words. 15. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day; 16. but this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel: 17. And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith the Lord), I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18. And upon My servants indeed and upon My handmaids will I pour out in those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy; 19. and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord come. 21. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you also know: 23. this same being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain: 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell, as it was impossible that He should be holden by it. 25. For David saith concerning Him: I foresaw the Lord before my face always; because He is at my right hand, that I may not be moved: 26. for this my heart hath been glad, and my tongue hath rejoiced; moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope: 27. because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. 28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; Thou shalt fill me with joy with Thy countenance. 29. Ye men, brethren, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and his sepulcher is with us to this present day. 30. Whereas therefore he was a prophet, and knew that God hath sworn to him with an oath, that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne. 31. Foreseeing this, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that He was not left in hell, neither did His flesh see corruption. 32. This Jesus hath God raised up again, whereof all we are witnesses. 33. Being exalted therefore by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this which you see and hear. 34. For David ascended not into heaven; but he himself said: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou on My right hand, 35. until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know most certainly that God hath made both Lord and Christ this same Jesus whom you have crucified. 37. Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart, and said to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles: What shall we do, men, brethren? 38. But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are far off, whomsoever the Lord our God shall call. 40. And with very many other words did he testify and exhort them, saying: Save yourselves from this perverse generation. 41. They therefore that received his word were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls. 42. And they were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43. And fear came upon every soul: many wonders also and signs were done by the Apostles in Jerusalem, and there was great fear in all. 44. And all they that believed were together, and had all things common. 45. Their possessions and goods they sold, and divided them to all, according as everyone had need. 46. And continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they took their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47. praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord increased daily together such as should be saved.
Verse 1: When the Days of Pentecost Were Accomplished
1. And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished. — Namely, fifty days from the Pasch, so that the fiftieth day was now at hand; for Pentecost in Greek means both the preceding fifty days and the fiftieth day itself, which was the feast of Pentecost. The Latin Interpreter therefore takes Pentecost in the former sense, but the Greek text in the latter. For thus it reads, en to symplerousthai ten hemeran tes Pentekostes, "in being fulfilled," that is, while the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, that is, when the fiftieth day from the Pasch and the Resurrection of Christ had arrived. For Pentecost was celebrated only one day, namely the fiftieth; whereas the Pasch, and likewise the Feast of Tabernacles, were celebrated for seven continuous days, as Philo teaches in his book On the Decalogue, and as appears from Leviticus 23:43. Hence it follows that the verb "to be fulfilled," by Hebrew idiom, is here taken in the inchoate, not the perfect, sense. For when the fiftieth day had begun, namely in the morning, the Holy Spirit came, not in the evening and end of the day. Similar is Luke 2:22: "After the days of her purification were accomplished," that is, after they began to be accomplished, namely when the fortieth day from the birth had arrived and dawned. And Jeremiah 25:12: "When seventy years shall be accomplished." For, as is clear from Josephus and the chronologers, the Babylonian captivity was loosed at the beginning of the seventieth year, not at its end.
Note first: The feast of Pentecost was prescribed for the Jews by God for a twofold reason. The first was in memory of the law given on that day through Moses on Sinai, Exodus 19:1. The second was in thanksgiving for the new fruits of that year, which they were then beginning to harvest: whence they offered to God in Pentecost the firstfruits of these, namely two loaves baked from the grain of that year. These were a type and shadow of the Christian Pentecost, in which the new law was promulgated by Saint Peter and the Apostles through the Holy Spirit appearing in fiery tongues: whence in it likewise the firstfruits of faith, namely three thousand souls, were offered and consecrated to Christ. Saint Chrysostom excellently says, in homily 2 On Pentecost: "What then, he says, is the law which today you learn given from heaven? The grace of the Spirit. What are your rational tablets, on which this law is engraved? Soul and body. What is your spiritual circumcision? The cutting away of all evil concupiscence, and turning from it. What is your altar? Your spiritual mind. What is your spiritual sacrifice? Every good work. What is the fire of your altar? The warmth of compunction. What is your temple built by God? A clean heart, in which God loves to dwell."
Note second: The first Pentecost of the Christians fell on a Sunday: for on a Sunday the Holy Spirit descended, just as Christ rose. Count fifty days from the Sunday of the Resurrection, and you will find that the seventh Sunday is the fiftieth day, that is, Pentecost. Whence it follows that the first Pentecost of the Christians, which Luke here describes, was different and distinct from the Pentecost of the Jews. For they had celebrated it on the immediately preceding Sabbath, but the Apostles celebrated it on the following Sunday; that it might be signified that the new law succeeds the old, and the old ends in the new, and as if having completed its course, hands on the torch to it. When therefore Luke says, "While the days of Pentecost were being fulfilled," understand the Christian Pentecost, not the Jewish one. For just as Christians differ from Jews in celebrating the Pasch, so consequently also in Pentecost. For the Jews celebrated the Pasch on the 15th day of the first month, whatever day it might be, and from that the fiftieth day is their Pentecost, whether it falls on the first weekday, the second, or any other. The Christians, however, celebrate the Pasch on the Sunday which most closely follows the fifteenth moon, or the day of the first month, or the spring equinox, and this in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, who rose on Sunday: and counting 50 days from that, they consequently celebrate Pentecost on Sunday; because on that same day the Holy Spirit descended, who through the Apostles promulgated the new law in Zion. And this Luke here narrates: for he himself is the Historian of the primitive Church, who in order pursues its infancy, progress, feasts, religion, etc. Hence in chapter 1:1 he writes that he is connecting these Acts to his Gospel, as a continuation of the History of Christ and the Church. As therefore the Gospel ends with the first Christian Pasch, namely the resurrection of Christ, so from that he immediately here in the Acts counts the first Christian Pentecost — not the Jewish — in which through the Holy Spirit was made the promulgation of the new law: especially since he wrote these things 28 years after Christ's ascension into heaven, as I said in the Proemium, at which time the Jewish Pentecost was abolished, and everywhere among Christians the Christian Pentecost was celebrated, whose origin he here describes. So Francisco Suarez, III part., Quaest. LIII, disp. 46, sect. 1; Vatablus and others. I confirmed the same at greater length on Leviticus 23:45.
Morally: Rabbi Moses, son of Maimon, notes in his Resolution of Doubts of the Law, book III, chapter 44, that God established these fifty days before His coming on Sinai to Moses and the people, that by such a delay He might kindle in them the desire of His coming: "Just as one who awaits the sight of a friend whom he loves from the heart counts the days until he sees him." Whence some hand down that the Jews were accustomed daily from Pasch to gather in the Synagogue, and there after prayers and the blessing to count and proclaim: This is the first day, this the second, this the third, etc., up to Pentecost. So the Apostles and first faithful counted each day from Christ's Ascension, eagerly awaiting Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. Let Christians do the same. For what is more desirable than the coming of the Holy Spirit, who, just as He first descended upon the Apostles with the fullness of His gifts at Pentecost, so on the same day every year descends upon the faithful who duly prepare themselves for and aspire to His coming. For Pentecost is the proper feast of the Holy Spirit and His jubilee. For just as the fiftieth year was a jubilee, in which slaves became free, and all returned to their ancestral inheritances, even though they had been sold a thousand times, so through the Holy Spirit we return to grace and to the friendship of angels, to the liberty of the glory of the sons of God, to the inheritance and heavenly kingdom.
Wherefore the Greeks, denying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, but from the Father alone, although they had been rebuked for this error often, and most recently in the Council of Florence, by the Latins, nevertheless persisted in it. Hence at the Council of Florence Pope Nicholas V foretold them by letter that within three years they would come into the power of the Turks: which is testified to have plainly so happened by Gennadius, their own Patriarch, in the book which he wrote against the error of the Greeks. Saint Bridget had foretold the same to them long before, as Thomas Bozius noted in his Signs of the Church, sign 99. And lest anyone doubt that they were punished by this penalty for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Constantinople was captured by the Turks, Constantine, the last Emperor of the Greeks, was slain, and the Eastern Empire was utterly destroyed on the third day of Pentecost, in the year of Christ 1453. Justly were the Greeks delivered to the Turks, who confess one God and deny the Trinity, and so reject the Holy Spirit — those Greeks who would not consent and submit to the Latins confessing the Most Holy Trinity and the divine procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. Justly do they bear the harsh yoke of the Turks, who shook off the sweet yoke of the Roman Church. Justly do they serve the Turks like slaves, who came over to the error of the Turks, and who tore apart fraternal union and brotherhood with the Latin Church by monstrous hatred and schism. For implicitly they take away the Holy Spirit. For if the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son, then He is not distinguished from Him, but is Himself the Son. For in the divine, there is no distinction of persons except through procession: from this arises the opposition of relations, and from that the distinction of persons.
They were all. — Christians to the number of 120, concerning whom Luke has been speaking from verse 15 of the preceding chapter to here. So Saint Chrysostom and Saint Cyprian, in his sermon On the Holy Spirit; and indeed Joel, whom Saint Peter cites in verse 17. Wherefore Beza ineptly and ignorantly restricts this coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles alone, excluding the Blessed Virgin from it, and mocks the painters who portray her in the midst of the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit. Saint Augustine notes in sermon 116 On the Seasons that the Holy Spirit was promised by Christ to the twelve Apostles, but was given indeed in tenfold number: for ten times twelve makes one hundred and twenty. Such is the faithfulness, indeed the liberality of Christ, teaching us to promise little, but to deliver tenfold more.
Together. — In Greek homothumadon, that is, unanimously. For unanimous concord, agreement, and prayer drew to itself the Holy Spirit, who is uncreated love, and therefore a lover of concord.
In the same place, — namely, of the cenacle, of which I spoke in chapter I, verse 13.
Verse 2: And Suddenly There Came a Sound from Heaven
2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven. — This sound was a symbol of the sound of the Gospel which, having received the Holy Spirit, the Apostles were to preach throughout the whole world, according to that of Psalm 18: "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth," namely, of the heavens — not so much material as spiritual, that is, of the Apostles — "and their words unto the ends of the world."
Literally, this sound stirred both the souls of the faithful to devoutly receive the Holy Spirit at His coming, and the Jews scattered throughout the world, that aroused by its crash they might run to the cenacle of the Apostles: for to it this sound was carried and on it it bore down, just as thunder and lightning strike a particular place and house.
Suddenly. — For two reasons. The first is, that the Holy Spirit might show that this fullness of Himself and His gifts, especially of tongues and other graces, are infused into the faithful gratuitously, without sufficient merit or disposition on their part, from His sheer liberality. The second is, to declare His swiftness, force, and efficacy, by which He suddenly transmutes earthly men into heavenly: just as He suddenly made Saint Paul from a persecutor an Apostle, Magdalene from a sinner a penitent and a saint. "For the grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow strivings," says Saint Ambrose on chapter 1 of the Gospel of Saint Luke. So upon Samson, whenever he was about to perform a work of heroic and supernatural strength, the Spirit of the Lord is said to have rushed, as if preparing, exciting, elevating, and strengthening him for it.
Excellently Saint Gregory, in homily 30 on the Gospel: "O what a craftsman is this Spirit! No delay is made for learning anything that He wills. For as soon as He has touched the mind, He teaches, and merely to have touched is to have taught. For He suddenly enlightens the human, transforms the affection: He suddenly denies what it was, and exhibits suddenly what it was not. Let us consider our holy Preachers — what He found them today, and what He has made them!" And just before: "Behold, Peter rejoices in the lashes, who before feared at words, and who before, being asked by the voice of a maidservant, was afraid; after the coming of the Holy Spirit, though beaten, presses upon the powers of princes."
From heaven. — First, because in heaven is the throne of the glory of God and of the Holy Spirit. Second, that He might signify that He calls and raises the Apostles and the faithful to heaven and makes them heavenly, that they themselves likewise may call and lead other men to heaven. Hear Saint Chrysostom, sermon 1 On Pentecost: "Today the earth has become heaven for us, not because the stars are descending from heaven to earth, but because the Apostles are ascending to the heavens; because the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit has been poured out, and has wrought the universe into a heaven, not changing nature, but emending the will. For He found a publican and made him an Evangelist; He found a persecutor and rendered him an Apostle; He found a thief and led him into paradise; He found a harlot and made her equal to virgins; He found magi and showed them as Evangelists; He banished malice and brought in kindness; He exterminated servitude and brought in liberty; He remitted the debt and brought in the grace of God. Therefore the heaven has been made earth, and saying this often I shall not cease. For what stars are such as the Apostles? Stars are in heaven, the Apostles above the heavens. 'Mind the things that are above (says the Apostle), where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father.' Stars are of insensible fire, the Apostles of intelligible fire. Stars shine at night, are darkened in day: but the Apostles shine by their rays, that is, by their virtues, both day and night. The stars are darkened when the sun rises; the Apostles, when the Sun of Justice shines, glow with their own brightness. The stars in the resurrection shall fall as leaves, the Apostles in the resurrection shall be caught up into the air in clouds. And among those constellations one is called Noctifer (Night-bringer) and another Lucifer (Light-bringer): but among the Apostles there is no Noctifer; all are Lucifers, and therefore the Apostles are greater than the stars."
And a little after: "They were vinedressers, and though absent in body, the vineyard flourishes and brings forth clusters. For they were vinedressers and fishermen, and towers, and columns, and physicians, and leaders, and doctors, and harbors, and pilots, and shepherds, and athletes, and warriors, and bearers of crowns. Columns indeed, since by their virtue they are the strength of the Church; foundation, however, because in their confession the Church is founded, the Lord saying: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church.' Harbors, because they checked impious storms. Pilots, because they taught the world the right way. Shepherds, because they drove off wolves and preserved the sheep. Plowmen, because they uprooted thorns. Vinedressers, because they uprooted wild vines, and planted seeds of piety. Physicians, because they healed our wounds. And that you may learn that I have not said these things in vain, I will bring forward Paul as one doing all these things. Do you wish to see him as a planter? Hear: 'I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.' Do you wish to see him as a builder? 'As a wise architect, I have laid the foundation.' Do you wish to see him fighting? 'So I fight, not as one beating the air.' Do you wish to see him as a runner? From Jerusalem and round about even unto Illyricum, and thence to the Spains and the uttermost parts, the Gospel of Christ has been filled out. Do you wish to see him as an athlete? 'Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood.' Do you wish to see him as a leader? 'Take up the armor of God, and put on the breastplate of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Holy Spirit.' Do you wish to see him contending? 'I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.' Do you wish to see him crowned? 'For the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice.' And though he was one, he did all things, imitating his Lord. For, since the Godhead is of one substance and unchangeable, for our salvation it becomes all things to all." The same, in homily 2: "The Holy Spirit is the reformation of our image, the spiritual perfection of the mind, the sun of our mental eyes, the light of our inner man, the Light-bringer in the heaven of the breast. The Holy Spirit is the bond of our union in Christ, the exultation of souls, the leaping of the heart, fire, a dewy fountain. The Holy Spirit is the consolation of mourners, the laying down of sadness, the rest of the mind, the communication of wisdom, the invention of prudence, the illumination of foreknowledge. By this the Prophets are illuminated, Kings are anointed, Priests are ordained, Doctors are declared, Churches are sanctified, altars are founded, ointment is consecrated, waters are purified, demons are driven out, diseases are cured." And soon after: "He shows to the soul inwardly as if in a mirror, with ineffable joy, the future eternal joy, and exhorts it, saying: Come to the Father, come to the heavenly fatherland, come to the heavenly kingdom, come to the incorruptible bridal chamber of the Bridegroom."
From what has been said it appears how insane was the arrogance and heresy of Manichaeus, who taught that the Holy Spirit came to us not through the Apostles, but through Manichaeus, and therefore rejected this history of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as fabricated; whom Saint Augustine rightly refutes in the book On the Utility of Believing, chapter 3, and in book XIX Against Faustus, chapter 31. So in accordance with his name Manes, that is, mad (for in Greek mania means madness), he raved; and accordingly he received the deserved penalties of his impiety and madness, when he was flayed alive by the king of the Persians, because, having promised to restore the king's sick son to health, he produced him dead instead of alive — Socrates being witness, in book I of his History, chapter 17, where he also adds that Curbicus, who called himself Manes, named himself not only an Apostle, but also a Paraclete.
As of a coming spirit. — In Greek pnoes, that is, of the blast of wind.
Mighty. — In Greek biaias, that is, violent. Whence Saint Cyprian, in book III of the Testimonies against the Jews, reads: "as if a vehement blast were borne;" Vatablus: "like a violent blast which is borne;" Pagninus: "as of one coming with force" (for this is pheromenes pnoes, of a vehement blast). Therefore this spirit was not the Holy Spirit, but a blast or vehement wind, coming accordingly with force and as it were rushing into the cenacle, in order to represent the efficacy, vehemence, and impetus of the Holy Spirit coming upon the Apostles, by which He was to make them efficacious, strong, and impetuous to invade, conquer, and subjugate the whole world to Christ. "That blast was purging hearts from the carnal chaff; that fire was consuming the hay of old concupiscence," says Saint Augustine in sermon 188 On the Seasons.
Note: The Holy Spirit appeared variously in various figures, according to the variety of operations and significations. For first, He appeared at Christ's baptism in the form of a dove, to signify innocence and the fruitfulness of good works, which He suggests are to be done by Christ and the baptized. Second, at the transfiguration He appeared as a shining cloud, to signify the rain of doctrine which He imparts, and the protection which His faithful receive. Third, in the cenacle He was given by Christ as a breathing, to signify the spiritual life which He confers on us through the Sacraments. Whence Christ, breathing on the disciples, said: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them," John 20. Fourth, at Pentecost He was given both in the form of fire, because like fire He purifies, illumines, kindles minds, and raises them to heavenly things; and as a vehement wind, to signify the efficacy of the preaching of the Apostles, imparted to them by the Holy Spirit. So Saint Thomas, part 1, Question 43, article 7 ad 6.
For just as a strong wind, a whirlwind, and a tempest, especially if it be a hurricane, not only flattens crops, shrubs, and trees, but also tears whole houses from their foundations, snatches them up on high, and transfers them elsewhere; so also the Apostles laid low all the power, wisdom, eloquence, etc., of the world, and transferred it from heathenism into the Church of Christ, according to that: "With a vehement wind Thou shalt break in pieces the ships of Tharsis," Psalm 47:8. And: "The voice of the Lord is in power, the voice of the Lord in magnificence," Psalm 28:4. Wherefore this sound did not strike down the Apostles and the faithful, nor lifeless them, but sharpened and stirred them to love, reverence, and desire of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time signified what they themselves and the rest of the faithful ought to be — namely vehement in the contest of virtue and salvation, "for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away": so Cyril, Catechesis 17.
On the other hand, to Elijah, zealous and indignant against the idolaters, and wishing their slaughter and destruction, the Holy Spirit appeared in a wind and breeze — not vehement, but gentle — to soothe his too-great indignation and zeal, and to impart to him the spirit of patience and meekness, III Kings 19:11. For as Saint Bernard says in sermon 23 on the Canticle: "Tranquil God tranquilizes all things, and to look upon the quiet is to be at rest." See the seven endowments and benefits of winds which I enumerated on Daniel 3:65, and apply them mystically to the Holy Spirit.
Finally, many think that here there was a real wind, which with force blew through the cenacle of the Apostles: just as the sound was real, produced, as it seems, by a roaring wind. Others, however, think that the sound was real, but not the wind, both because Luke says, "as of a coming spirit," on the feast of Pentecost: "While the Apostles were praying, it announces that God has come." A great sound and crash was heard, of the kind that is usually stirred up by a strong wind rushing in; even though here there was no such wind. For God can produce the crash and sound which a wind is wont to cause, without a wind: indeed, men by a certain art and by the collision of bodies represent a similar sound, just as some imitate the voice of the nightingale and of other birds and beasts so well that they cannot be distinguished from the voice of the birds themselves. Then again, because if it had been a real wind, its violence would have injured and prostrated the Apostles, and dashed them to the ground; and finally because likewise the fiery tongues were not real and proper tongues, but only their appearance and likeness, as I shall presently say.
Morally, Saint Chrysostom, in his Homily On the Holy Spirit: "Give me an empty ship, a pilot, sailors, ropes, anchors — everything in order — and let there be no breath of wind anywhere: does not all the apparatus, however great, sit idle if the operation of the wind is lacking? So it tends to happen: although there be an ample furniture of speech, and a profound mind, and eloquence, and intelligence, if the Spirit be not present who supplies the power, all things are useless."
And it filled (the sound of the wind, not the wind, as I have already said) the whole house. — To signify that the inhabitants of the house were to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Whence, explaining this symbol, he adds, in verse 4: "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." By "house," according to Hebrew idiom, understand the upper room: for in it the Apostles and the faithful were sitting; for those who were outside it had not received the Holy Spirit. Hence Saint Cyprian, in book III of his Testimonies, ch. 21, reads: "And it filled that whole place."
Where they were sitting. — Either properly, as Cajetan thinks. For sitting is a symbol of quietness and of a recollected mind (which is the best disposition for receiving the Holy Spirit). Whence in the life of Saint Bernard we read that he was wont almost always to attend to contemplation while sitting. Hence the Philosopher's saying: "The soul becomes wise by sitting." Or "sitting," that is, dwelling and remaining, for this is what the Hebrew יָשַׁב iaschab signifies, namely "to sit." For it is credible that the faithful were engaged in prayer and were invoking the Holy Spirit when He came upon them: and accordingly that they did this either kneeling, or standing in the manner of the Jews, according to what the Church chants on the feast of Pentecost: "While the Apostles were praying, it announces that God has come."
Note: The Holy Spirit willed by this visible sign to exhibit Himself as it were visibly, and visibly to descend upon the Apostles. Nazianzen and his interpreter Nicetas, in oration 44, gives the reason: "For since the Son had had intercourse with us in a sensible and visible body, it was fitting that the Spirit also should appear corporeally: just as He also first appeared in the form of a dove, and now in the form of fiery tongues. And when Christ had returned to those things befitting God, and was restored to His own glory, the Spirit had to descend upon us after Christ." As therefore Christ was incarnate that He might teach us with His own mouth the way of virtue and salvation, and pour forth from the Father's bosom things hidden from the foundation of the world, so after Christ the Holy Spirit was as it were incarnated in fiery tongues, that He might imbue the Apostles and the faithful with them.
Verse 3: And There Appeared to Them Parted Tongues
3. And there appeared to them divided tongues. — "Divided," that is, distributed to individuals, so that each had his own partial tongue resting on his head, though whole and undivided, as painters commonly depict them. Yet many probably hold that each tongue was properly divided, that is, cleft, as the Tigurine version renders (for this is what the Greek diamerizomenai signifies), so that they appeared in a cleft shape, which we may conceive thus: that we imagine several partial tongues to have rested on each one, which yet below coalesced as into one root, so that below there appeared to be one total tongue, of which it is said: "And it sat above each one of them;" which, rising up into many tongues like stalks and reeds, divided and distributed itself. Hence the Church in the Mass of Pentecost, within the Canon, says that these tongues were innumerable. For fire, whose appearance these tongues had, on account of its agility and mobility, easily divides and distributes itself into various parts, like tongues. The reason is that these tongues signified the Holy Spirit settling upon the Apostles, and imparting to them the knowledge of all the languages of so many nations to whom they were going: so the many tongues represented the manifold languages of the nations (which the Holy Spirit was imparting to the Apostles). Saint Cyprian, in his sermon On the Holy Spirit, adds that by this multiplicity of tongues was signified the multiplicity of gifts which the Holy Spirit communicated to each one, according to that of 1 Cor. XII, 4: "There are diversities of graces, but the same Spirit."
Similar to this is what Diodorus Siculus relates, book II, last chapter, that on a certain island there are found men who have a divided tongue, so that they can speak in two ways at once, and therefore with two persons at the same time: for they speak to one with one part of the tongue, to the other with the other part. But men of sound judgment rightly hold this for a fable, especially since none of the classical historians mention so great a prodigy. Furthermore, serpents, whose prudence Christ bids us imitate, Matt. X, 16, have a forked and triple-cleft tongue, burning and stinging, so that they seem to be three-tongued.
Tongues. — You will ask, why did the Holy Spirit settle upon the Apostles under the species of tongues? I answer: First, because here He was constituting the Apostles preachers of the Gospel: and the instrument of preaching is the tongue. Therefore through tongues they received the gift of tongues. Note here: The gift of tongues comprises three things: first, the very knowledge of various words; second, the meaning of the same; third, the habituation of the motive faculties and organs, for forming the words of different idioms rightly and readily — by which habituation they had a habitual faculty of duly composing, coordinating, and pronouncing the words and sentences of any language. For this habituation is one thing in the Spanish language, another in the German, another in the French. And in this properly consists the habit, or habitual gift, of tongues. Add fourthly, that with the tongues there was infused into the Apostles perfect wisdom and knowledge of the things of faith and of the sublime mysteries, for the preaching of which they were destined; and this was signified by tongues, both because tongues and words are symbols of the things and truths signified by them, and because the same are the instrument for preaching them. For if the Holy Spirit gave them the accessory instrument, then much more did He give the principal itself, which is the mover and source of such doctrine and preaching. And this is clear faith and contemplation of saving truth necessary or fitting for the salvation of men, as Saint Bernard says, sermon 4 on Pentecost. Moreover the Apostles here received supernatural prudence, by which they providently and prudently might compose and direct all their actions and discourses, through so many difficulties, dangers, and diversities of things and persons, to their own salvation and that of others. Finally they received boldness and zeal and the other virtues and gifts necessary for so great an office, and these in a perfect and heroic act. For upon him on whom that divine sun shines, all things easily shine again.
The second reason is that, as Saint Gregory says, hom. 30 on the Gospels, the tongue has the greatest kinship with the word. For just as the word of the mind produces the voice of the tongue, so from the Word the Holy Spirit is breathed forth and produced. Thus Nazianzen, in oration 44 on Pentecost, holds that by the tongue is signified the kinship and bond which exists between the Son and the Holy Spirit. Again, just as the tongue is of the same nature as the mouth and the other members, so the Holy Spirit is consubstantial with the Father and the Son, so that, as it were, He utters Their hidden things and secrets to us as Their tongue, according to that of 1 Cor. XII, 3: "No one can say, Lord Jesus, except in the Holy Spirit." Thus Saint Gregory, hom. 30 on the Gospels.
Third, just as the tongue discerns flavors and distinguishes sweet from bitter, the savory from the insipid, so the Holy Spirit, illuminating the mind, makes it distinguish heavenly and eternal things from earthly and perishable, that we may choose the former and despise the latter. For this reason the Apostle says, 1 Cor. II: "The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit," because, namely, he has not a sincere taste nor this tongue of the Holy Spirit. These tongues therefore signified that the Holy Spirit was divinely giving to the Apostles the inmost tastes of divine things and the gustatory power of them, says Saint Bernardine, sermon 1 on Pentecost, whose pious and learned sermons, written by his own hand in the year of the Lord 1427, I saw, read, and kissed with great delight of soul at Rome in the illustrious Library of the Duke of Altemps, who had accordingly adorned them with a golden binding.
Fourth, because the tongue greatly aids digestion, for with the teeth it divides the food, chews it, and as it were turns it into chyle. Whence physicians teach that the first digestion is made in the mouth, the second in the stomach, and accordingly that it is healthy and very useful that food first be well chewed in the mouth before it is passed into the stomach. So the Holy Spirit makes us, by meditation as by a tongue, ruminate and chew the words of God, and thus pass them into the mind and incorporate them into ourselves.
Fifth, because the tongue is a member to a man either most useful or most harmful. For as it is said, Prov. XVIII, 21: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue." And Saint James says, ch. III, 8: "No man can tame the tongue: it is an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison." Wherefore the Holy Spirit is needed, who tames the tongue, rules and sanctifies it, according to that of Prov. XVI: "It is for man to prepare the heart, but for the Lord to govern the tongue." For the Holy Spirit teaches us to speak few things with discretion and to do many with fervor, and continually to praise God. For in this consists the perfection of the spiritual life.
The Gentiles saw this through a shadow. Famous is that saying of Anacharsis, who, when asked, "What is the worst thing in a man, and what is the best?" answered: "The tongue." For it is most useful if governed by right reason; but most pestilential if otherwise. So Laertius, book I On the Lives of Philosophers, ch. IX. Stobaeus, sermon 34, relates that Theocritus of Chios, when Anaximenes was about to speak, prefaced thus: "There begins a river of words, a drop of mind;" signifying that he was much-speaking, but little wise. And Demosthenes, when asked, "Why has man one tongue, but two ears?" replied: "Because it profits a man twice as much to hear as to speak." Whence Zeno said to a talkative young man at a banquet: "Your ears have flowed down into your tongue," as Laertius reports, book VII, ch. I.
As of fire. — The word "as" seems to signify that these tongues were not true fire, but had only the appearance and likeness of fire — first, in red color; second, in brightness; third, in mobility and motion. So Cajetan. Yet many probably hold that it was a true fire and the sound was true. For the word "as" or "like" often in Scripture signifies not similitude, but truth, as: "We saw His glory as of the only-begotten," John I, 14. Add that "as" rather signifies that the multitude was in the tongues than in the fire, so that there is a hypallage, as if to say: "Tongues as of fire," that is, fire as of tongues; or rather: These tongues were not true tongues, human and fleshly (for these would have been gross and unbecoming, and unfitting for representing the Holy Spirit, who is the most subtle Spirit), but they were like fire; because here fire appeared in the species of a tongue and rested upon the Apostles.
The former opinion, as more simple, also seems more genuine, both because the word "as" signifies a likeness of fire, not the reality; and because the Greek is hosei pyros, that is, "as of fire," in the genitive, as if to say: These tongues were not true tongues, but in the manner of fire — that is, they were tongues not of flesh, but bearing the appearance of fire, just as if they had been formed out of fire. As therefore they were not fleshly and human tongues, so neither was it true fire, but its appearance and likeness, as painters are wont to paint fire. But here it was a more lively painting and appearance of fire, because it seemed to burn, to be agitated, and to rise on high like true fire. Then finally, because it was not a true dove, but only its appearance, which descended on Christ while He was being baptized in the Jordan, Matt. III, 16, as the weightier doctors think, and which Matthew signifies in saying: "And He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove." For the word "as" indicates that it was a likeness of a dove. So it was with the wind, as I said in verse 2; finally, if it had been true fire, it would have scorched and burned the hair and heads of the Apostles. It seems therefore that this fire was likeness-fashion: air or denser vapor, into which God put a rosy and red light like fire, formed into the appearance of a tongue, so that it seemed to be a fiery tongue — both because fire of itself is pyramidal, and gradually narrowing rises into a cone, as a tongue also does; and because God shaped this fire properly in the manner of a tongue. They were therefore tongues of fire, that is, of fire, namely of the flame of fire, which are far more pointed than our tongues.
Wherefore they were plainly pyramidal and rose to a point and ended in a point, and this for five reasons. The first is to signify that the ardor of the Holy Spirit sharpens the mind and makes it penetrate the deep things of God. The second, as a sign that He was entering and penetrating most subtly and most acutely into the hearts of the disciples. The third, as a sign that He would make them sigh and pant after heaven and heavenly things. The fourth, as a sign that He would impart to their tongues a wonderful efficacy for penetrating and inflaming the minds of their hearers, according to what Christ had promised in Luke XXI: "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist and gainsay." The fifth, as a sign that He would give them the gift of discernment of spirits, by which they might penetrate the minds, affections, and secrets of hearts, that they might be able to speak, preach, and counsel them fittingly to salvation. For this gift is very useful and opportune for those who deal with souls, such as confessors, preachers, and rectors.
You will ask, why were these tongues fiery? I answer: First, because God, and especially the Holy Spirit, is most subtle, most efficacious, most powerful, most agile love. Whence His symbol is fire, according to that of Deut. IV, 24: "Thy God is a consuming fire." I have shown the same thing through many analogies on Lev. IX, 23. Again, just as the old Law was given on Sinai through fire and with fire, indeed with smoke, thunders, and lightnings, as is said in Exodus XIX, 16 and 18, so much more was its antitype, the new Law, to be given through fire. For that fire represented these fiery tongues, the thunders represented the sound of the violent wind, the lightnings the sermons and miracles of the Apostles, the smoke the contrition and penitence of the Jews and Gentiles. Isidore of Pelusium gives the reason, epistle 494: "That the one God might be known in both Testaments, namely that He Himself was the author of both, and therefore by His own right and choice abolished the old and substituted the new in its place."
Second, because just as the Holy Spirit empowered the Prophets through fire, so much more was it fitting that He should empower the Apostles also. Of the Prophets it is plain: for in Isaiah, ch. VI, 6, He made him a Prophet and the Apostle of his age, touching and purifying his lips with a burning coal. So Ecclesiasticus says of Elijah, XLVIII, 1: "Elijah arose like fire, and his word burned like a torch;" whence also he was caught up into heaven in a fiery chariot, 4 Kings II, 11; and Jeremiah, Lam. ch. I, vers. 13: "From on high He sent fire into my bones, and instructed me." And Ezekiel describes the four Cherubim, attendants of the chariot of Christ's glory, thus, ch. I, 13: "Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps." These were types of the Apostles, who as Cherubim — nay rather Seraphim — drove the chariot of the Church and the glory of God throughout the whole world, while they celebrated and propagated the magnificence of God and of the Church throughout the whole world. Wherefore Christ Himself foretold this, saying in Luke XII, 49: "I came to send fire upon the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?" Hence the Holy Spirit was also represented by the pillar of fire and of cloud, which went before and led the camp of the Hebrews through the desert into the promised land, as I said on Exodus XIII, 21.
Third, to signify that the Law of Christ, which He was now about to promulgate, is a law of fire, that is, of charity and zeal, according to that of Deut. XXXIII, 2: "In His right hand a fiery law." Fire therefore signifies the conflagration of love, which the Holy Spirit sends into the Apostles and the faithful.
Fourth, to signify the effect which the Holy Spirit was about to work in the souls of the Apostles and of the rest of the faithful — namely, that He would consume and burn up in them, as fire does, their torpor, fear, concupiscences and vices, and would make them fiery, that is, zealous, effective and agile for every good, just as fire makes iron fiery, says Cyril, Catechesis 17. "This fire," says Chrysostom, hom. 4, "burned up the sins of the world as a forest." And below: "For just as a fiery man, if he falls into the midst of stubble, will not be hurt, but will rather exert his own strength; so it happened here." And Saint Gregory, hom. 30 on the Gospels: "The Spirit appeared in fiery tongues, because He makes all whom He fills both burning and speaking. Doctors have fiery tongues, because while they preach God to be loved, they inflame the hearts of their hearers. For the discourse of a doctor is also idle, if it cannot impart the fire of love. This fire of doctrine they had conceived from the mouth of Truth Himself, who said: 'Was not our heart burning within us, while He spoke on the way and opened to us the Scriptures?'" That precept of Cicero on the orator is true, book II On the Orator: "Let the orator burn, if he wishes to kindle the judge." The Apostles therefore had to burn with this fire, that with it they might inflame the whole world, torpid and frozen with cold.
Fifth, Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 17: "Fire portends the great and manifold tribulation which the Apostles and the faithful were to suffer; but they were to overcome it through the fire of divine love, which the Holy Spirit therefore here imparted to them."
Sixth, fire signifies the keen examination and light which the Holy Spirit suggests to the mind. Hear Saint Bernardine, sermon 2 On Pentecost: "What does He seek of you, who came seeking you with such great solicitude, except that you walk solicitously with your God? This solicitude none makes save the Holy Spirit, who searches the depths of our hearts, discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart, who does not suffer even the least chaff to rest within the dwelling of the heart which He possesses, but at once burns it up with the fire of most subtle circumspection. The sweet and pleasant Spirit, who bends our will, nay raises and directs it more towards His own, that we may both truly understand, and fervently love, and effectively fulfill it."
Finally, Saint Augustine, sermon 185 On the Season: "He (the Holy Spirit) poured forth His Apostles from the fount of living light, that they themselves might afterwards illumine the entire world, as twelve rays of the sun and as many lamps of truth, and, inebriated with new wine, fill and irrigate the thirsting hearts of the peoples." Wherefore the same Augustine, invoking Him with all affection in Meditation IX: "Now, O love of the divine majesty, holy communion of the omnipotent Father and the most blessed Offspring, omnipotent Paraclete Spirit, most clement consoler of mourners — now glide into the inmost recesses of my heart with mighty power, and gladden as a kind inhabitant with the splendor of glittering light all the dark hiding places of the neglected dwelling, and visit and make fruitful by the abundance of Thy dew the parched filth of long aridity. Wound the secrets of the inner man with the dart of Thy love, and by penetrating the marrow of the torpid liver with saving flames, set it on fire; and illuminating with the fire of holy fervor, feed all the inward parts of mind and body. Make me drink of the torrent of Thy delight, that nothing of the poisoned sweetness of worldly things may henceforth please me to taste. Judge me, O Lord, and distinguish my cause from a nation that is not holy, teach me to do Thy will, because Thou art my God: I believe therefore, because whomsoever Thou dost inhabit, Thou makest a dwelling alike of the Father and of the Son: Blessed is he who shall deserve to entertain Thee, since through Thee the Father and the Son make their abode with him. Come now, come, most kindly consoler of the grieving soul, protector in opportunities, helper in tribulation. Come, cleanser of crimes, healer of wounds; come, strength of the frail, raiser of the falling; come, teacher of the humble, destroyer of the proud."
The philosophers of the Gentiles saw the same thing. "For the Stoics," says Saint Cyril, book I Against Julian, "call God an artificial fire, advancing along a path to the birth of the world. Democritus asserts that God is mind in fire of a spherical form, and that He is the soul of the world."
And it sat upon each of them. — "Sat," that is, settled upon, rested upon: for neither tongue nor fire properly sits. Now it sat, not the sound, nor the wind: for this did not sit, but was agitated and blew through the whole house; rather it was this fire of the tongues, or the fiery tongue, and consequently the Holy Spirit, represented by these tongues, who was one in all the tongues. Whence he says "sat," not "sat" (plural): both because there was one total tongue, although divided into various partial ones, which rested upon each, as I said in verse 3; and because the Holy Spirit was one, of whom the tongue was the index. The Syriac, however, renders "and they sat," namely the fiery tongues, which were many in many, indeed in the same person — but partial, as I said. So Saint Cyprian, book III of the Testimonies, ch. CI: "And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, which also sat upon each one of them." The Fathers commonly hold that these tongues sat upon the heads of the Apostles, although some hold that they entered into their mouths. Cyril of Jerusalem gives the reason, Catechesis 17: "It sat upon them, that new spiritual crowns might be set upon their heads through the fiery tongues." Second, because the majesty of the Holy Spirit rested upon the Apostles as upon a Cherubic throne, says Nazianzen, oration 44. Third, that He might empower them as Doctors of the world, and show them to be heavenly, and therefore endowed with heavenly wisdom and eloquence. So Ammonius here. Fourth, that the Holy Spirit might show, says Chrysostom, that He would remain in them and in their successors until the end of the world, according to the promise of Christ, John XIV, 16. Fifth, this sitting signified, first, the tranquility of the soul from every appetite; second, the stability and constancy of mind, lest they be elevated by prosperity and cast down by adversity; third, gravity and maturity of conduct, which the Holy Spirit imparted to them. Sixth, our Francisco Torres adds, in book I On the Hierarchical Ordination of Ministers, ch. II, citing Saint Dionysius, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and Saint Jerome, Dialogue against the Luciferians; likewise Ammonius, Damianus and others, that the Apostles by this symbol were created Bishops at Pentecost, since they had previously been created Presbyters by Christ at the Last Supper saying: "Do this in commemoration of Me." Their reasoning is that, at Pentecost, the Apostles received the power of giving the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands, namely through the sacrament of Confirmation and Orders. But to this it can be said that the Apostles then received this power in second act, since they had previously received it in first act; for it was not fitting that they should use this power in second act before they themselves had received the fullness of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For then, confirmed in grace themselves, they began to confirm and ordain others. Wherefore it is more true that they were made Bishops by Christ Himself after the Resurrection, when He said to them, John XX, 21: "As the Father has sent Me, so also I send you." For by these words He created His Vicars and Doctors of the world, and consequently communicated to them His office and authority, namely all Ecclesiastical power, and therefore made them Bishops, as Sts. Cyril, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Rupert and others assert in the same place.
Finally some, like Dionysius the Carthusian, hold that the Apostles were here confirmed in grace through the continual assistance and protection of the Holy Spirit, which is here deputed and assigned to them by Him, so that thenceforth they could not fall away from it, nor sin mortally, but only venially. For that they were confirmed in grace is taught by Saint Ambrose, in his book On the Blessing of the Patriarchs, ch. IV, and commonly by the Scholastics: nor does it appear where they were confirmed in it, except at Pentecost; for then they received the fullness of the Holy Spirit, just as the baptized in the sacrament of Confirmation are said to be confirmed, strengthened, perfected, and filled with the Holy Spirit in the grace received in baptism, though not with that fullness which the Apostles had. Whence Eusebius of Emesa (or whoever is the author), in his homily On Pentecost, asserts that in the sacrament of Confirmation that strength of the Holy Spirit is conferred which was conferred upon the Apostles at Pentecost.
Verse 4: And They Were All Filled with the Holy Spirit
4. And they were all filled. — Those who beforehand had the Holy Spirit now received His fullness, says Saint Leo, sermon 3 On Pentecost. Moreover not all received equal grace, but one greater, another lesser, each one according to his office and rank, and according to his disposition — just as smaller and larger vessels are filled with wine; but the larger receives and holds more than the smaller, on account of greater capacity. And the greater capacity for receiving the greater gifts of the Holy Spirit is a greater [grace]. Saint Augustine, sermon 185 On the Season: "How great and how ineffable is the piety of the Redeemer! He carried man to heaven, and sent God to the earth. How great is the Author's care for the restoration of His handiwork! Behold, again a new medicine is sent from on high, behold again His Majesty deigns to visit His sick by Himself. Behold, again divine things are mingled with human, that is, the vicar successor of the Redeemer, that the benefits which the Savior began, He may consummate by the special power of the Holy Spirit; and what He redeemed, this One may sanctify; what He acquired, this One may guard."
Note here: Saint Augustine calls the Holy Spirit Vicar, that is, the successor of Christ. For the Holy Spirit willed to descend into the world to imitate the descent of the Word, namely Christ, and to complete what He had begun and done. Wherefore the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles was similar to the descent of Christ into the world, namely the Incarnation. First, as to substance. For just as the substance of the Word descended into flesh, so the Holy Spirit substantially descended upon the Apostles. Second, as to manner. For just as the manner of the Incarnation was a hypostatic union, so the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit was united to the Apostles in some similar manner. Whence just as the Word in the flesh was as it were fire in a coal — wherefore Sts. Cyril, Damascene and others compare it to a kindled coal — so likewise the Holy Spirit was as it were fire falling upon the Apostles. For fire, as to splendor, represents the Word, who is the wisdom, light and splendor of the Father; but fire as to heat represents the Holy Spirit, who is the heat, that is, the love of the Father and the Son; and the tongues represent the flesh, which are the most noble part of the flesh, and have a connection with the lung and the heart, whence all spirit, blood and life of the flesh arises. Third, as to cause. For both the descent of the Holy Spirit and that of Christ had as its cause the immense and divine love, by which He, as God and the highest good, supremely desired to do good to men and to communicate and give Himself to them in the highest way, that is, substantially and personally. Fourth, as to properties. For just as the properties of human nature in Christ are attributed to God and the Word, and vice versa, through the communication of idioms, by which God is said to have been born, to have hungered, thirsted, suffered, died, been crucified, because the human nature which He assumed was born, hungered, suffered, died and was crucified; and conversely this Man is said to be God, omnipotent, immortal, eternal, because the Person of the Word to which the humanity is joined is God, omnipotent, immortal, eternal: so likewise there is a certain communication of idioms between the Holy Spirit and the Apostles, by which communication the Apostles are said to have been made divine, spiritual, holy, on account of the divine and holy Spirit which they received; and conversely the Holy Spirit Himself is called apostolic, of many tongues, prophetic, doctor, preacher, because He made the Apostles such, and so taught and preached, speaking through their mouths and tongues. Fifth, as to fruit and effect. For just as the incarnate Word purged us from sins, illumined us, bestowed every grace, perfected us, made us blessed and led us to eternal glory: so likewise the Holy Spirit purges, illumines, perfects and beatifies us.
With the Holy Spirit. — You will ask, who, of what kind, how great is the Holy Spirit? I answer and say: First, the Holy Spirit is called the third Person of the Holy Trinity, whom the Father and the Son breathe forth, and by breathing produce — just as a man, by breathing, produces a breath, or a sigh and spirit. For just as the heart through the mouth produces breath, so the Father through the Son produces the Holy Spirit; He therefore is the breath and sighing of the Father and the Son. Or rather, just as the soul, from the intellection of a lovable thing, breathes forth and produces love of the same, so the Father, through the Word, breathes forth the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Holy Spirit is and is called Love chaste and holy, breathed forth and produced by the Father and the Son. For love is, as it were, the spirit which the affection breathes out: whence even lovers among men languish. Hence also of Wisdom, whose source is the Holy Spirit, the Wise Man says, VII, 25: "For she is a vapor of the power of God, and a certain pure emanation of the brightness of the omnipotent God."
Note: This Spirit is not external to God and sent forth and breathed forth from Him, but internal and substantial. For this Spirit is not a creature, but truly and properly God, and the third Person of the Holy Trinity, subsisting in the numerically same Deity with the Father and the Son, breathed forth and produced from them from eternity by a natural emanation, and therefore consubstantial with both, coeternal, and equal in all things. Hear Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 17: "There is one Holy Spirit, subsisting, who is everywhere present to the Father and the Son, not formed or breathed out from the speaking mouth of the Father and the Son so as to be diffused into the air, but substantial, Himself speaking and operating." Hence Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, in his confession which Gregory of Nyssa relates in his oration On His Praises, calls the Holy Spirit the image of the Son, because He proceeds from the Son as from His principle and exemplar: "One is the Holy Spirit, having His origin and existence from God, who has appeared through the Son — the perfect image of the perfect Son." And Saint Athanasius, in the Creed: "The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding." The same, sermon 4 Against the Arians, showing how in the one God there are three Persons, brings forward a similitude from the sun. For just as in the sun there are splendor and heat, which it sends forth two from itself, so in the Father there is the Son and the Holy Spirit, both of whom He produces from Himself, by generating the Son, by breathing forth the Holy Spirit: "For we do not introduce three principles, or three Fathers, like the Marcionites, since we do not adduce three suns for comparisons, but one sun, and its splendor, and one light from both." Tertullian, in his book Against Praxeas, brings other similitudes of a tree and a spring: "Third is the Spirit from God (the Father) and the Son, as the third from the root is the fruit from the shrub, and the third from the spring is the rivulet from the river, and the third from the sun is the apex from the ray. Yet nothing is alienated from the parent stock, from which it draws its properties."
I say secondly: Just as the Son proceeds from the intellect and intellection of the Father, by which the Father understands and comprehends Himself, as the adequate term of this intellection, and the consubstantial Word, and therefore is begotten and the Son, so the Holy Spirit proceeds from the will and love by which the Father and the Son mutually love each other infinitely, as the adequate term of this love and consubstantial Love, and therefore is the Holy Spirit, breathed forth, not begotten. Whence Richard of St. Victor, in his epistle to Saint Bernard, on the Procession of the Holy Spirit: "If you are rightly said to love yourself with the love of your heart, why may not the Father and the Son also rightly be said to love themselves with the love of their heart, who is the Holy Spirit?" And this is the common opinion of the Fathers: "The Father and the Son, by mutually loving each other, produce the Holy Spirit," says Francisco Suarez, On the Triune and One God, book XI, ch. II. The Holy Spirit, therefore, by virtue of His procession is notional, first, uncreated, immense, divine love, and Himself God: and accordingly He communicates this love to us when He communicates Himself with the created charity which He infuses into us, according to that of the Apostle, Romans V: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us." Hence true is that saying of the Philosopher: "God is a circle, which beginning in itself, ends in itself." For beginning in the Father to generate the Son, He ends in the Holy Spirit, who is the same God with the Father and the Son; "for God is charity, and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him," 1 John IV, 16. God therefore is charity to him to whom God is dear above all things. Again Saint Augustine, book XI City of God, ch. XXIV: "He is called the Holy Spirit as the substantial and consubstantial sanctity of both." Hence the same Saint Augustine, book VI On the Trinity, ch. V, calls the Holy Spirit "the unity, charity and sanctity of the Father and the Son." And Saint Bernard, in his sermon On Pentecost, says, "the Holy Spirit proceeds as the firmest and indissoluble bond of the Trinity." And in sermon 8 on the Canticle, he calls Him "the kiss of the Father to the Son."
Hence I say thirdly: The Holy Spirit is the first and uncreated gift of the Father and the Son, in whom they have given Him their essence with all the divine attributes, that He may be able to give and communicate the same to us; so Saint Augustine, book IV On the Trinity, ch. XX: "For the Holy Spirit, to be the gift of God is to proceed from the Father (and the Son)." The same, book V, ch. XV: "Because the Spirit so proceeded from eternity that He could be given, He was already a gift before there was that to which it would be given. For 'gift' is understood in one way, and 'given thing' in another. For a gift can exist even before it is given; but a thing-given cannot in any way be so called unless it has been given." See Saint Thomas and the Scholastics, Part I, Question XXXVIII. Hear Saint Basil, book V Against Eunomius, near the end: "The Spirit is called the image of the Son, and the Spirit of God, and word, and the Spirit of the mouth, and good Spirit, and right, and principal, and Spirit of power, and Lord, and the Spirit of God is called God, just as the Word also is." Here note that the Spirit is called "image" and "Word" improperly, by catachresis, because He is similar to the Father and the Son from whom He proceeds, although by the force of His procession He does not formally proceed as similar: for this is proper to the generation of the Son, who therefore alone is properly the image and Word of the Father, and therefore His character, splendor, and beauty. For beauty is nothing else but the splendor of the supreme Good in the Word, and through the Word shining forth in creatures.
I say, fourthly, that the very Person of the Holy Spirit is really and physically given to us, together with grace and charity, and consequently the Father and the Son also; this is clear from John xiv, 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 the abode and seat, temple and throne of God and of the Holy Trinity, is the soul of the just; and accordingly God is properly and more intimately present in it than He is in created things by essence, presence, and power. Indeed, if (per impossibile) God were not in the soul by essence, presence, and power, He would, through grace and justice, begin to be really present there, says Suarez, in the passage about to be cited, just as the Body of Christ begins to be under the species of bread by the words of consecration, and as the Deity of the Word began to be present to the humanity of Christ when He united it to Himself hypostatically; so much so that, if He had not previously been present in it, through this hypostatic union He would have begun really to exist and be present in it: for He began to be there hypostatically, that is, personally; so also here. For here is the supreme union of God between God and the holy soul, than which none greater can be given to a pure creature. For, as Saint Peter says, through it we are made partakers of the divine nature. As, then, God is really present to the Blessed, when He shows them His essence and communicates it to them to be enjoyed and possessed; so also is He in the holy soul, and accordingly soon diffuses and communicates in it His grace, charity, and other divine gifts: just as the sun, when it rises, immediately scatters its light, rays, and heat. Therefore, when the final disposition for justice has been posited, e.g. contrition, immediately God and the Holy Trinity enter into the soul, and then communicate to it their charity and grace. This is what "We will make Our abode with him" signifies. So Saint Bonaventure, in I, dist. xiv, art. 2, Question 1; ibid. the Master, Scotus, Gabriel, Marsilius, and Saint Thomas, Part I, Question XLIII, art. 3 and 6; in the same place his disciples, and Gregory of Valencia, Vasquez, and at length Francisco Suarez, book XII On the Triune and One God, chap. 5, where he adds another moral reason, namely this: Full friendship requires the presence of a friend; but justice and charity is full friendship with God: therefore God is present to the holy soul, as to His friend, and dwells in it as in His temple, that the soul may worship, love, and venerate Him as present. Wherefore Saint Basil, in his homily On the Holy Spirit, teaches that the just are made gods through grace and lead a divine life, because the Holy Spirit dwells in them, who as a soul vivifies them and moves them to every good. The words of Saint Basil are: "Man has, through the indwelling Spirit, prophetic, apostolic, and angelic dignity, although previously he was earth and ash." And shortly after: "By His grace, each of the Saints is god; for it has been said to them by God: I have said: You are gods, and all sons of the Most High. And: The God of gods (namely of the Saints) has spoken. And: The God of gods (that is, of the Saints) shall be seen in Sion. But the Spirit must be divine and from God, He who is the cause of divinity to the gods." And a little later: "As in fire there is heat, partly which it has in itself, partly which it imparts to water; so also the Spirit has life in Himself, and those who partake of Him live in a certain divine manner, having attained a divine and heavenly life. Wherefore all things are perfect in Him: love, joy, peace, tolerance, goodness, prudence, wisdom, counsel, security, piety, knowledge, holiness, redemption, faith, the workings of virtues, gifts of healings, and whatever else is similar to these. Whoever joins himself to Him, and as it were comes together into one with Him, will hear that saying of the Apostle: He who clings to the Lord is one spirit with Him." The same, in book III Against Eunomius: "As iron, which lies in the midst of fire, has not lost its iron nature, yet, ignited by the vehement action of fire, when it has received into itself the entire nature of the fire, passes into fire in color, heat, and action: so the holy virtues, by the communication which they have with Him who is holy by nature, having received it through their entire subsistence, now have sanctification as it were innate: but the difference between themselves and the Holy Spirit is this, that the Spirit is holiness by nature, while in them sanctification is by participation." Hence Cyril, Catechesis 16, calls the Holy Spirit the parish-priest of graces, that is, the bestower, the giver by office. For he is called a parish-priest upon whom the office of caring for and providing some matter incumbs.
I say, fifthly, that the Holy Spirit is indeed given to all the just, but yet He is not said to be sent to anyone, "except when he advances into some new act, or new state of grace, as for example when someone advances in the grace of miracles, or of prophecy; or in this, that out of the fervor of charity he exposes himself to martyrdom, or renounces what he possesses, or undertakes any arduous work," says Saint Thomas, Part I, Question XLIII, art. 6, ad 2. So at Pentecost He was sent to the Apostles, because He conferred on them the excellence of all gifts. The same is signified by "they were filled," namely so that, by that with which they were filled, they overflowed and poured forth into others. Excellently Richard of St. Victor, in the sermon On the Mission of the Holy Spirit, sets forth and distinguishes three degrees in this, namely the infusion, diffusion, and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Infusion is when He infuses His grace into the soul, even though He does not fill it; as when wine is poured into a vessel up to half the vessel. Diffusion is when He is diffused throughout the whole soul, so that He leaves no part of it empty. Outpouring is when He so fills it that it overflows, and pours Him out into others. And so the Apostles here, and other faithful in Acts, are said to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Hence Saint Augustine, sermon 185 On the Times: "He was present on this day to His faithful, no longer through the grace of visitation and operation, but through the very presence of His majesty; and into the vessels there flowed not now the odor of balsam, but the very substance of the sacred unguent." Nazianzen, oration 44, asserts the same. And Saint Leo, sermon On Pentecost: "The Holy Spirit is the inspirer of faith, teacher of knowledge, fount of love, seal of chastity, and is the cause of all virtue." And in sermon 2, he asserts that the Apostles received at Pentecost "the constancy of that charity which would cast out all fear and not dread the fury of persecutors; because, filled with the new abundance of the Holy Spirit, they began to will more ardently and to be able more efficaciously, advancing from the knowledge of precepts to the endurance of sufferings; that, no longer trembling under any tempest, they might trample upon the waves of the age and the elations of the world by overpassing faith, and, despising death, bring the Gospel of truth to all nations." Let us therefore invoke this holy Spirit, let us say with the Christian Poet, nay with Holy Church:
Mighty Breath, Love mighty in fire, breathable Godhead, common love of Both (Father and Son), golden flame of heaven, Holy One, come, kindle the world with holy ardors. O divine breath, breathe upon our minds. Fill us with Your breath, Your stream, Your light, Your Godhead. "Come, Creator Spirit, visit the minds of Your own, fill with supernal grace the breasts which You have created. Kindle light in our senses, pour love into our hearts: strengthening with perpetual virtue the weakness of our body. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation and confirm me with the principal Spirit." Finally, the Sage recounts very many properties, epithets, and endowments of the Holy Spirit, in chapter VII, verse 22, saying: "For in her (Wisdom, whose fount and author is the Holy Spirit) is a holy spirit of understanding, unique, manifold, subtle, eloquent, mobile, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving the good, keen, whom nothing forbids, beneficent, humane, kindly, stable, sure, secure, having all power, foreseeing all things, and which contains all spirits, intelligible, pure, subtle." Hence He is called "Spirit," not only by reason of essence and mode of proceeding — because, as I said at the beginning, He is breathed forth by the force of spirit — but also by reason of efficacy and efficiency, because He is subtle, penetrating, efficacious, etc., as a spirit, as is clear from the words just cited. "Holy" is added, because He is most pure and most holy, the fount and cause of all created holiness.
And they began to speak. — The Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit as with new wine, could not contain themselves but immediately burst forth in praises of God, and made manifest and poured forth into others the gift bestowed on them by the Spirit. For the force and fullness of the Spirit urged them to this, just as the Blessed Virgin, having conceived the Word, full of God, burst forth and sang: "My soul magnifies the Lord," etc. Excellently Saint Leo, sermon 1 On Pentecost, exclaims: "O how swift is the discourse of wisdom; and where God is teacher, how quickly is what is taught learned! From this day, therefore, the trumpet of evangelical preaching sounded; from this day, showers of charisms, rivers of blessings, watered every desert and the whole arid land." And Saint Augustine, on Psalm LIV: "Through proud men tongues were divided; through humble Apostles tongues were gathered. The spirit of pride dispersed tongues; the Holy Spirit gathered tongues." The same, in his book On Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit: "Therefore the Apostles spoke in the tongues of all Nations, because through tongues the association of the human race subsists. And it was fitting, through the tongues of all peoples, to signify that future society of the sons of God and members of Christ in all nations; so that, as then he was seen to have received the Holy Spirit who spoke in the tongues of all, so now let him recognize that he has received the Holy Spirit who is held by the bond of the peace of the Church, which is poured forth in all nations."
With diverse tongues: — both because one spoke in one tongue, another in another, e.g. Andrew in Parthian, John in Greek, James in Persian, Simon in German. You will ask: How did this happen? Some hold that the Apostles spoke only one language, namely their native one, which was Syro-Hebraic; but were understood by various peoples of various languages, just as Saint Vincent Ferrer, speaking and preaching in Spanish, was understood by Italians, French, Flemings, and English; and Saint Xavier with a single response satisfied twelve different questioners. This view is favored by what is said in verse 11: "We heard them speaking in our tongues." And because it implies a contradiction that the same man should speak in different languages simultaneously at the same time. For no one can utter at once more than one voice and one speech. So Saint Cyprian holds, in the sermon On the Holy Spirit, and Arator, Oecumenius, and Dionysius the Carthusian here. But I say that the Apostles and the individual faithful here spoke in various languages by turns and successively. It is proved firstly, because it is clearly said here: "They were speaking in diverse languages," in Greek heterais, that is, "in others and different from their native one," which was Syrochaldaic and Galilean. The Syriac: They were speaking in tongue and tongue, that is, in several tongues. Secondly, because otherwise this miracle would have belonged not so much to the speakers as to the hearers: for it would not have been in the Apostles, but in the Jews who heard them. But God willed to adorn and glorify the Apostles themselves with this gift of tongues. So Nazianzen, oration 44. Thirdly, because Isaiah promised this very thing in chapter XXVIII, as the Apostle explains in I Corinthians xiv, 21, saying: "In other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people." Hence the Apostle in the same place glories: "I give thanks to my God that I speak in the tongue of you all." This is what Christ promised them: "They shall speak with new tongues," Mark XVI, 17. Fourthly, because the Church signifies this same thing in the Mass of Pentecost, when within the Action she prays thus: "Communicating with, and celebrating the most holy day of Pentecost, on which the Holy Spirit appeared to the Apostles in innumerable (that is, very many) tongues." Fifthly, because many miracles would have been needed, if they themselves, speaking one language, had been heard by various peoples in various languages: for the voice and tongue of each one would have had to be formed individually by God in the air, and so carried to his ears. But if we say that they themselves spoke in various languages, there was only one miracle, namely the infusion of languages made to the Apostles. Now God and nature are not accustomed to multiply works and miracles without necessity. For in vain is that done by more, which can be done by fewer. Sixthly, because so hold Cyril, Catechesis 17; Saint Augustine, tract 93 on John; Saint Ambrose, on Psalm xviii, where he proves the same thing from its verse 4: "There are no speeches nor languages whose voices are not heard;" Nazianzen, oration 44; Saint Leo, sermon 1 On Pentecost; Saint Gregory, homily 30 on the Gospels, and others.
I add, however, that the Apostles, when sometimes speaking and preaching in one language, were understood by hearers of various languages; and consequently in both ways had this gift of tongues, as it were doubled. For if this was granted to Saint Vincent and other Apostolic men, much more to the Apostles themselves. Indeed, that Saint Francis Xavier had the gift of tongues in both ways is attested by the process of his canonization. Whence the Most Illustrious Cardinal de Monte, in a revelation made in the Consistory before Pope Gregory XV, professes from the Acts concerning him thus: "In the languages of various nations which he had not learned, when he went to them for the cause of the Gospel, he spoke fluently and elegantly, as if born and educated there; and it happened not infrequently that men of diverse nations heard him preaching, each speaking plainly and politely in his own language: which, accounted by that nation for the greatest miracle, not only increased [their veneration]." Indeed also afterward, in the first ages of the Church, this gift was given to many. For Irenaeus, book V, ch. 6, attests that "he heard many speaking in all manner of tongues." So Saint Basil, says Amphilochius in his Life, spoke Syriac, Greek, Armenian, and Hebrew. So Saint Anthony of Lisbon (of Padua), preaching before the Pope, was understood by hearers of various nations and idioms. So Bernardine, speaking in Latin at the Council of Florence, was understood by Greeks, Indians, and others ignorant of the Latin tongue. In these, then, that saying of Wisdom I is true: "The Spirit of the Lord has filled the orb of the lands, in this which contains all things, has knowledge of voice;" and accordingly He communicates and breathes it to His own, to whomever He wills. So even now the Fathers of our Society, who as it were Apostles travel to the Indies, write that they necessarily perceive a great facility in learning their languages, from the gift of the Holy Spirit, for converting those nations. For if nature is not lacking in necessities, much less God and the Holy Spirit. He, then, who desires fiery tongues, let him aspire to the Apostolic life and let him ardently and frequently entreat them from the Holy Spirit. Memorable is the example of Brother Gentilis the Franciscan, who about the year of our Lord 1330, having set out for Persia for the cause of the Gospel, while he was staying at Babylon, and was not making much progress in learning the Arabic language, the use of which is there, decided to return to Italy; but on the way itself a youth ran up to him, who, having learned the cause, ordered him to return, because God would impart to him the knowledge of that language: and so from that hour he spoke Arabic so well and fluently as if he had been born in Arabia. So have the Chronicles of the Franciscans, and from them Jerome Platus, book II On the Good of the Religious State, chapter 30.
Furthermore, the Apostles here received knowledge of all the languages of the whole world, because they were destined for all nations, and were Apostles and teachers of all. So Saint Ambrose, epistle 33. Now the primeval languages are counted by most as seventy: for so many were instilled, in the division of tongues at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel, into the same number of families descended from Noah. But on Gen. x, 32, I have shown that at that time there were only 35 families, and consequently the same number of languages; but from these many others have been engendered through so many lapsing centuries, many new ones also invented. I have read that in just one valley of the West Indies seven hundred languages are counted, and that very often each city has its own language, lest it be understood by the inhabitants of a neighboring city with whom it carries on hostility, nor share a language with enemies. Whether all these were instilled in the Apostles is uncertain. But it is certain that all the primeval and principal and widely-extending ones were instilled in them: likewise their dialects, and other particular ones which belonged to those peoples to whom God foresaw they were to go. For it is easy for the Holy Spirit to instill these and many more, just as it was easy for the same to instill in all the angels at the first instant of creation the species and knowledge of all things, and their signs and spiritual tongues, by which they themselves could enunciate their concepts to others and converse among themselves. Hence Saint Leo, sermon 1 On Pentecost: "There is no doubt that in that exulting concert of all human voices the majesty of the Holy Spirit was present."
From which it follows that not only the Apostles, but also the rest of the faithful (in number 120), both men and women, received this gift of tongues, especially the Blessed Virgin and Saint Mary Magdalen: for she was an Apostle, and as such preached to the Marseillais and converted them, as her Life relates. So, against Cajetan who denies this of the Blessed Virgin, teaches among others Francisco Suarez, III part., Quaest. XXXVII, disp. xx, sect. 2. For she herself was the teacher and consoler of the Apostles and of all the faithful flocking to her, as to the Mother of Christ, from the whole world for the sake of seeing her; and consequently, in order to be able to greet them in return, animate and instruct them, she had to be skilled in their language. Suarez adds that she had this gift even before the coming of the Holy Spirit; for she spoke with the three Magi in their language.
As the Holy Spirit gave them to speak. — In Greek apophthengesthai, that is, to speak excellently and sententiously, as it were divine maxims and heavenly apophthegms, says Chrysostom, not composed for elegance and pomp, but burning, and kindled by the fire of the Holy Spirit to prick and inflame the hearts of the hearers. It is improbable, what Jacobus de Valentia asserts on the Magnificat, that the Apostles here saw the divine essence as it were in passing and through a lattice, and there heard secret words which it is not lawful for man to utter: for neither to Moses, nor to Paul, nor to any Prophet or Apostle was this granted in this life, as I have shown on II Cor. xii, 4, and Exodus xxxiii, 19. Furthermore, they were speaking "the great works of God," as is clear from verse 11.
Morally: learn here that the Apostles and holy men do not speak the things which nature, imagination, or their own will dictates, but what the Holy Spirit suggests. For He dwells in their mind as the sun in the world, illuminating it; as a king in his kingdom, governing it; as a father in a family, ruling it; as a master in a school, instructing it; as a gardener in a garden, watering it. For He Himself is the light of the intellect, the ardor of the will, the awakener of memory, the bridle of fear, the anchor of hope, the salt of the spiritual taste of the soul, the medicine of the passions, the helmsman of appetites and desires.
Again, learn that everyone speaks from the spirit dominating within in the heart: for this spirit moves the heart to speak through the mouth. If it is holy, it moves to holy words; if evil and impure, to evil and impure. Do you wish, then, to know the heart and secrets of each one? do you wish to know what kind of person each is? Consider what sort of things he often and gladly speaks. If you see him delighting in vain, curious, foul, proud, envious, quarrelsome, slanderous conversations, know that his heart is vain, curious, foul, proud, envious, quarrelsome, slanderous; but if in serious, modest, humble, kindly, beneficent, wise, spiritual ones, know that he is serious, modest, humble, kindly, beneficent, wise, spiritual. "For from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," says Christ. Indeed Socrates also: "Speak, young man, that I may see you. For speech is the image and mirror of the mind." Hence the Apostles, because they were full of the Holy Spirit, belched forth nothing but holy, divine, fiery things. For a vessel exhales through its mouth the odor of that thing with which it is full inside: if full of wine, it exhales the odor of wine; if of vinegar, of vinegar; if of honey, of honey; if of stench, of stench, etc. Wherefore the Holy Spirit must be assiduously invoked by the teacher, the preacher, and every faithful one, that He may possess his heart and from it govern his tongue, so that he may teach, preach, and speak in such a way as to strike the minds of the hearers and illumine them with the knowledge of God and kindle them with His fear and love, as Saint Augustine, according to Possidius in his Life, chapter 15, relates happened to himself when preaching. So Esther, about to convert Ahasuerus, prays to God, saying: "Grant a composed speech in my mouth in the sight of the lion," Esther xiv, 13.
Verse 5: Now There Were Dwelling at Jerusalem
5. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, — that is, sojourning, residing for a time, to celebrate there the feast of Pentecost, according to the law of Exodus xxiii, 17, or for the sake of studies or piety, just as many come to Rome and stay there for several weeks or months in order to visit the holy places; others for many years, for the sake of studies or business. For from what follows it is clear that these had come from being born in other provinces. For they say, verse 8: "We have heard, each one our own tongue in which we were born, Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and they that dwell in Mesopotamia." Hence also they distinguish themselves from the Jews born and dwelling in Judea, in verse 11, saying: "Jews also and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs." Finally, expressly, in verse 7, "Roman strangers" are named among them. So Nazianzen, oration 44, Œcumenius, and others.
Note: In Jerusalem, as in the womb and metropolis of the Synagogue, there were colleges and hospices of all nations: for the Jews, dispersed among the nations, as well as proselytes, flocked together in Jerusalem both for the sake of religion and for learning wisdom and the law. Such places now exist in Rome.
Religious men. — The Syriac: fearing God; others: devoted to the worship of God; others: cultivators of God and piety, the kind whom the common people now call "devout." For they were not, by religious vows or by the three religious counsels, set apart and bound to God, as those now are: but Religious from the virtue of religion, whose proper office it is to render worship to God, due to His majesty, both because of His preeminence and excellence, and because of the benefits which we have received and perpetually receive from Him. Whence Cicero, in book II On the Nature of the Gods, holds that religion is so called from re-reading (relegere), so that those who diligently went over and as it were re-read all things pertaining to the worship of God might be called Religious. But Saint Augustine, in his book On True Religion, near the end, derives religion from binding-back (religare), as though this virtue were that which binds and ties us as a bond to God, as a creature to its Creator, a man to his God. So says Saint James, ch. I, 27: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their tribulation, and to keep oneself unspotted from this age;" because the virtue of religion does not elicit these acts of mercy, purity, and innocence, but commands them.
Excellently Saint Augustine, tract 29 on John: "What is so much yours as you? what is so much not yours as you, if you are someone's, that which you are?" For as a beast, whatever it is, belongs to a man, so much more is man wholly God's. And Saint Gregory, book X Morals, ch. x: "It is necessary that a man in all his motions be bound back under the disposition of discipline, and serve like a domestic animal bound by reins, and live restricted by eternal dispositions." And Saint Bernard, sermon On the Fourfold Debt: "Behold, at the doors is He who made heaven and earth; and He is your Creator, you a creature: you a servant, He the Lord; He the potter, you the clay. All, therefore, that you are, you owe to Him; from whom you have all, to Him chiefly as Lord, who both made you and benefited you, who furnishes you with the courses of the stars, the temperateness of the air, the fecundity of the earth, the abundance of fruits. To Him truly with all your marrow, with all your strength must you serve, lest perhaps He look upon you with the eye of indignation and despise you, and crush you for eternity." So says the Psalmist, nay Christ, in Psalm XXI: "My soul shall live for Him, and my seed shall serve Him."
From every nation. — For the Jews, on account of various persecutions, especially that of Antiochus Epiphanes, dispersed over the whole world, were dwelling everywhere among the nations, as they still dwell now. So Nazianzen, oration 44. Furthermore, God so arranged that there should be present from every nation those who, witnesses of this prodigy, returning home, would relate it among their own, and so would be the seeds of the future preaching in the whole world: so Chrysostom. These therefore were as it were the forerunners of the Apostles, and paved the way for them to evangelize. Note the "from every," that is, from very many. It is hyperbole, for they were not absolutely from every nation; because we do not read that there were here Indians, Japanese, Chinese, nor indeed French, Germans, Spaniards, Sarmatians.
Verse 6: And When This Was Noised Abroad
6. Now when this sound was made, — both of the violent noise of verse 2, for here as it were a sounding trumpet roused all the inhabitants of Jerusalem to the upper room of the Apostles, upon which it descended, as I said on verse 2: so the Syriac; and of the speech of the Apostles in various languages. Whence it is clear that the Holy Spirit instilled in the Apostles a sonorous and trumpet-like voice, as well as a burning mind, which would be heard from afar, especially when so many men, namely 120 of the faithful, came together and resounded at the same time. So Saint Jerome says of Saint Paul, epistle 61 to Pammachius: "Paul, vessel of election, trumpet of the Gospel, roar of our lion, thunder of the Gentiles, whom as often as I read, I seem to myself to hear not words, but thunders." Add, that this voice, heard by few, was divulged to many. Whence the Zurich version translates: when this rumor had grown stronger, the multitude assembled, not only because of the calling of the voice, but most of all because of the impulse of the Holy Spirit, who interiorly urged them to inquire into the cause of this voice, and on that account hear Peter's sermon, be converted and believe in Christ. So Cajetan.
Multitude, — of many thousands. For Luke says shortly after, in verse 41, that three thousand were converted from it. This upper room, therefore, through the convergence of all languages and nations, was as it were a compendium of the world and a microcosm.
And was confounded in mind. — The "in mind" is not in the Greek, but only synechythe, which first, the Syriac translates: was disturbed. Secondly, Chrysostom: they were struck, on account of fear of conscience suggesting that they had killed Christ, and that God by this crash was threatening and aiming the vengeance of that crime against them. Thirdly, Bede: "'confounded,' that is, mixed together, 'as once the speech of the whole earth was confounded, and the name of its place was called Babel,'" Gen. xi, 9. Fourthly, others say, "confounded" by shame — i.e. she blushed at so great a prodigy by which God was glorifying Christ, whom they themselves had killed. Fifthly, others: was thrown into tumult, as is wont to happen at a confluence and crowd of men at an unusual and prodigious spectacle. For some were astonished, others were asking: What does this mean? Others were mocking, saying that they were full of new wine, as is clear from verse 12. Sixthly and genuinely, "was confounded" by admiration, astonishment and sacred fear, reverence and awe at so great and so new and unusual a miracle. So Vatablus, Cajetan and others. For, as follows, verse 7: "All were astonished and marveled." Whence, explaining the cause of this confusion and at the same time the confusion itself, Luke adds:
Because each one was hearing them speaking in his own language. — Nazianzen, oration 44, doubts to what the "in his own language" ought to be referred — whether to "was hearing," that is, each one in his own language was hearing and understanding them speaking in one language, namely the native and Hebrew; or rather to "speaking," that is, each one was hearing them speaking in various languages, and consequently also in his own in which he had been born. But I say it pertains to both: for because the Apostles were speaking in various languages, hence each of the hearers heard equally in them his own language, as I said on verse 4.
Verse 7: They Were All Amazed
7. Were astonished, — existanto, that is, they were carried out of themselves as into ecstasy.
They are Galileans. — They marvel that the Galileans are polyglots, because the Galileans, of duller, but warlike in genius, were more fit for arms than for letters and languages, says the Gloss.
Verse 9: Parthians and Medes and Elamites
9. Elamites. — There are two Elams, one in Persia, the other in Media, against which Jeremiah prophesies in chapter 49. See what is said there.
Who inhabit Mesopotamia and Judea. — That is: Both those who inhabit Mesopotamia, Parthia, Cappadocia, etc., and those who inhabit Judea itself. For the Jews themselves dwelling in Judea were marveling that the Apostles, who were Jews, were speaking not only in Jewish, but in so many foreign languages, even though they themselves did not understand them. Note that the Holy Spirit instilled into the Apostles the languages of more peoples than are named here. For there are not named here Brazilians, Mexicans, Peruvians, Germans, French, whose languages the Apostles nevertheless mastered, since they were soon to be sent to them and to go to them.
And Asia. — Asia is the third part of the world, but in magnitude equal, nay greater, than the other two, namely Europe and Africa; and so it is itself as it were half of the world: for it embraces the Indies as far as China inclusive. In Asia, namely near Babylon, was the earthly paradise. Asia is twofold, greater and lesser. Hugo here takes Asia Minor, which today is the better and more fertile portion of the Turkish empire, and is called Anatolia, because, as Ortelius says in his Theatrum Orbis, anatellein means to face the East. But because this embraces Cappadocia and Phrygia, which are here recounted as it were distinct from Asia, hence others more distinctly take by "Asia" the Propontis, of which Ptolemy speaks in book V, table I of Asia, and Saint Peter, Epistle I, ch. 1, verse 1: "Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, etc." So Salmeron, Lorinus and Sanchez here, who secondly adds that "Asia" can be taken as the principal city in that region, of the same name as the province, as in Africa there is the city Africa from which the province took its name; and in Spain there are the metropoles Valencia, Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Murcia, from which entire provinces have obtained their name.
Verse 10: Libya about Cyrene
10. Libya, which is about Cyrene, — and so, from its metropolis Cyrene, is called by the Cosmographers Cyrenaica. That from this place arose Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, whom the Jews compelled to bear Jesus' cross, Gagneius and others hold; although others think he was descended from another Cyrene, which is in Cyprus, or that which is in Syria.
Roman strangers. — The Syriac: who had come from the city of Rome, namely they were Jews dwelling at Rome, who had come to Jerusalem for the cause of religion or of business.
Verse 11: Jews Also and Proselytes
11. Jews also and Proselytes. — A little earlier he had named "those who inhabit Judea:" here therefore he calls "Jews" those who, from Jews, were descended in any of the lands and nations he has recounted up to this point. For he opposes them to Proselytes, who, that is, were sprung from Gentiles, but had embraced Judaism, that is: Those whom I have named so far, "Parthians, Medes, Elamites," etc., were both Jews and Proselytes. Cajetan, by "Jews," understands those who had sprung from the tribe of Judah, and were speaking in a dialect different from the rest of those inhabiting Judea.
Proselytes. — It is a Greek word, proselytoi, that is, comers, or arrivals, namely those who, coming from the Gentiles, joined themselves to the Jews and embraced their circumcision and sacred rites. These therefore were Gentiles by nation, but Jews by religion. Note: Luke is not concerned here with the situation and order of the nations: hence he adds: "Cretans and Arabs," who, removed from the Cretans, are, in comparison with the Parthians, Medes, etc., neighbors of the Jews, indeed bordering on them. He only signifies by this enumeration that any peoples whatever, indiscriminately, heard their own language resounding from the mouth of the Apostles — not only Jews, but also Proselytes.
The great works of God, — The Syriac: the wonderful deeds of God, both formerly performed through Moses, the Patriarchs, and the Prophets; and shortly before through Christ; and now wrought through the Holy Spirit. For they were celebrating Christ's nativity, life, miracles, death, redemption, ascension, the mission of the Holy Spirit, as well as the love, condescension, and magnificence of the Holy Spirit toward themselves and the Church: just as the Blessed Virgin sang of the munificence of God toward herself by which she was made the Mother of God, saying: "My soul magnifies the Lord." The same is to be seen in the canticle of Anna, I Kings II. The tongues of the Apostles, therefore, were as it were singing harps, the organs and plectra of the Holy Spirit, sounding forth as with a ten-stringed mouth and modulating the praises and great works of God.
Verse 12: And They Marveled
12. And they marveled, — dieporoun, which the Zurich version translates: they hesitated; others: they were asking. For diaporeo signifies many things, namely: I doubt, I am ambiguous, I am of two minds and at a loss for counsel, I admire, I question, I inquire. For these affections are connected: for from admiration follows doubt; from doubt, questioning.
Verse 13: But Others Mocking Said
13. But others were mocking. — It is likely that these were Scribes and Pharisees, and their followers. For these, just as they mocked and persecuted Christ, so also Christians, especially the Apostles: for this mockery proceeded not from ignorance, but from malice — for they easily saw that the Apostles were moved not by wine, but by the Spirit of God: for there is no wine which inspires foreign languages. So Œcumenius.
These are full of new wine. — The Greek gleukos signifies both new wine, and a sweet wine and juice. Hence others here translate, "they were full of sweet wine." For they said this at Pentecost, that is in May, when there are no grapes, so that new wine and fresh wine could be pressed from them. But mocking and speaking abusively, they meant: These men appear drunk and insane, just as if they had drunk new wine. For new wine (mustum), because it is sluggish, turbid, and full of dregs, intoxicates and disturbs the brain more than old, settled wine, especially because, on account of its sweetness, it is drunk more eagerly and in greater quantity, and on account of its slipperiness easily penetrates the brain. So Oecumenius. Whence by Ovid, in book III of the Tristia, elegy X, they are called "fervid musts." And Pliny, book XIV, chap. XX: "For pugnacious musts, more is added to a heavy bout of drinking, less to mild ones." Whence Cicero also, in his book De Claris oratoribus: "Thus I would judge that that new and, as it were, fervid speech, like new wine from the vat, is to be avoided"; though others judge the contrary, namely that old wine, being more potent, intoxicates more than new wine, that is, must.
"The Jews speak truly," says Cyril, in Catechesis 17, "but mockingly. For that wine was truly new, the grace of the New Testament. But this new wine is from the spiritual vine, which already often before bore fruit in the Prophets, and in the New Testament has bloomed again. For just as the perceptible vine always remains the same, but with the passage of time bears new fruits; so also the Holy Spirit, ever remaining the same as He is, who often was at work in the Prophets, has now declared something new and wondrous." And below: "These are not drunk, as you suppose, but as it is written: They shall be inebriated with the fatness of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure. They are inebriated with a sober inebriation, which mortifies sin and vivifies the heart: an inebriation altogether contrary to that bodily inebriation. For the latter induces forgetfulness even of things known, but the former gives knowledge even of things unknown. They are inebriated drinking the wine of that spiritual vine, which says: I am the vine, you are the branches." Consider here the analogies of both inebriations, namely the bodily and the spiritual.
"Drunkenness," says Saint Bernard, in his book De Modo bene vivendi, chap. XXV, "weakens the body, ensnares the mind. Drunkenness generates disturbance of mind. Drunkenness increases the fury of the heart. Drunkenness nourishes the flame of fornication. Drunkenness so alienates the mind that a man does not know himself; nor is drunkenness anything other than a most manifest demon." Similar, but in the opposite kind, is spiritual drunkenness; and just as one drunk with wine seems an incarnate devil, so one drunk with love and the Holy Spirit seems an incarnate angel.
First, for just as bodily drunkenness takes away natural reason, so also the spiritual makes a man of a transported mind, and transfers him from natural reason to the supernatural, so that he no longer relishes earthly and human things, but heavenly and divine.
Secondly, just as a drunken man does not recognize friends, but attacks and strikes them, so one drunk with the Spirit of God does not regard parents, brothers, kinsmen, when they try to call him away from the worship of God, from religion, from martyrdom, as did the Levites at God's command in killing the idolaters, even though they were brothers, sons, and fathers, according to that saying of Moses, Deut. XXXIII, 9: "Who hath said to his father and to his mother: I do not know you; and to his brethren: I know you not; and they knew not their own children: these have kept Thy word, and observed Thy covenant."
Thirdly, just as a drunken man runs through the streets and assaults those he meets, so the Apostles ran through the world assaulting kings and princes, and subjugated them to Christ.
Fourthly, a drunken man is most cheerful, and so are the Apostles. Hear Saint Bernard, in his treatise De diligendo Deo: "Then indeed He inebriates His most beloved ones, then He gives them to drink of the torrent of His pleasure: since indeed in that most close and most chaste embrace of the Bridegroom and Bride, the flood of the river maketh the city of God joyful."
Fifthly, wine inflames a man, and so do the charity and grace of the Holy Spirit. Whence Saint Bernard, in the same place: "Hence that sober inebriation gulping down the truth, not unmixed wine: not soaked with wine, but burning for God." And in sermon 49 on Canticles, explaining that text of Canticles: The King hath brought me into the wine cellar, He hath set in order charity in me: "The Bride is drunk, but with love, not with wine, unless that love is wine. The Apostles were drunk, but with the Holy Spirit, not with new wine." This sober and holy inebriation the eminent Saints drink in the Eucharist, of which the Psalmist, Psalm XXII, 5: "And my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it!"; and Zechariah, chap. IX, 17: "For what is the good thing of Him, and what is His beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?" See what is said there.
Sixthly, a drunken man exhales and belches forth the wine and the surfeit with which he is full, sings and shouts: so also the Apostles "were boiling with new wine, and with the boiling new wine the tongues of the nations flowed forth," says Saint Augustine, sermon 486 De Tempore. And in sermon 488: "For they had now been made new wine-skins, renewed by the grace of holiness, so that, filled with new wine, that is, with the Holy Spirit, they were fervent in speaking all tongues, and by that most evident miracle prefigured the future Catholic Church spread through the tongues of all nations."
Seventhly, a drunken man boiling with wine, spirited and pugnacious, fears nothing, but fearlessly rushes upon swords and fires. Hence the Cossacks and other soldiers about to fight fill themselves with burnt wine (brandy), and full of it breathe nothing but battles and threats: so the Apostles, formerly most timid, after receiving the Holy Spirit became most spirited, breathing nothing but war against unbelief, impiety and the devil, and fearlessly into dangers, prisons and martyrdoms they completed [their course]. Hear the drunken Apostle: "Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? etc." Rom. VIII.
Eighthly, drunkenness brings forth insanity. For, as Anacharsis used to say, the first cup that is drunk is of necessity, the second of mirth, the third of pleasure, the fourth of insanity: so those drunk with the Spirit become insane to the world and to worldly things. Beautifully Saint Bernard, in the treatise De Natura divini amoris, chap. III: "Hear the holy insanity: 'Whether we be transported in mind,' says the Apostle, 'it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for you.' Do you wish to hear insanity beyond this? 'If Thou forgive them this sin,' he says, 'forgive them; but if not, blot me out of the book of life,' Exodus, chap. XXXII. Do you wish another? Hear the Apostle himself: 'I wished to be anathema from Christ.' This was the inebriation of the Apostles at the coming of the Holy Spirit, this the insanity of Paul, when Festus said to him: 'Thou art beside thyself, Paul.' Was it any wonder he was pronounced insane, who in the very peril of death strove to convert to Christ his very judges, by whom he was being judged for Christ? It was not much learning that produced this insanity in him, as the King said, understanding the truth but dissembling; but, as has been said, the inebriation of the Holy Spirit, in which He sought to make those, both in small things and great, like to Himself, who were judging Him. And to omit the rest, what greater, what more unlooked-for insanity than that a man, having left the world, longing and burning to cleave to Christ, should for Christ's sake again, by the necessity of obedience and fraternal charity, cleave to the world; tending toward heaven, plunge himself into the mire? This is the youth Benjamin, who in his mental ecstasy perceives nothing of his own, but only Him into whom he has wholly passed over. With this insanity the Martyrs were insane, laughing amid torments. Why should I not here say what the lascivious Poet said in the fervor of his lust: 'It is pleasant to be insane'?" As wine, then, so also love makes insane. This is to be seen in those who love some woman desperately: what do they not do, what do they not attempt, what dangers do they not face, that they may obtain her favor? They think of nothing, dream of nothing, speak of nothing except her, as if insane. The same, but more powerfully, does kindled love and zeal for God, which so inebriates a man that he thinks, dreams, speaks of nothing other than God and the things of God. For he desires everywhere to celebrate God and to allure, indeed to impel, all to the worship and love of God. Wherefore he says and does many things which worldly men reckon insanity. Finally he chooses daily for God's sake to undergo a thousand dangers, labors, and deaths.
Graphically does Saint Augustine describe this inebriation, sermon 185 De Tempore, whose thoughts therefore, full of the Spirit, I will here transcribe verbatim, for the favor and benefit of the reader. Thus then he says: "By this new wine the hearts of the faithful and the souls of those being converted are inflamed and daily inebriated by this excellent cup. This we see often happens, when for the desire of their salvation they flee parents and their fatherland. They go forth, no one compelling them, from their land and from their kindred; and being dead to this world, they spiritually seek other parents of souls, and as children come under the yoke; and those a little before exalted and lofty pursue lowly things, despise proud things, and desire to be what they had previously despised: and they begin to hate what they had been. Guests of the present, seekers of things to come, they sigh for that eternal fatherland, the falsehood of temporal things being despised. With this new wine, therefore, spiritual souls inebriated and inwardly transformed, prefer abstinence to delights, vigils to sweet sleep, poverty to riches. They reckon arduous labor against the vices the most pleasant pleasure: vile things become sweet to them, and those which previously had been precious, become vile: they love their enemies, and do good to those who hate them. They are not overcome by the indignant, not provoked by reproaches; not broken by injuries: in short they feel none of these things on account of the fervor of the Holy Spirit and on account of the eternal reward. With this spiritual unmixed wine the Martyrs were warm, when, casting off and flinging behind them all the blandishments of the world, they went to their passions, forgetting their possessions and affections, their patrimonies and marriages, and overcoming the affection armed against them by the weeping of their little children, with parents indeed crying out, casting dust upon their heads, and mothers tearing their faces with their hair plucked out. But they, as though drunk, saw none of these things, nor recognized their own: because, with the Holy Spirit poured into their hearts, they hastened to sufferings, to torments, as though to consolations and to rewards."
Verse 14: But Peter, Standing Up
14. But Peter, standing up, — as the Primate of the Apostles and head of the Church. Hence he alone speaks for all, and gives the explanation of the prodigy, and solemnly promulgates the Evangelical Law. At Pentecost it was fitting that by Peter, as the vicar of Christ, this first and solemn promulgation of the law of Christ should take place in Sion, by which the old law was abrogated, so that thenceforth it ceased to bind, as Saint Thomas and the Theologians everywhere teach. Moreover Peter raised himself and stood up, that he might be seen and heard by so many thousands. Whence also he lifted up his voice, that is, he cried out with elevated voice. For it is likely that so many thousands could not be contained in the upper room, but stood around it in the neighboring places and in the very square; unless one says with some that Peter led the crowd out into the temple and there delivered this sermon to them.
Tropologically: The word "standing" signifies constancy and loftiness of mind in Peter after the receiving of the Holy Spirit, who before had quailed at the voice of a maidservant and denied Christ. Hear Saint Chrysostom, hom. 4 on Acts: "Peter was the mouth of all, pleads the cause of the faith for all, instructs all by his teaching: he is himself the principal asserter of the faith, is held the principal Catechist, and was the first preacher of the word, and first gathered the Church, and that not from Jerusalemites, and from the Jews dwelling round about; but from the Parthians, Medes, Phrygians, Libyans, Egyptians, Arabians, sojourning Romans and others. And He who was appointed by the Lord to be the shepherd of all began to gather sheep from all nations: He taught them the faith, and at the same time the Apostolic customs, namely to renounce all things, to come together in prayer, and in the breaking of bread taught by Christ."
Verse 15: For These Are Not Drunk
15. For these are not drunk, etc., seeing it is the third hour of the day. — From sunrise the day for the Jews was twelve hours, which they divided into four parts, namely the first, third, sixth, and ninth, assigning three hours to each. The first was reckoned from sunrise, and comprised three hours; when these had elapsed, the third followed, with as many hours, after which at midday came the sixth, which, according to Plutarch in book VIII of his Symposiacs, Question VI, is among nearly all nations the time and hour of the noonday meal. Hence the noonday meal (prandium), Plutarch says, is so called as it were par' endion, that is near to midday or noon. So Josephus in his Life, and from him Baronius, hand down that the Jews were accustomed to abstain on all feast days until the sixth hour.
From this it is evident that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the morning, namely at the third hour from sunrise: and this, first, because at that time men, awake after sleep and fasting before food, are wont to be more fit for receiving God's inflowings. Secondly, because for the same reasons the hearers were more suited to consider this prodigy and to listen to Peter's preaching. Thirdly, because that hour, says Bede, was among the Jews appointed for prayer, as it is now also among Christians. Wherefore Masses are wont to be celebrated at this hour, because at the same hour the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles as they prayed, says Rupert, book X On the Offices, chapter 18. Fourthly, because Christ was crucified at the third hour, namely as it was ending, says Saint Mark, chapter 15, verse 25, who therefore at the same hour fulfilled what He had promised in life and merited on the cross, namely the mission of the Holy Spirit, says Saint Cyril, Catechesis 17. Symbolically Hugh: "The third hour signifies that a third law is to be given to the world. For the first was the law of nature, the second that of Moses, the third that of Christ."
Verse 17: I Will Pour Out of My Spirit
17. I will pour out of My Spirit. — That is, I will pour out My Spirit, as our Translator renders it, Joel chapter 2, verse 28. It is a Hebraism. I have expounded this oracle of Joel at Joel chapter 2, verse 28, for to that it pertains; therefore what I said there I will not repeat here.
Verse 22: A Man Approved of God
22. A man approved. — apodedeigmenon, which Pagninus renders, designated; the Tigurine, exhibited; Vatablus, demonstrated, namely whom He showed by many signs to have been sent by Himself; Tertullian, book On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 15, destined; the Syriac, who appeared from God; Our [translator], approved by God, namely whom God by many demonstrations proved to be His Son and ambassador. There is therefore no need to say with Erasmus that our Translator read apodedeigmenon as deriving from apodechomai, that is, I receive, I approve; indeed this reading gives a cold and alien sense. For Luke does not mean to say that Christ was received by God, but rather demonstrated and proved to the world by many prodigies.
Among you. — The Syriac, among you; Pagninus and the Tigurine, toward you, namely for your sake, that He might provide for your souls and bodies and save you in both [parts of] man.
By mighty works, and prodigies, and signs. — These three are the same, or nearly the same, with only a difference in connotation; but they are joined together for the sake of emphasis, in order to signify the multitude and greatness of Christ's miracles. For miracles are called virtues — in Greek dynameis — because they are works of virtue, that is of the omnipotence of God, which surpass the powers of men and angels. The same are called prodigies, because they are portentous and astonishing, especially when they take place in the air or in the heavens. The same are called signs, because they signify things either future or present, e.g. that Christ, their Author, is the Messiah, the Son of God; both because Isaiah and other Prophets foretold that the Messiah would perform such things, and because Christ performed them with this end, that He might prove to those Jews that He was the Son of God.
Verse 23: Delivered Up by the Determined Counsel
23. Him by a determined counsel. — He says this, lest the Jews think that Christ was crucified by chance, or by necessity and violence; that is: Do not suppose that you by your own strength inflicted force upon Christ, and that He was unable to escape your hands; this was decreed from eternity in the council of the Holy Trinity, and consequently by Christ Himself, in that He is God: therefore freely and willingly He Himself underwent death and offered Himself to it. For He could have withdrawn Himself, He could have withered you all up, slain you, indeed annihilated you. Rightly Tertullian, Apology, chapter 25, mocks the Gentiles, that they subjected the gods and Jove to fate: "That wretched consort and sister of Jove was utterly unable against the fates (to defend Carthage against the Romans). Jupiter himself stands fast by fate."
Morally Saint Chrysostom: "Peter tries to free them from the crime, as Joseph once did his brothers, by whom he had been sold, saying, Genesis chapter 45, verse 8: Not by your counsel, but by God's will I was sent here." And chapter 50, verse 19: "Do not fear; can we resist God's will? You thought evil concerning me, but God turned it into good, that He might exalt me, and save many peoples." Secondly, by "by a determined counsel," he signifies how willingly and freely Christ underwent the passion, and worked out the things foreordained by God, says Oecumenius.
And by foreknowledge. — Unskillfully and impiously Calvin and Beza, instead of foreknowledge, render it providence and decree. For they hold that God is the author of all works, both evil and good, e.g. both of the betrayal of Judas and the calling of Peter; both of the crucifixion of Christ and the conversion of Saint Paul. For they hold that God is the first cause of all things and of all actions, and consequently that all actions, both bad and good, which take place in time, were decreed and sanctioned from eternity that they should come to pass, and that by the force of this decree God in time procures and effects that they come to pass. Whence it follows that God is the author of sin, equally as of virtue: which is an impiety and blasphemy horrendous even to the Gentiles and unheard of in all ages. This Peter here excludes by saying prognosei, that is by foreknowledge, that is by previous knowing and previous seeing, namely whereby He foresaw the impious wills of the Jews, which would eagerly receive Christ delivered and set before them by Himself (which the Greek labontes signifies) and put Him to death. This therefore was the order and combination of God's foreknowledge with His decree. God foresaw by His omniscience that the Scribes and Pharisees would at such a time and place be so impious and perverse, that, if He set Christ before them, especially Christ reproving their crimes, they themselves would attack Him and crucify Him. Then He decreed and said: I will to set Christ before them, and I will that He Himself suffer and undergo the cross and death to be inflicted by them, that by it satisfaction may be made for the offense and injury done to Me through the sin of Adam and his posterity, and so the human race may be redeemed and saved. Foreknowledge therefore was of the Jews' impiety, but the decree was of Christ's passion and our redemption. This is what the Theologians proclaim by a common axiom: The action displeased, the passion was pleasing. The action, namely the slaying and crucifixion of Christ done by the Jews, supremely displeased God, because it was a monstrous parricide, indeed a Christicide and Deicide. But the passion of Christ, undertaking this cross, supremely pleased God, because it was an act of supreme humility, obedience, charity, and religion, by which He offered Himself as a holocaust to God for us. See Saint Leo, sermon 16 On the Passion. God could have decreed and commanded some King or Prophet to immolate Christ, just as He commanded Abraham to immolate his son Isaac. But He would not, because it was not fitting. He preferred therefore to use for this the impious wills of the Jews, which He foresaw would certainly exist at such a time and would certainly do this.
You will say: Granting this foreknowledge and decree of God, it was infallible and necessary that Christ be killed by the Jews; for God's foreknowledge cannot be deceived, and therefore it is impossible that what He foreknows will be should not come to pass. Therefore, granted this foreknowledge of God, it was necessary and fated that the Jews kill Christ. Wherefore their killing was necessary; how then was it free for them?
I answer: Necessity, like impossibility, is twofold: one antecedent to the free act, or the consent of free will; the other consequent upon the same. The antecedent removes liberty and makes the consent of the will not free, but necessary. Such is God's decree, just as the efficacious and predetermining grace which Calvin posits. For this alone produces the act in the will, with the will freely co-operating in nothing. Consequent necessity does not take away the liberty of the act, but follows it and presupposes it. Such is the necessity of God's foreknowledge; for this follows the free act and presupposes it. For God saw that the Jews would kill Christ because they themselves would freely kill Him, if He set Him before them; not on the contrary, the Jews killed Christ because God had foreseen they would kill Him — for this is false. For seeing follows and presupposes the thing seen, as it were its object: for that which is not, cannot be seen: therefore it must first be, and then as it were as something posterior it follows that it can be seen, and is actually seen, as Saint Augustine rightly teaches, book V City of God, chapter 10.
You will press first: God's foreknowledge is from eternity, but the free act takes place in time: God's foreknowledge therefore is prior to the free act. Therefore the necessity of foreknowledge is antecedent to liberty, not consequent. Therefore it takes away liberty from the free act, and imposes necessity upon it, because whatever precedes the free act in such a way that the act necessarily follows from it, that determines the act and makes it necessary, not free. But such God's foreknowledge appears to be.
I answer: The necessity of foreknowledge is antecedent in time, but consequent in causality. For it precedes the free act in time, indeed it preceded from eternity, yet objectively it follows the same, and in the genus of material cause. For God by His foreknowledge anticipates the existence of future things, and from afar, as from a high watchtower of eternity, foresees acts which will come to pass after many ages. Therefore in time He precedes them, but objectively He follows them. For it is prior that a thing be future, than that it be foreseen as future by God; just as it is prior that a man walk, than that he be seen walking by me. As therefore my vision, by which I see Peter walking, does not impose on him the necessity of walking — because, notwithstanding it, he can whenever he wishes cease from walking and stop — so too God's foreknowledge does not impose necessity on future free acts: because, notwithstanding it, the will can cease from them whenever it wishes, indeed do the opposite, and so take away God's foreknowledge, and bring it about that God no longer foresees them. Therefore the necessity of foreknowledge is not simply antecedent to liberty, but consequent, since it follows and presupposes the free consent of the will, even though in time, indeed in eternity, it precedes it.
You will press secondly: It is impossible that these two be combined and stand together as true, namely that God foreknow an act as future, and yet that it not be, that is, not be future. Therefore, granted that God foreknow it as future, it necessarily comes to pass; but it is granted that God now foreknows it, therefore now it is necessary that at some time it come to pass and be future.
I answer: This impossibility and necessity is from the supposition of the future act, and therefore is consequent, not antecedent. For the reason it is impossible that what God foreknows as future not be future, is because it is impossible that what is future, and therefore is foreknown by God to be future, not be future; but just as it is future freely, so too God foresees it as freely future: therefore His foreknowledge imposes upon it no necessity by which it must necessarily come to pass. This necessity therefore is no other than that by which a thing, while it is, necessarily is; while it is past, is necessarily past; while it is future, is necessarily future: which follows the thing and the existence of the thing, and therefore does not take away liberty, but presupposes it. Thus Antichrist will sin freely; yet, granted that he will sin, it is necessary that he sin. For it is impossible that the same thing at once be future and not future, or that the same thing at once be and not be. So, granted that I see Peter walking, it is necessary that he walk: for I cannot see that which is not; and yet Peter walks freely, because he can take away my vision by not walking.
You will press thirdly: That which is seen and foreseen is already outside its causes, and already exists, and is in the state of having-been-done: therefore it is impossible that it not exist, and be undone: therefore it exists necessarily, not freely.
I answer: A free act can be considered in two ways: first, as it is in coming-to-be; second, as it is in the state of having-been-done: in the former way it is free, in the latter necessary; for it freely proceeds from the free election of the will, in such a way that it is in the power of the will to elicit it, or not to elicit it, or even to elicit the opposite; nevertheless, after it has proceeded, it cannot not have proceeded; both of these God foresees by His foreknowledge: for He foresees that it freely proceeds from the will, and after it has already proceeded, that it cannot not have proceeded, and therefore in the prior consideration that it is free, in the latter that it is necessary: for He foresees the matter as it occurs in itself, and contemplates the whole order and manner of it both as it begins and as it is completed. I have said these things in passing because of the objections of certain people who wonderfully torture themselves over them: but by the single distinction of necessity into antecedent and consequent, and by the other distinction, by which the act is considered now as in coming-to-be, now as in having-been-done, the whole matter is easy and is clearly seen, just as is the harmony of efficacious grace and predestination with free will; for both rest upon God's foreknowledge. For efficacious grace is that which so attracts and entices free will, that it persuades it and elicits its effect, namely the free assent of the will: therefore it is not efficacious, and consequently cannot be foreseen, unless it is foreseen that the free will will freely allow itself to be bent by it, and that it will accept it and freely consent to it, although it could easily refuse it and dissent from it, if it wished. The same is true of predestination, which rests upon efficacious grace, and consequently upon God's foreknowledge. For predestination is nothing other than the preparation of grace, namely God's decree by which He decrees, e.g., to give Peter efficacious grace and continue it until the end of his life. Calvin did not understand this, and therefore held God's foreknowledge and predestination to be as it were an inevitable fate, which takes away from man free will; just as on the contrary Cicero so established free will that he denied God's foreknowledge; and that he might do away with fate, he did away with providence, and so while he made men free, he made them sacrilegious, says Saint Augustine, book V On the City of God, chapter 9 and following.
From what has been said it follows, that some common people falsely blame God's foreknowledge, and cast upon it their lots and chances, indeed even their damnation or salvation. Saint Augustine, book On the Good of Perseverance, chapter 15, narrates and rebukes a certain Religious of his monastery, who, when he was reproved for his faults, used to reply: "Whatever I now am, such I shall be as God has foreknown that I shall be." He should rather have said: "Such God has foreknown that I shall be, as I shall have willed to be either by sinning through myself, or by acting well through God's grace." For neglecting the care of his salvation by that axiom of his and casting it upon God, at last deserting the monastery, he became like a dog returned to its own vomit.
Delivered up. — Ekdoton, that is exposed; the Syriac, set apart. Note: Christ was delivered up, both by the Father, Romans 8:32, and by Himself, Galatians 2:20; and by the devil, John 13:2, and by Judas, by the Jews, by Pilate, to death and the cross: but passively and objectively by the Father and by Himself; while by the devil and the rest of his followers actively and positively. Again, with a different end, for by the Father and by Himself He was delivered up that He might save the world; by the devil, that he might impel the Jews to the parricide of Christ; by Judas, through greed for the price; by the Jews, through malice; by Pilate, through fear. So Origen and Saint Thomas on Matthew 26.
By the hands of the wicked. — These words can be referred both to delivered up, which preceded: for Christ was delivered up by the hands of the wicked Judas and his accomplices, to the high priests Annas and Caiaphas; and to those affixing, namely to the cross, as the Syriac has it; for Christ was affixed to the cross by the hands of wicked soldiers.
Verse 24: Whom God Has Raised Up
24. Whom God has raised up, having loosed the sorrows of hell. — This "of hell" Irenaeus also reads, book III, chapter 12; Saint Augustine and others in him, epistle 99 to Evodius, and the Syriac, who renders it, having loosed the cords of the lower regions. For the Hebrew חבל chebel signifies both a cord and a sorrow: because sorrow is like a cord binding, constraining and squeezing, and sharply pricking the afflicted one. But the Greek has lysas tas odinas tou thanatou, that is loosing the sorrows of death, and this is clearer and plainer. But the matter comes back to the same thing, for death and hell are as it were the same, because formerly before Christ all who were dying went into hell. Hence to be held then by death, or by hell, seemed to be the same: for the soul after death went to hell, the body to the tomb. Whence concerning the raising up of both He adds, verse 27: "Because You will not leave My soul in hell, nor will You give Your holy one to see corruption."
You will ask, what are the sorrows of death and hell, which God loosed in raising up Christ? First, Calvin holds that they are the penalties, anxiety, and despair which the damned suffer in hell. For he holds that Christ took upon Himself this which was owed by us, to be expiated in Himself, and that He therefore despaired on the cross, when He cried out: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" But this is no less stupid than blasphemous and impious, as I have shown at Hebrews 5:7.
Secondly, others have judged that here it is signified that Christ in dying liberated the damned from hell, and Saint Augustine seems to suggest this, epistle 99. But this is the heresy which the same Saint Augustine reviews and refutes, heresy 79, and Saint Gregory, book VI, epistle 179. Better do others hold that Christ at His death liberated either all, or most, from Purgatory, and gave them the first and plenary indulgence, as I have said at Zechariah 9:13.
Thirdly, others from the Syriac hold that here the sorrows or cords of death are called the powers of death, by which as by cords [death] was binding and holding the dead body of Christ in the tomb, and His soul in hell.
Fourthly, Cajetan from Saint Thomas judges that the sorrows of death and hell are called the penalties which Christ's body in the tomb, and His soul in hell, naturally and by common lot and right was suffering, which were two. The first, that the soul was separated from the body, as from its companion, toward which it has a natural inclination, so that it was as it were maimed and mutilated in the other part of itself. The second, that it was being detained in a place so vile and lowly, such as the tomb and hell are. But all sorrow and penalty of Christ was ended at His death. And it is certain that Christ's soul was not detained in hell, nor His body in the tomb, by way of vengeance or punishment, or satisfaction for any sin; but this was for His dead body as it were a debt of nature and a convenience, while for His soul it was rather an honor and a triumph: because through it Christ as a conqueror of hell and liberator of the Patriarchs descended thither.
Fifthly, others answer that Christ loosed the sorrows or cords of hell that were prepared to bind Him, just as they had bound and do bind all others who die — that is, He shook them off and dispelled them, and brought it about that He was not bound by them. Again, in fact He loosed them in others who were held bound by them in limbo or Purgatory, when He liberated them from there and led them out. So Saint Augustine, epistle 99. This sense is probable and apt.
Sixthly, Saint Chrysostom and Oecumenius answer that these sorrows were not Christ's, nor of the faithful, but of death itself: "For death, in detaining Him grieved, just as the whale, when Jonah had been swallowed, as it were grieved, and therefore vomited him up," that is: God through Christ's resurrection liberated death itself from sorrows as of one in childbirth: for death and hell, not willing to bear in their womb so great a burden and weight as Christ, were as it were suffering pain when they enclosed Him whom they could not hold and contain. But this is more subtle than solid and genuine.
Seventhly, therefore, and genuinely, the sorrows of death and hell are called metonymically the most grievous sorrows which bring death upon men and send their souls into hell, that there they may be detained and dwell perpetually as in darkness and an inescapable prison. Hence that of Psalm 17:5: "The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell surrounded me, the snares of death overtook me," to which Peter here alludes. Whence for sorrows of death, the Translator, II Kings 22:5, renders, the contritions of death; and for sorrows of hell, he renders, the cords of hell. For the Hebrews metaphorically call sorrows חבלי, chable, that is, cords, because in the manner of cords they constrict and afflict. So Saint Basil and Theodoret on Psalm 17, and Suarez, III part, Question 52, disputation 43, section 1.
The sense therefore is: God raised up Christ, having loosed the sorrows of death and hell, that is, having overcome through Christ's resurrection death and hell with all the sorrows accompanying it — namely both those preceding in the agony, passion, and cross; and those which usually follow it in hell — that is: God through the rising Christ dissolved and destroyed the kingdom of death and hell, with all their sorrows and miseries. Again, by hypallage, sorrow of death and hell can be taken as a sorrowful death, or a deadly and infernal sorrow; such as a lethal disease or torment, which by its bitterness tears and wrenches the soul from the body — that is: Through the resurrection God loosed and abolished death, which in Christ was most sorrowful. To this is added the exposition of Ribera on Hosea chapter 13, verse 14, who explains it thus: "having loosed the sorrows of death," that is, loosing and undoing what death had effected through so many sorrows and torments, namely that Christ's soul be separated from the body, when, separated, He united it again to the body in the resurrection. For death and hell, by their miseries and sorrows as by cords, seemed to hold Christ's soul and body bound up and imprisoned, so that there appeared to be no hope of going forth from there and returning to life. But God dissolved these bonds and these cords, when He led Christ back from them to light and life, restored to life. To death, or to hell, He gives the epithet and title "of sorrows," both because death in itself is full of sorrows: whence "of all terrible things the most terrible is death," says Aristotle; and because it properly signifies the sorrows of Christ, which in the passion and death He had very many and greatest, so much so that they surpassed all the sorrows of all the Martyrs. So Saint Leo, sermon 1 On the Ascension: "After the passion, when the bonds of death were broken, which by attacking Him who knew no sin had lost their force, infirmity passed into virtue, mortality into immortality, ignominy into glory."
Tropologically Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine, on Psalm 17: The sorrows of hell, they say, are the enviousness of those who detract, calumniate, and reproach, which work an infernal death, and hurl the soul into the second death and hell, such as Christ suffered from the Scribes and Jews, even while hanging on the cross, when He heard from them: "Aha! You who destroy the temple of God, and in three days rebuild it: save Yourself. If You are the Son of God, descend from the cross," Matthew chapter 27, verse 40.
According as it was impossible that He be held by it. — Namely by hell and death: both because Christ was most innocent and most holy, while death and hell are the penalty and prison of sinners; and because Christ's divinity, like the strength and power of His humanity, could not be enclosed and held by death and hell, but rather Christ as conqueror, ruler and triumpher closed them with His own hand and power, indeed dissolved, weakened, and abolished them.
Verse 25: I Foresaw the Lord
25. For David says concerning Him. — Concerning Him: so the Syriac, namely concerning Christ. Or, "into Him," that is in His person, says Cajetan, for David said these things in the person of Christ:
I foresaw the Lord in My sight always. — That is: In every action, passion, cross and death of Mine, I looked forward to the Lord and set Him before Me, courageously and with steadfast hope doing and enduring all things, as it were contending for God in His sight; just as soldiers fight fiercely while they are in the sight of their commander. For I knew that I was continually being beheld by God, and consequently in turn I continually beheld Him, saying with Elijah: "As the Lord lives, in whose sight I stand," III Kings chapter 17, verse 1; and consequently I fixed all My hope, love, and affection upon the Lord beholding Me, certain that from every tribulation He will deliver Me, and from death raise Me up to a glorious life. Whence He adds: "For He is at My right hand," as a shield-bearer, protector, and defender, "that I be not moved," etc. "And My flesh," crucified, dead, and buried, "will rest in hope" of the resurrection, namely that on the third day You will raise it from death to life. So all the Saints have walked in the sight of God, thinking that they always and everywhere have God present, and operating and suffering all things in His presence, and therefore through all things they strove to please Him. For this is a sharp goad to virtue. Whence Saint Ephrem, sermon On Virtue, chapter 10, asserts that "by continual remembrance of God the passions of the soul retreat, after the manner of evildoers when the praetor approaches." Hence God commanded Abraham: "Walk before Me, and be perfect," Genesis 17:1. See what is said there. Saint Basil, Admonition to a spiritual son: "Remember that you stand beneath the gaze of the Lord, who sees the hidden things of the heart and knows the secret things of the mind. Whatever work you have begun, first invoke the Lord, and do not cease to give thanks when you have completed it. Seek the Lord, and you will find Him: do not let Him go when you have held Him, that your mind may be joined in love of Him. Strive at this in your life, that you may offer pure prayer to God. Such as you desire the Lord to be toward you, such be you yourself toward your fellow servant. In every work which you think to do, first examine whether what you are thinking is according to the Lord. And if it is right before God, accomplish it; but if it be found contrary, cut it off from your soul."
He is at My right hand. — That is: To Me, Christ, in that I am man, God the Father is most near at hand and stands by, that He may protect Me, preserve Me, and raise Me up; while God the Son stands by Me as a hypostasis and supposit sustaining Me, through the hypostatic union, which He will never dissolve: and therefore even though in death the soul be separated from the body, yet the divinity will remain united to each; just as one who breaks bread with his hand separates the parts of the bread from one another, yet retains each by his hand, the one with the right, the other with the left.
That I be not moved. — "But that I may abide steadfastly in Him," says Saint Augustine, on Psalm 15.
Verse 27: Thou Wilt Not Leave My Soul in Hell
27. Because You will not leave My soul in hell. — Therefore it is of faith that Christ's soul after death descended to the lower regions, as the Apostles' Creed has it. So Saint Ambrose, sermon 74 On the Martyrs; Saint Jerome on Psalm 15; Saint Augustine, epistle 99, and others everywhere. Ineptly therefore and impiously Beza, following Calvin, renders it: "You will not leave my corpse in the tomb;" transmuting soul into corpse, hell into tomb, by an unheard-of metamorphosis with theatrical levity. For he himself with his Calvin denies that Christ descended to the lower regions, and so in fact removes this article from the Creed: "He descended into hell," when he so interprets it that it is the same as He descended into the tomb: for, he says, it explains (rather it obscures, depraves, and overturns) what preceded: "And He was buried." Ineptly, I say. For — to be silent of other things — soul is here opposed to flesh. For concerning the flesh it preceded: "My flesh will rest in hope;" and there follows: "You will not give Your Holy One to see corruption," namely in the tomb. But concerning the soul by antithesis He subjoins: "You will not leave My soul in hell." Secondly, because the Greek hades always signifies hell, never tomb. See Bellarmine, book IV On the Soul of Christ, chapter 12. Note this "because": for this word gives the cause of what preceded: "And My flesh will rest in hope," that is: Therefore My flesh will safely rest in the tomb in hope of resurrection, because You, Lord, will not leave My soul in hell, as You foretold and promised through David, Psalm 15, but on the third day will lead it back from hell to the tomb, that it may put on the flesh again, vivify and glorify it.
Ineptly again Calvin and Brentius hold that to descend into hell is the same as to be extinguished, to perish and pass away, that is — says Calvin — You will not allow My soul to perish and be extinguished, because it is sustained by the divinity. Whence you would rightly infer that the souls of other men, which are not sustained by the hypostatic union of the divinity, perish and are extinguished, just like the souls of brute beasts. See here how Calvin paves the way for atheists and atheism.
Nor will You give Your Holy One. — (אַל תִּתֵּן al titten, that is, You will not allow, You will not permit.) In Greek it is a masculine expression, ton hosion sou, by which Christ is denoted, who is the Holy One par excellence, namely the Holy of Holies, that is: You will not allow, O Lord, that I, Christ, be corrupted as to the body, because I am the Holy of Holies, whom corruption does not befit, but incorruption and immortality. Where note: The hypostatic union alone was not sufficient (although it required this) to preserve Christ's body from corruption; but beyond it there was required a physical action of the divinity, which would preserve the body and protect it from air, humors, and other things which usually corrupt and putrefy dead bodies. Whence Saint Augustine, on Psalm 15, expounds this passage thus: "Neither will You allow the sanctified body, through which others are to be sanctified, to be corrupted." The same Durandus and Gabriel extend to the blood poured out by the suffering Christ, whom our Suarez cites and follows, III part, vol. II, disputation 47, section 3, namely that this blood during the three days of Christ's death was not corrupted, as the blood poured out by other men is wont to be corrupted, because the divinity of the Word, to which, equally as before, it remained hypostatically joined, kept it from corruption, as Suarez there proves at length, and says that this seems to have been defined by Clement VI and Pius II. The contrary, however — namely that Christ's blood during the three days of His death was corrupted, yet remained hypostatically united to the Word — is not improbable: for although it was corrupted as to the vital form (whether that be the soul or another) which it had had in the living body of Christ, yet it remained incorrupt as it were under the form of a corpse adapted to itself; and in the manner in which that blood remained as it were dead, or as it were a corpse of blood, so likewise it remained united to the Word.
To see. — That is, to feel, to experience. It is a catachresis: for sight, the most noble of all the senses, is put in Scripture for any sense whatever: here it is put for touch.
Corruption. — The living body of Christ saw corruption, because it died: for death is the corruption of man and of life. But Christ's dying body did not see corruption — in Greek diaphthoran — namely putrefaction and reduction to ashes. For the bodies of other men after death putrefy: from the putrefaction worms and toads are born, which feed upon the flesh down to the bones: which done, they themselves, lacking nourishment, die, putrefy, and are dissolved into their elements, earth and water. The corpse therefore goes off into rottenness and worms, then into earth, and so is fulfilled the first sentence of God against sinning man: "Dust you are, and into dust you shall return," Genesis 3:19. But Christ's body was exempt from this sentence, both because it was exempt from sin and holy; and because it was hypostatically united to the Word; and finally because by His passion He merited dominion over death and corruption, and their extermination through the raising up of Himself and of us.
Verse 28: Thou Hast Made Known to Me the Ways of Life
28. You have made known to Me the ways of life. — (The Syriac: You have made manifest, You have shown, You have displayed) the ways (Hebrew and Syriac, the way) of life, that is, You have led Me back and called Me back from death and hell to life. For the resurrection and glorification of the body are the ways by which Christ has advanced to immortal and glorious life, and will make us advance in the universal resurrection. Whence for "You have made known to me," the Hebrew is הוֹדִיעֵנִי todieni, which, since it is future in Hiphil, properly signifies, You will make Me teach, make known, demonstrate the ways of life, so that I may show and display them, both to the Patriarchs and Saints to rise with Me, and to My faithful who will rise on the day of judgment by My power. These are called ways of life, both because they lead to the new life of those rising; and because they lead to heaven, which is the land of life and of the living. Hence the Theologians teach that Christ in this life was a wayfarer until the resurrection, operating and meriting for us salvation, for Himself the resurrection: although at the same time He was a comprehender, because His soul saw the essence of God, and by that vision was blessed.
Tropologically Saint Augustine, on Psalm 15, expounds: "You have made known through Me the ways of humility, that men might return to life, whence they had fallen through pride; in which, because I am, You have made [them] known to Me." For Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Saint Bernard, sermon I on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul: "Do you think it is a small thing to know how to live? It is something great, indeed the greatest. He does not live who is puffed up by pride, who is defiled by luxury, who is infected by the other plagues; because this is not to live, but to confound life and to draw near even to the gates of death. But I consider a good life to be both to suffer evils and to do good, and so to persevere unto death." And a little later: "I judge that you who are in the congregation live well, if you live in an orderly, sociable, and humble way. In an orderly way toward yourself, sociably toward your neighbor, humbly toward God. In an orderly way, that in every conversation you may be careful to observe your ways, both in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of your neighbor: guarding both yourself from sin, and him from scandal. Sociably, that you may strive to be loved and to love, to show yourself gentle and affable; to bear not only patiently but even gladly the infirmities of your brothers, both of character and of body. Humbly, that when you have done all these things, you may strive to blow away the spirit of vanity which is wont to arise from such things; and however much you feel it, refuse it consent." And Saint Ambrose, sermon 22: "The Martyrs, just as they have experienced the way of Christ's passion, so will they experience also that of life. For it is written: You have made known to me the ways of life. This is said in the resurrection from the person of the Savior, as one who, when after death he returns from the lower regions to the upper," and consequently were no longer in the tomb. For it is more true that the Saints who rose with Christ did not return to death and the tomb, but rose to immortal life and, glorious and triumphant in body and soul together with Christ, ascended into heaven. For this befitted Christ's triumph, that when He triumphed in His glorious body, He should likewise have the Saints, in body, as followers and attendants of His triumph, whom, as captives and spoils snatched from death, He, triumphing, would lead with Himself into heaven. This also befitted the Saints themselves, for whom it would surely have been more wretched to die again than desirable to rise to so brief a life. Add that their souls were already blessed, and so it was fitting that they be united only to glorious and immortal bodies. So Origen, Saint Jerome, Bede, Anselm, Saint Thomas on Matthew xxvii, 58; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata bk. VI; Eusebius, Demonstratio bk. IV, ch. XII; Epiphanius, heresy 75, and the Recent commentators generally.
Verse 30: Of the Fruit of His Loins
30. Of the fruit of his loins. — For in the loins is the origin of the seed, which descends from them through the veins into the members destined for generation. The fruit therefore of the loins — or of the womb, as the Syriac renders — are offspring and descendants. Note: the Greek text here adds kata sarka anastesai Christon, that is: knowing that God had sworn to him concerning the fruit of his loins, namely Christ, that He would raise Him up, or that He would rise again, according to the flesh (for to anastesai may be rendered either actively, "about to raise up," or passively, "about to rise again"), whom He would set upon his throne. Or, as Œcumenius has it: when He had sworn to set upon his throne one from the fruit of his womb, foreseeing Christ rising again according to the flesh, he spoke of His resurrection. But these words are found neither in the Syriac nor in our Latin Interpreter, and the sense is complete without them. Hence Erasmus suspects that they were added in the margin in the Greek by some half-learned man to whom the sense seemed not sufficiently clear and complete, and were afterward transferred from there into the text.
And his sepulchre is with us. — That is: David's body has lain in its tomb up to this very year; therefore it has been corrupted, putrefied, and reduced to dust. Therefore David did not prophesy of himself but of Christ when he said, "Thou wilt not give Thy Holy One to see corruption." Note: Saint Peter speaks cautiously, "his sepulchre is with us," not "his body" or "his flesh," because it appears that David, a little before, had risen with Christ from the tomb together with the other Patriarchs — Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. — Matt. xxvii, 53, and so was no longer in the sepulchre.
To sit upon his throne — to occupy the kingdom of his father David and to sit, as it were as king, upon his throne. This kingdom of Christ was not temporal, like David's, but spiritual and eternal. Christ's kingdom, then, is the Church — first in Judea, then scattered throughout the whole world, now militant, and at the end of the world to be triumphant. For Christ restored the fallen line and kingdom of David, but in a more august and noble form: for an earthly kingdom He substituted a heavenly one, for a perishable one an everlasting one. This restoration of His kingdom, promised by the Prophets, the Jews in Christ's time eagerly awaited, as they still await it. Hence Gabriel, announcing to the Mother of God the conception and incarnation of Christ in Luke I, 32, says: "He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give to Him the throne of David His father, and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Wherefore in vain do the wretched and abject Jews still wait for that carnal, paltry, and transient kingdom of their Messiah.
Verse 31: Foreseeing
31. Foreseeing, — proidon, that is, foreseeing in advance. So the Syriac.
Because He was not left in hell, — as to His soul; but His soul, going forth from there to the tomb, took up again its own flesh, and rose gloriously with it.
Verse 33: Being Exalted by the Right Hand of God
33. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, — that is, by the right hand, that is, by God's mighty power and operation, as conqueror and triumphator over sin, death, the devil, and hell, He gloriously rose again and ascended into heaven.
Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. — That is: Christ received from the Father the power of promising and sending the Holy Spirit; or He received from the Father the ability to send into the Apostles the Holy Spirit whom He had promised them. For God the Father in a way promised the Holy Spirit to Christ, and Christ to us.
He hath poured forth this (the Holy Spirit) which you see (in tongues of fire) and hear, — through our mouth speaking in various languages the great things of God. From this the Fathers prove against the Arians that Christ is God. For "how is He not God who gives the Holy Spirit? Indeed, how great a God is He who gives God?" says Saint Augustine, On the Trinity bk. XV, ch. xxvi.
Verse 34: For David Did Not Ascend into Heaven
34. For David did not ascend into heaven. — That is: Therefore David, when he says in Psalm cix, as I shall presently cite, "Sit at My right hand," is not speaking of himself but of the risen Christ, because He ascended into heaven and sits at the Father's right hand, and from thence poured out the Holy Spirit upon us. At Rome a certain learned Christian Rabbi assured me that Saint Peter said this against the metempsychosis of Pythagoras: for Pythagoras held that souls migrated from one body into another. This error infected the Hebrews also, so that it forms part of their ancient Kabbalah: hence their Kabbalists say that "Adam" has three letters, each signifying an illustrious man — the first is A, signifying Adam; the second is D, signifying David; the third is M, signifying the Messiah or Christ. These three, they hold, make up Adam, that is, as it were one man, because Adam's soul migrated into David, and from David into Christ. For this reason Saint Peter here strikes at that error, saying that the soul of Christ, not David's, ascended into heaven. So he himself argues. For otherwise, who does not know that David is dead and has not ascended into heaven? Or who else has ever raved and said that David ascended into heaven, that this should need to be refuted by Peter here? It supports this view that for a similar reason Herod thought the soul of John the Baptist, whom he had killed, had migrated into Christ, Matt. xiv, 2. And the Jews think that Phinehas's soul migrated into Elijah, and Elijah's soul into John the Baptist. Hence they ask him, "Are you Elijah?" John I, 21.
And he himself said. — From this it is clear that David is the author of Psalm cix, not Melchizedek, nor Eliezer Abraham's servant, nor anyone else, as the Rabbis pretend. For David sings in that psalm not of the kingdom of Abraham, nor of David, nor of Hezekiah, as the Jews dream, but of the kingdom of Christ — His reign through the resurrection and ascension, in heaven and on earth, by which from Zion He began to reign over all nations until He shall crush the impious on the day of judgment.
He said. — Hebrew נאם neum, that is, an utterance, declaration, pronouncement, decree, an oracle of the Lord concerning Christ my Lord.
The Lord (God the Father) said to my Lord. — Hebrew אדוני adoni, that is, to Christ, who, though He is my son — David's, that is — is yet also my Lord, not only as He is God, but also as He is man. For as man, by the right and title of redemption, and equally by the hypostatic union, by which He immeasurably surpasses all men and angels, He is the Lord of all men and angels, and consequently mine, that is, David's. So "said" God the Father to Christ as man, ascending in triumph into heaven:
Sit Thou at My right hand, — that is, reign next to Me in My highest glory. So Saint Jerome and Theodoret on Psalm cix. How Christ sits at God's right hand I have explained at length on Colossians III, 1. Christ in Matt. xxii and Saint Paul in Heb. I, 13 cite this verse of Psalm cix, and from it prove that Christ is greater than the angels and is God: for Christ as man obtained this lordship over David and all men not by the power of His humanity but of the hypostatic union, because He is not a mere man but a God-man.
Verse 35: Until I Make Thy Enemies Thy Footstool
35. Until I make Thy enemies (on the day of judgment) Thy footstool, — that is, that being utterly conquered they may be made subject to Thee and Thy feet, prostrated as a vile footstool. So Sapor, king of the Persians, made the conquered Emperor Valerian his footstool: for he offered his back as a stool for Sapor's feet when mounting his horse, as Eutropius and Victor say in their account of Valerian. Tamerlane did the same to Bajazet, the conquered and captured Emperor of the Turks. Note: the word "until" does not mean that Christ will sit at God's right hand only up to that point, as though He would not sit and reign thereafter; but rather the contrary, as if to say: Sit and reign with Me until I subject all enemies to Thee, when Thou shalt sit and reign far more, for Thou shalt rule not only with Me but over the whole world, because I shall subdue all enemies to Thee. A similar instance is Matt. I, 25: "He knew her not until she brought forth her son," that is, the Blessed Virgin did not conceive of Joseph, because he did not know her until the birth; much less did he know her after the birth. By "enemies" He calls the unbelievers, the Saracens, pagans, heretics, and all the impious who refused to submit to Christ and obey Him.
All the house (that is, the whole family, the whole posterity, the whole nation) of Israel, — that is, of the patriarch Jacob.
Verse 36: God Has Made Both Lord and Christ
36. Because God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus. — That is: God the Father has raised Jesus to this height of dignity, that He should be Lord of all and Christ, that is, Messiah, that is, anointed with the fullness of grace, of which we have all received: He raised Him up, I say, by the very act by which He united Him in the incarnation to the divine Person and nature. Wherefore the Arians wrongly twist these words against the divinity of Christ, as if Peter said: Christ was not God and Lord through the divine nature, but was made and so denominated by God the Father through a communication of divine authority and power. For Saint Peter is speaking of Christ not as He is God, but as He is man: for Jesus is the proper name of this Man, and as man He was made Lord of all and Christ and Redeemer of the world, when He was crucified by the Jews. So Saint Cyril, Thesaurus bk. IX, ch. III; Saint Basil, Against Eunomius bk. IV, and others. Wrongly also Theodore of Mopsuestia, teaching that Christ was a mere man because by His own sanctity He merited the conjunction with the divine nature, was wont to prove the same point from this passage. Hear Vigilius: "In the above-cited 39th chapter again, that which Blessed Peter said in Acts II, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Spirit and with power, expounding it, he says: by the anointing of the Spirit which He merited, and that He was made immaculate in all things, and merited conjunction with the divine nature — which words plainly signify Christ to be a mere man. Therefore whoever thus thinks, teaches, believes, or preaches, let him be anathema." So Pope Vigilius in the Vatican codex, which Baronius cites under the year of Christ 553, p. 417.
Whom you have crucified. — Here is a great goad with which Saint Peter, with wonderful boldness and sincerity, pricked the hearts of the Jews, as if to say: See what a great crime you have committed, for you have crucified Jesus, that is, the Savior of the world, who is the Lord of all and the Messiah, that is, your Christ. Hence Saint Chrysostom notes that many of the Jews who had cried out against Christ before Pilate, "Crucify, crucify Him," were present at this sermon of Peter, and being pierced by it converted themselves to the Christ whom they had crucified.
Verse 37: They Were Pricked in Their Heart
37. They were pricked, — with deepest sorrow and contrition, that they had killed and despised Christ. Which here should we wonder at more — Christ's power toward His own parricides, or His clemency, or rather both? For His clemency called them to repentance and received them, when they repented, into His grace, and held them in the place of dearest sons. His power pricked their hostile and stony minds, and moved them, and made them benevolent and friendly, so that they loved the Christ whom before they had supremely hated. This is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High. This is the power of compunction.
Excellently Saint Bernard, treatise On the Manner of Living Well, sermon 10: "Mary Magdalene by compunction and tears merited to hear from the Lord: Thy sins are forgiven thee. Good compunction is a desirable treasure and an unspeakable joy in the mind of man. The soul that has compunction in prayer makes progress toward salvation. The tears of penitents are reckoned with God in the place of baptism. Compunction of heart is the soul's health. Compunction of tears is the remission of sins. Compunction draws back the Holy Spirit to itself, because when the mind is visited by the Holy Spirit, immediately a man weeps over his sins." Then he adds four causes and motives of compunction: "For we weep for our sins, and for the misery of this world, and for compassion for our neighbor, and for the love of our heavenly reward. He wept for his sins who said: I will wash my bed every night, I will water my couch with my tears. The same man groaned over the miseries of this world when he said: Woe is me, that my sojourn has been prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Kedar, my soul has long been a sojourner. Out of compassion the Lord wept over Lazarus and over the city of Jerusalem, saying: If thou hadst known, even thou. The Apostle Paul also, who taught us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, sorrowed out of compassion, saying: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Out of love of the heavenly reward the just used to weep, saying that of the Psalmist: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, while we remembered thee, O Zion." The truly heroic act and effect of compunction, however, is the one which Saint Chrysostom assigns in his second book On Compunction, saying: "This is the true compunction of a humbled heart: to do great things and speak humble ones, to work just deeds and to fear and tremble over sinners."
Verse 38: Do Penance and Be Baptized
38. Do penance. — For penance before baptism the required and necessary thing is contrition — not perfect contrition, which is sorrow for sins arising from the love of God (because by it a man loves above all things that God whom he formerly offended), which Navarrus in his Enchiridion ch. 1, n. 38, nevertheless requires; but imperfect, which by Theologians is called attrition, and is sorrow for sins arising from the fear of hell and damnation. For with this disposition in place, baptism, which is the regeneration of the soul, infuses into it grace, as it were the new and first life of the Spirit. Otherwise, if perfect contrition were required, since this proceeds from the perfect love of God and therefore justifies and vivifies a man, it would follow that life is required before life; nor would baptism regenerate, but contrition prior to it. Penitents being baptized, however, ought to be aroused to true contrition, as the more perfect disposition — just as here Peter, although they were already pricked, urges them to increase, declare, and perfect their compunction.
Let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, — that is, in the faith, profession, power, merits, and baptism of Jesus Christ (not of John the Baptist, or of the Pharisees, who had many baptisms of their own), believing and confessing that He is the Christ and the one Mediator set forth by God the Father for obtaining the remission of sins, justice, and salvation. Moreover, the baptism of Christ is that which is conferred in the name of the Most Holy Trinity by saying, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." For the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity (since baptism is the confession and profession of this) must be expressed explicitly and distinctly in baptism. For although on this matter some long ago doubted, nay denied, that it was necessary — judging it sufficient that the baptizer say, "I baptize thee in the name of Jesus Christ," because this seems to be said here — yet the Church has declared and defined the contrary. See Francisco Suarez, Part III, vol. III, disp. xxi. Add that perhaps the Apostles in those first times added to the form of baptism the name of Jesus Christ by saying: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit," so as to win for this new name faith, love, and reverence. Wherefore it is certain that Saint Peter, before he baptized these penitents, catechized them and taught them the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and the other articles of the Creed; and then baptized them in the name of the Holy Trinity. All this Saint Luke summarizes in saying that he said: "Let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." For, as Saint Augustine notes in Against Maximinus bk. III, ch. xvii, one Person of the Holy Trinity does not exclude another but includes Him: wherefore Scripture sometimes names one, sometimes another, sometimes all, to signify that all three are of the same essence and power. And Theophylact, at the end of his commentary on the Gospel: "The name of Christ, that is, of the Anointed One, contains in itself the Father who anoints, the Spirit which is the anointing, and the Son who is anointed."
Tropologically Saint Chrysostom, hom. 42 on II Corinthians: "Since we live through Jesus Christ who has died, we ought certainly to live for Him through whom we live." And Saint Bernard, sermon On the Fourfold Debt: "To Christ Jesus you owe your whole life, because He laid down His own life for yours, and bore bitter torments lest you should bear them eternally." And after much else he concludes thus: "Therefore when I have given Him whatever I am, whatever I can do, is not that as a star to the sun, a drop to the river, a stone to the mountain, a grain to the heap?" The same, in the treatise On Loving God: "If I owe my whole self for my being made, what shall I now add for my being remade, and remade in this manner? For my remaking was not as easy as my making; for He who once made me only by speaking, did indeed in remaking me speak many things, do wonderful things, and endure hard things — and not only hard, but unworthy ones. In the first work He gave me to myself; in the second He gave Himself; and where He gave Himself, He gave me back to myself. Given therefore and given back, I owe myself for myself, and I owe doubly. What shall I render to God for Himself? For even if I could repay myself a thousand times over, what am I in comparison with God?" The same, sermon 20 on the Canticle: "He is plainly worthy of death who refuses, O Lord Jesus, to live for Thee, and is dead; and he who has no taste for Thee is a fool; and he who cares to exist for any reason but Thee is reckoned as nothing, and is nothing. Thou, O God, hast made all things for Thy own sake, and he who wishes to be for himself and not for Thee begins to be nothing among all things."
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. — First, you shall receive the Spirit Himself, who is God's first and uncreated gift, as I have shown on verse 4. Second, you shall receive grace and justice, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Third, Francisco Suarez, treatise On the Sacrament of Confirmation, disp. xxxii, sect. 1, takes "the gift of the Holy Spirit" to mean the grace of the sacrament of Confirmation, which is the singular and excellent gift of the Holy Spirit. Hence Scripture attributes to the sacrament of Confirmation this effect, that it confers the Holy Spirit, as is plain from Acts viii and ch. xix. For of old, when adults were baptized, the sacrament of Confirmation was conferred upon them immediately after baptism.
Verse 39: For the Promise Is to You
39. For the promise is to you, — to you, as sons of Abraham, belongs the promise made to Abraham concerning Christ, namely that through Him all nations should be blessed, that is, justified and saved, Gen. xxii. This promise, then, is concerning Christ, and consequently concerning the Holy Spirit, whom they were to receive in baptism just as the Apostles did, if they should believe in Christ.
To all who are far off, — from God, the Church, the faith, and salvation — that is, to the Gentiles, to whom the Apostle says in Eph. II, 12: "You were at that time without Christ, alienated from the conversation of Israel, and strangers to the testaments, having no hope of the promise, and without God in this world. But now in Christ Jesus you who at one time were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ."
Verse 40: Save Yourselves from This Perverse Generation
40. He testified, — διεμαρτύρετο, that is, with witnesses called in he affirmed, confirmed, and attested that his words and doctrines about Christ were true. These witnesses were both the Scripture and the prophecies concerning Christ, and the recollection of the sanctity and miracles of Christ's life and passion, and the Apostles themselves and the rest of the faithful, and indeed the Jews themselves, who had seen Christ's life, miracles, and death.
He exhorted. — The Syriac: he demanded, or earnestly besought of them.
Save yourselves from this perverse generation. — As if to say: Through faith and baptism in Christ and a Christian life, separate yourselves from this faithless and impious age, namely from the unbelieving and impious Jews and Gentiles, so that you may save your souls. Excellently Saint Eucherius, in his letter to Valerian: "True blessedness is to despise the world's blessedness, and, neglecting earthly things, to burn with desire for the divine. Let that endless chain of secular business be broken. Nothing is great in reality which is brief in time; nor is anything stretched out into long joys which is shut in by a narrow end."
Morally note that conversation with the worldly and the impious is dangerous and leads to eternal ruin. For few are so strong and steadfast as always to resist so many evil examples, talks, invitations, mockeries, threats, and the like of the impious, and not let themselves be bent by them to their ways. He therefore who is wise, like Lot, will flee from Sodom, lest he be burnt up in its fire. For that of Ecclesiasticus xiii is true: "He who touches pitch shall be defiled by it; and he who has fellowship with the proud shall put on pride." And that of Saint Jerome, epistle 7: "The imitation of evil men is easy, and the vices of those whose virtues you cannot attain you quickly imitate." For, as Saint Cyprian says in his book On Spectacles, "nothing is easier than for pride to beget pride, anger anger, and finally for every vice to beget a vice of its own kind in the minds of others, not only when they are unaware and inattentive, but often even against their will." An example is Saint Augustine, who in Confessions bk. II, ch. iii and ix, deplores the fact that as a youth, among his peers boasting of their vices, he himself was spurred not only to do the same things but even to invent things he had not done, lest he should seem the more abject the more innocent he was, or be held the cheaper the chaster he was. He says that wicked companions are a too contagious thing, when one says, "Let us go, let us do it," and one is ashamed not to be shameless. Similar to this sermon of Peter is the sermon of Saint John in I John ch. ii, where he says: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life." And Saint Leo's 5th sermon On Lent: "All things are full of dangers, full of snares. Lusts incite, allurements lie in wait; gains flatter, losses deter; the tongues of slanderers are bitter, and the mouths of those who praise are not always truthful." Wherefore wisely Saint Bernard, epistle 103: "Blessed is he who has not gone after those things which when possessed weigh down, when loved defile, when lost torment." See Saint Ambrose, On the Flight from the World.
Verse 41: There Were Added That Day Three Thousand Souls
41. They were added — to the Church and to the assembly of the faithful, who were then gathered in small number, namely 120, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended. So Jeremiah L, 5: "They shall be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant."
Souls, — men. It is a synecdoche: for the part is put for the whole.
Three thousand. — See here the fruit of Christ's blood; see also the fiery tongue of the Holy Spirit, hurling fiery words through Peter's mouth like darts, by which He kindled and inflamed the whole assembly of hearers with the love of Christ. These were the first-fruits of fervor and of the Spirit.
Verse 42: Persevering in the Doctrine of the Apostles
42. And they were persevering, — προσκαρτεροῦντες, that is, enduring with great and continuous insistence and steadfastness. See what was said on ch. 1, 14.
In the doctrine of the Apostles, — by hearing it, meditating upon it, ruminating on it.
And in the communication of the breaking of bread. — In Greek, "in the communication and breaking of bread." "In the communication," namely of goods, says Vatablus; and of services of mutual courtesy, says Cajetan, as if to say: the first Christians shared their wealth, possessions, and services with great charity, for all things were common to them. But about this community of works Luke will speak in verse 44. Wherefore our Interpreter better took the "and" as exegetical, equivalent to "that is," as is often the case elsewhere; or rather judged it to be a hendiadys, in which one thing is said by two, as in Virgil: "He bit the gold and the bridles," that is, the golden bridles. So "in the communication and breaking of bread" means "in the communication of the breaking of bread," or "where the communication was the breaking," or simply "in the breaking of bread." Otherwise the word "communication" lacks a genitive, nor is it explained of what thing this communication was.
Hence for "communication" the Greek has κοινωνία, that is communion or common union, by which name the Eucharist is called by Saint Paul and the Fathers for four reasons. The first is that it is itself the table and the common food, at which all the faithful sit together and communicate. Hence the Greeks consider that the supper (cœna) is so called as if from κοινήν, that is, "common." The second, because in the Eucharist we share in entirely one and the same individual food, namely the body of Christ, which does not happen at other meals, where one takes one part of the food and another another. Hence Saint Chrysostom, homily 88 on Matthew, says, "We through communication with the body of Christ become one mass"; and Cyril of Alexandria, On John bk. IV, ch. xvii: "Just as wax is mingled with melted wax, and as fire insinuates itself into red-hot iron, so are we mingled with the body of Christ," and consequently with His divinity; and so we become "one body and one blood with Christ," nay, Christ-bearers. Wherefore Isidore of Pelusium, bk. I, epistle 228, asserts that "it is called communion because of the conjunction with God, and because it makes us partakers of the kingdom." This is what Paul says, I Cor. x, 16: "The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not the communication of the blood of Christ? and the bread which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord?" Where he also adds the third reason, saying: "Because we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread," as if to say: the Eucharist is the common union of all the faithful, for it unites all to the same body of Christ, and consequently unites all among themselves. For things which are the same as one third thing are the same among themselves. Wherefore Saint Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy ch. III: "The most divine, shared and peace-giving communication of one and the same bread and cup ratifies for them, as for fellow-banqueters, a divine conjunction of manners"; and adds that the Eucharist is "the consummation and perfection of all the Sacraments." Finally, the Eucharist, by uniting us to Christ, communicates to all and to each Christ's blood, passion, and merits.
Of the breaking of bread. — Beza and the heretics, and some Catholics, take this to mean common bread, as if to say: the Christians had common tables and held common feasts. But this is the praise not of Christians but of Epicureans. I say therefore that in Greek it is τοῦ ἄρτου, that is, "of that bread," namely the Eucharistic and divine. Hence the Syriac plainly translates, "of the Eucharist": for this name, though Greek, has been retained by the Syrians as well as by the Latins. And it is clear from the circumstances: for this breaking of bread is set between the doctrine of the Apostles and the prayers. It was therefore of the same order, namely spiritual, just as those things were spiritual, not carnal. For Luke alludes to the words of his own Paul, I Cor. x, 16, cited a little earlier, where he calls the Eucharist "the breaking of bread," for the reasons I have rehearsed there; to which add that the first Christians after the Eucharist held a common feast, which on account of its being a symbol of charity they called the agape, in which they broke and ate the same bread and food — concerning which I have spoken on I Cor. xi, 24. Now these things took place soon after the first Pentecost and the visible descent of the Holy Spirit. After it, then, the Eucharist immediately began to be frequented by the faithful, and from this came their great fervor. In memory of this, the feast of Corpus Christi, instituted by Pope Urban IV, was by him commanded to be celebrated on the Thursday after the Octave of Pentecost. For, as Saint Thomas says in the Office of the Church for that feast, "it is fitting that we should specially recall the institution of so great a Sacrament at that time at which the Holy Spirit taught the hearts of the disciples to know fully the mysteries of this Sacrament: for at that very time this Sacrament began to be frequented by the faithful."
Note here the three principal duties and exercises of the first Christians, to be imitated and frequented by us as far as we are able. For first they persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles: so let us also persevere in sermons and in hearing, reading, and ruminating on the word of God. "For he that is of God hears the words of God," says Christ, John viii, 47. The word of God is the light of the soul and the seed of prayer, of meditation, and of all good works, according to that of Psalm cxviii, 105: "Thy word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths."
The second is the holy communion of the Eucharist, by which we are united really and substantially to Christ Himself. For just as food is united to the body and is converted into it, so Christ as a kind of food is united to us — yet He converts not Himself into us, but us into Himself, according to that which Saint Augustine said: "You will not change Me into yourself, but you will be changed into Me." For this reason the first faithful communicated daily, as Saint Luke here intimates, and this was the chief cause of their great holiness and perfection. The same thing the Abyssinians under Prester John are said to do even now. This is what we pray in the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread," in Greek ἐπιούσιον, that is, "supersubstantial," as the Interpreter of Saint Matthew translates, ch. vi, 11. Hence Tertullian, in his book On Prayer, last chapter, says, "the prayer is to be resolved by receiving the body of the Lord." For this reason the faithful of old used to take the Eucharist home, especially in time of persecution, and daily received it, that they might arm themselves for martyrdom; and this was the cause of the fortitude of so many Martyrs, as Saint Cyprian teaches in his On Spectacles and the Exhortation to Martyrdom. Wherefore the Council of Florence teaches that the effect of the Eucharist is the increase of grace, and every effect which material food produces in the body. And below Pope Eugenius adds: "The effect of this Sacrament, which it produces in the soul of one worthily receiving, is the union of man with Christ; and because by grace man is incorporated into Christ and united to His members, it follows that by this Sacrament grace is increased in those who worthily receive." And Trent, sess. xiii, ch. ii, teaches that "this Sacrament was instituted as the spiritual food of souls, by which they are nourished and strengthened, living the life of Him who said: He that eats Me, the same shall also live by Me; and as an antidote by which we may be freed from daily faults and preserved from mortal sins."
Hence it is called "bread," but bread that is sacred and transubstantiated — not only because it has the appearance of bread, but also because at every meal bread is used; whence panis is so called from pascendo (to feed). Hence too among the Hebrews any food or sustenance is called "bread." The Eucharist, however, feeds the soul with every kind of nourishment; it is therefore bread and more than bread.
Excellently Saint Cyprian, On the Lord's Supper: "He who eats of this bread shall not hunger any more; he who drinks shall not thirst any more; because the grace of this mystery so suffices and the understanding of it so refreshes that to whomsoever the fullness of so great a thing has become known, having found the end of all consummation, he as bearer of Christ shall carry Him in his breast, bear Him in his mind, and at all times the words and deeds of His indweller, in harmonious jubilation, shall resound His praises and chant thanksgivings. This intoxication does not kindle but extinguishes sin: in this wine is no luxury, nor is lust moved to play after this drink. When forgetfulness has lulled to sleep all the mockeries of the flesh, wondrous are the things he feels, great are the things he sees, unheard-of are the things he speaks: he whom this paschal Lamb inhabits — whose soul the strength of this pure wine gladdens and delights with inexplicable cheerfulness."
The third is prayer, by which we praise God, give Him thanks, and ask for and obtain new grace. Note here in passing that Luke describes in three words the rite and order which the first faithful kept in their assemblies and synaxes: first, they heard the word of God; second, they communicated; third, they sang to God hymns, psalms, and spiritual canticles, as I have shown on I Cor. ch. xiv. For these three things are necessary to the Church and to every one of the faithful, and are as it were her soul and life. For just as for bodily life three things are required, namely sun, bread, and breath or respiration, so just as many are required for the spiritual life — namely a spiritual sun, that is, the word of God; spiritual bread, that is, the Eucharist; and spiritual breath, that is, prayer: for by this breath we draw and drink in from heaven the divine Spirit, according to that of Psalm cxviii, verse 131: "I opened my mouth and drew in breath." These three were foreshadowed by three vessels in the old temple, namely in the Holy Place, which were the seven-branched candlestick, the table of the bread of the presence, and the altar of incense; for the candlestick represents the word of God; the table of bread, the Eucharist; the altar, prayer, for this is the incense most sweet-smelling and most pleasing to God, as is clear from Apoc. viii, 3. Furthermore, "perfect prayer," says Saint Bernard in the treatise On the Nature of Divine Love, chapter III, "is one in which there is such great faith that it hopes for all things; such great devotion that God seems to be compelled (as was the case with Saint Catherine of Siena, who said: Lord, I will not let You go unless You grant me this or that soul, virtue, or grace); such great love that whatever it asks, it feels itself to obtain in the very act of prayer; such kindly humility that in all things it prefers not its own will, but God's will to be done in it." Such was the prayer of these first faithful, and therefore whatever they asked of God, they immediately obtained.
Bread. — From this passage it is gathered that it suffices for laymen to receive the Eucharist under one species of bread, and that the other, namely of the chalice, is not required. For as the number of the faithful grew immensely, it was difficult and almost impossible to give the chalice to all. Add to this that many are abstemious and shrink from wine; and that among such a great number there was an evident danger of irreverence and the spilling of the blood, especially in a crowd of the rude and rustic. The heretics object that under "bread" the chalice is to be understood; for it is certain that the Apostles and priests offered the sacrifice, in which the consecration both of wine and of bread is required. I reply: Luke here is not speaking of the sacrifice of the priests, for which both species are required, but of the communion of the lay faithful, in which, since he mentions only bread, we gather that bread alone was given and distributed in the crowd of so many thousands.
Verse 43: Fear Came upon Every Soul
43. And fear came upon every soul. — "Fear" here was a certain sacred awe and reverence, by which, seeing the fiery tongues and hearing the fiery words, they feared and venerated the Apostles as celestial and divine men, who could work miracles, and, with Elias, call down fire from heaven and hurl it upon their enemies. Thus "fear first made gods in the world," says the Poet. Thus, having seen Christ's wonders, the crowds are said to have feared, in Luke vii, 16: this fear was nothing other than religion and reverence toward Christ, conceived from His miracles. So Matthew, ch. ix, 8, when the paralytic was healed by Christ, says: "The crowds feared," in Greek ἐθαύμασαν, that is, they marveled; for fear, or reverence, is an effect of wonder. Hence Saint Luke, narrating the same thing in chapter v, 26 of the Gospel, writes: "Astonishment seized them all," ἔκστασις, that is, ecstasy, namely fear flowing from stupor and bursting forth into the glorification of God. Behold how the Holy Spirit makes the Apostles, who were before timid as deer, terrible to all as lions. Behold how great is the power of holiness, which even the wicked revere and shudder at.
Wonders. — For by these the new and first faith concerning Christ was to be confirmed by God, so that through them it might become credible to men; otherwise they would have believed rashly. Wherefore similar things are to be demanded and required from heretics who bring new doctrines, if they wish to be believed. Truly Richard of St. Victor, On the Trinity, Book 1, ch. II, says: "If what we believe is an error, we have been deceived by Thee: for these things have been confirmed in us by those signs and wonders which could be done by none but Thee."
And there was great fear in all. — These words are lacking in the Greek and Syriac, because they are the same as what preceded: "And fear came upon every soul," and they amplify and emphasize it.
Verse 44: All Who Believed Were Together
44. Also all who believed were together. — In Greek ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, they were in one place; the Syriac, they were together; the Tigurine and Pagninus, they were joined, not that they dwelt together; for this was impossible in such a great crowd of people, especially of married men and craftsmen. For what house could have held so many thousands of the faithful? Therefore they were together, because at fixed hours they came together into the temple for the assembly, namely for the sermon, communion, and prayer, of which Luke spoke a little before. Our Anabaptists imitate this like apes in Moravia: for each of them has his own house and shop, but at fixed hours they all come together for their assemblies. Add to this that the Apostles and the heads of the Church, that is, the chief of the faithful, dwelt together near the temple in the Portico of Solomon. For this is what Luke says, chapter v, 12: "By the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all unanimously in the Portico of Solomon." Lastly they associated themselves so that as neighbors they might dwell together around the temple, so far as they could and as their occupations and circumstances permitted each one, just as we see in well-ordered cities that citizens who are of the same sect, nation, trade, or craft dwell together on the same street. And this Luke hints at when he says, in verse 46: "Breaking bread from house to house."
And they had all things in common. — For "mine" and "thine" is the cause of all discord, says Saint Chrysostom. Plato, when describing his idea of the perfect republic, demands that in it all things should be common, for the perfect union and concord of the citizens — even wives. But in this he was foully mistaken: for the community of wives is repugnant to the law of nature, which decrees that one woman should be joined to one man for the certainty and due upbringing of offspring. The first Christians therefore rejected this and had all things in common except wives, and so lived as it were like Religious; nay, the foundations of the religious life were laid by them, as Saint Jerome teaches in the book On Illustrious Men, in the entry on Saint Mark; Saint Augustine, epistle 109; and Saint Basil in his Greater Rules, Rules XIX and XXXII. Pythagoras saw this through a shadow when he uttered this golden maxim: "Among friends all things are common"; from which Diogenes inferred that "all things in the world belong to the wise man": for these things are God's, of whom the wise man is the friend; Seneca is a witness, Book VII On Benefits, chapter XII.
From this passage therefore, in which the first Christians had all things κοινά, that is, common, the cenobitic way of life arose, namely Monasteries and Monks, among whom the first were the Essenes, whose parent was Saint Mark, of whose sanctity Eusebius writes wonderful things, Book II of the History, chapter XVII; Saint Jerome, in the book On Ecclesiastical Writers, in the Life of Saint Mark. Wherefore the same Saint Jerome rightly says, in the same book under Philo: "Such was the Church of the first believers as the Monks now strive and desire to be, that nothing anywhere should be private property, that there should be among them neither rich nor poor: that patrimonies should be distributed to the needy, that they should give themselves to prayer and psalms, to doctrine and continence, such as Luke also reports the first believers in Jerusalem to have been." Wherefore from that time the Religious and Cenobitic life began among men eager for perfection, who tried to imitate the primitive life of the Apostles and the faithful, of whom there was a vast multitude scattered throughout the world, as Saint Dionysius testifies, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter X. Afterward, around the year of the Lord 300, Saint Anthony restored it in Egypt, Saint Basil in Greece, Saint Jerome in Syria, Saint Augustine in Africa, Saint Benedict in Italy and throughout the West, whom Saint Bernard, Saint Dominic, Saint Francis, and others followed.
Furthermore, this community of goods is a great summary of virtue and perfection. For first, it is an immense incentive to mutual charity. Hence Saint Lawrence Justinian, in his book On Obedience, chapter XVIII: "What else, I say, are the monasteries of the Religious and the dwellings of those who serve God, but military training-grounds and spiritual camps of fighters? Are not in them the most frequent tears of devotion, sighs of compunction, breathings of piety, and unceasing vows of compassion and charity poured forth to God?" And a little after: "What, I ask, is more wealthy than to have nothing and to possess all things? To lack superfluous things and to use necessary ones? To despise one's own patrimony and to be the heir of Christ? Indeed the revenues of monasteries are the treasures of the Savior; these surely become common to all who live in common. The person of the rich man is not set apart, no deference is shown to the rank of the powerful; but they are dispensed as is expedient for each one — which is a divine work, the recommendation of grace, the office of charity, and the example of nature."
Secondly, because it calls away love and affection from earthly riches and pleasures, as worthless and trifling things, and transfers it wholly to God and heavenly things: whence it comes about that, fixed in heaven like an eagle, he looks upon all the pomps and dignities of the earth as ants and despises them, and as it were as a king he stands above all and rules over them, according to that promise from Isaiah, chapter LVIII: "I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father." For, as Saint Cyprian says in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "He who has now renounced the world is greater than its honors and kingdom; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and to Christ desires not earthly, but heavenly kingdoms." The Cenobite, therefore, is loftier than the world, lord of the universe, equal to the angels, a citizen of the Saints, a member of paradise's household, an heir of God, a co-heir of Christ. See Saint Chrysostom, homily 15 to the People. Hence he fears no one, however powerful or princely; he flatters no one, but freely censures the vices of any, and boldly resists tyrants, as Elias resisted Ahab, Nathan David, Elisha Joram, Moses Pharaoh, who therefore heard from God: "I have set thee as a god to Pharaoh," Exod. VII.
Thirdly, it produces a sharing of merits and of all good things. Hence Saint Basil, Monastic Constitutions, chapter XIX: "To them God is in common, the trade of piety in common, salvation in common, struggles in common, labors in common, rewards and crowns of contests in common, where the many are one, and the one is not alone, but in many."
Fourthly, it removes the matter of lawsuits, of cupidities, of vices and of all temptations; and on the contrary it furnishes the matter, time, and aptitude for being free for oneself and for God, for meditating, for exercising the works of piety, hope, charity, and all virtues. According to that of Psalm XXXIX: "But I am a beggar and poor: the Lord is careful for me." Truly says Saint Augustine, sermon 33 On the Words of the Apostle: "The love of earthly things is birdlime to the wings of the spiritual. Behold, thou hast desired, thou hast stuck. Who will give thee wings as of a dove? When wilt thou fly where thou mayest truly rest, when here, where thou hast wickedly stuck, thou hast perversely chosen to acquiesce?"
Fifthly, it produces peace of soul, serenity, joy, and perpetual jubilation. This life therefore approaches the life which Adam and Eve led in paradise, and is the beginning of the heavenly life which the Blessed lead in heaven. Wherefore this life of the first Christians "was angelic," says Saint Chrysostom, according to that saying of Christ: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven," Matt. xix, 21. And that of Psalm LXXII: "What have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth from Thee, O God of my heart, and God my portion forever?" Hence Saint Lawrence Justinian, in his small work On the Monastic Life, chapter II, describing the beauty of the cenobitic life as the cloistered ones lead it: "The cloister is an enclosed garden, a paradise of delights, a nuptial chamber, an undefiled bed, a school of virtues, a tabernacle of the covenant, a couch of the Bridegroom, the station of warriors, the house of holiness, the guardian of chastity, the bulwark of prudence, the schoolhouse of religion, and the singular mirror of holy obedience."
Verse 45: Their Possessions and Goods They Sold
Possessions. — Of fields or of houses, as Luke explains in chapter IV; whence "possession" (possessio) is so called as it were from "a seating or placing of the feet," says Festus: for the possession of a piece of land or of a house used to be taken by setting one's foot in it, as in something one's own and proper.
45. And they sold their goods (movable goods, such as cattle and household furniture), — partly out of zeal for poverty and perfection, trampling on earthly riches and panting for heavenly ones; partly out of zeal for the common life and charity, that they might distribute these to the brethren, namely Christians, especially the needy; partly by the instinct of God, as it were foreseeing the impending persecution, lest these goods should be confiscated by the Jews, but that they themselves might live from their price and might assist the other faithful, in the persecution despoiled of their goods, according to that of the Apostle, Heb. ch. X, verse 34: "For you both had compassion on those in bonds, and took with joy the seizure of your goods, knowing that you have a better and more enduring substance." Hence Pope Melchiades, in XII, Question I, ch. Futuram, says that the Apostles foresaw the future Church among the Gentiles, and therefore did not at all acquire estates in Judea, but only the prices to support the needy: especially because they foresaw that Jerusalem and Judea would shortly be utterly laid waste by Titus and the Romans. Christians did the same afterward, who, while persecution raged, prepared themselves for martyrdom, such as Saint Valerian, Saint Cecilia, Saint Sixtus, Saint Lawrence, who also sold the goods of the Church and distributed them among the needy faithful, lest the persecutors should confiscate and seize them — by a prudent and pious counsel indeed.
As every one had need. — "Not what anyone might childishly desire to flaunt: nothing there was idle, much less proud: what was needful, that is, as to clothing, what would both cover nakedness and ward off the cold," says Saint Bernard, Apology to William the Abbot.
Verse 46: Breaking Bread from House to House
46. In the temple. — This today is imitated by Cenobites and pious laypeople, both men and matrons, who spend all the time they have free from business in the church on prayer, reading, and the sermon. For where can one better, more pleasantly, more usefully, more nobly occupy oneself than with God in His house?
And breaking bread from house to house, — (in Greek κατ' οἶκον, that is, about the house, namely God's, that is, the temple, says Œcumenius) who therefore, with many others, holds that this bread which they broke in the temple was the Eucharist. Hence for "bread," the Syriac translates "the blessed gift," that is, the bread consecrated and transubstantiated, and offered to God as it were as a minchah in sacrifice. And this is very probable, because the Eucharist is called by Paul and Luke "the breaking of bread." Nor is it an obstacle that Our Latin Vulgate translates κατὰ οἴκους as "about the houses," that is, from house to house, through individual houses, and rightly, by Greek idiom; because, as the number of the faithful was growing, it was necessary to distribute them through various houses and to celebrate the Eucharist in them. And from this arose distinct parishes, each of which has its own Parish Priest, or Pastor, since at first there was a single οἶκος, or house and upper room of the faithful, as is clear from chapter I, verse 13. Others, however, such as Lyra, Cajetan, and the Carthusian, signify that this bread was usual and common — as if to say, "They broke," that is, distributed through the houses, bread, that is, food, according to the number, quality, and quantity of the inhabitants of each house. Hence Chrysostom notes that "bread" is mentioned, as if to say: necessary nourishment, not delicacies. This sense is favored by what follows: "They took food with exultation," but this you may rightly take of the agape after the Eucharist — as if to say: After the Eucharist they took the agape, that is, food at a common feast and banquet, instituted in memory of Christ's last common supper, as a symbol and stimulus of charity. Hence for "they took," in Greek it is μετελάμβανον, that is, they took common food together, namely in the agape, which they celebrated after the Eucharist.
With exultation, — both because of the grace of Christianity received, and because of the aforesaid Eucharist, and because of the agape and the great mutual charity toward one another. For they saw a new Christian commonwealth in the world, such as had never been seen before, and one similar to the heavenly and angelic life; and themselves to have been chosen into it by God's grace, and therefore to have been made partakers of all the charisms of the Holy Spirit in it. "For there is no greater sign of the indwelling Spirit than spiritual gladness," says Saint Bernard. Again: "A secure mind is like a continual feast," says the Wise Man. Indeed: "The voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the just," Psalm CXVII. Thus Saint Francis used to exult in the holy assembly, as Saint Bonaventure says in his Life, chapter IX: "He burned toward the Sacrament of the Lord's body with the fervor of all his marrow, marveling with the greatest amazement at that most beloved condescension and most condescending charity: he often communicated, and so devoutly that he made others devout, while at the tasting of the immaculate Lamb, as it were drunk in spirit, he was usually carried away into ecstasy of mind."
Furthermore Tertullian, in his book On the Spectacles, briefly recounts and weighs the goods and delights of Christianity, in which Christians rightly exult, thus, chapter XXIX: "What is more pleasant than the reconciliation with God the Father and Lord, than the revelation of truth, than the recognition of errors, than the pardon of so many former crimes? What greater pleasure than the loathing of pleasure itself, than the contempt of the whole world, than true liberty, than an upright conscience, than a sufficient life, than no fear of death; that you trample on the gods of the nations, that you expel demons, etc., that you live for God? These are the pleasures, these the spectacles of the Christians — holy, perpetual, free." And shortly after: "Do you want boxing matches and wrestling matches too? They are at hand — not few, but many. Look at impurity cast down by chastity, perfidy slain by faith, savagery bruised by mercy, wantonness overshadowed by modesty; such are the contests among us, in which we ourselves are crowned. But what a spectacle is at hand in the coming of the Lord, now beyond doubt, now exalted, now triumphant! What that exultation of the angels, what that glory of the rising Saints! What a kingdom of the just then! What a new city of Jerusalem! What things are those which neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor have ascended into the heart of man?" Whence a little before he concludes: "Thou art delicate, O Christian, if thou desirest pleasure even in the world; nay rather most foolish, if thou reckonest this to be pleasure. Tell me, I pray, can we not live without pleasure, we who shall have to die with pleasure? For what is our wish, but the same as the Apostle's, to depart from the world and to be received with the Lord? This is our pleasure where also is our vow."
And in simplicity of heart, — that is, without malice, guile, suspicion, envy, sadness; benevolently, candidly, sincerely, uprightly, cheerfully, generously. It signifies that all things were done in good faith; that there were no exquisite delicacies, nor any sects or schisms; but that each one shared his own with the brethren willingly and eagerly, says Chrysostom, and conversely received what came to him from the distribution simply, candidly, cheerfully, and gratefully, not looking back to see whether a better or larger portion had been distributed to another.
Note: Just as in natural things those bodies are called simple which are not mixed and compounded — such as the heaven and the elements, from which the other bodies are composed and put together — so in moral matters those are called simple who are without disguise, guile, and the admixture of cupidities and passions. Therefore God is most simple, both physically in His nature and morally in His virtue, candor, and purity. Hence excellently Saint Augustine, City of God, Book XI, ch. X: "There is only one good which is simple, and on this account only one which is unchangeable, which is God. From this good all goods have been created, but they are not simple, and for this reason they are mutable. Created, indeed, that is, made, not begotten. For what is begotten from a simple good is likewise simple," namely the Word and Son of God. And shortly after: "Therefore He is called simple, because what He has, He is," inasmuch as "He has nothing in such a way that He could either lose it, or be one thing as a possessor and another as what He has, like a vessel some liquid, or a body a color, or the air light, or the soul wisdom. For neither is the vessel the liquid, nor the body the color, nor the air light, nor the soul wisdom. Hence it is that they can also be deprived of the things they have." And lower: "In this respect therefore those things are called simple which are principally and truly divine, because in them quality is not one thing and substance another; nor are they by participation in others either divine, or wise, or blessed." Whence the same elsewhere: "You will be simple if you do not entangle yourself with the world, but disentangle yourself from it: for by disentangling yourself from the world (you unite yourself with God, who is most simple, and so are) simple; by entangling yourself you will be double." And Ficinus, on chapter VII of Plato's Timaeus: "The supreme simplicity stands above eternity, from which in the divine minds there is integrity, and in rational animals eternity mixed with time, and in the spheres of the world a temporal sempiternity: but in those things which come about by the motion and power of the spheres, a certain portion of time." The simpler therefore one is, the nearer he draws to God and to divinity. Whence Christ admonishes: "Be prudent as serpents and simple as doves," Matt. X; that is to say, says Saint Jerome in his epistle to Rusticus: "Have the simplicity of the dove, that you may not contrive deceits against anyone; and the cunning of the serpent, that you may not be tripped up by the snares of others: for it is not much different in vice to be able either to deceive or to be deceived." The same, on chapter VII of Hosea: "Prudence without simplicity is called malice, and simplicity without reason is called stupidity."
Simplicity is opposed by hypocrisy, which under the simulation of virtues hides a closed-up vice and cloaks it by art — which therefore Scripture sharply attacks throughout. For the hypocrite is a fox, an actor, a three-headed Mercury, and an ape in purple. As the giraffe by its neck recalls a horse, by its feet and legs an ox, by its head a camel, by its spots a tiger or a leopard: so among hypocrites there are those who express the various shapes of men. If you look at his attire, you would think him some saint; if you listen to his speech, you would think a satrap is speaking; if you weigh his life, you will find a scoundrel; if his writings, a peasant. See Saint Gregory, Morals, Book X, ch. XXVII, on the verse: "The simplicity of the just is mocked," where he graphically depicts the thoughts and manners of the simple as well as of the double-minded; and Climacus, step XXIV, where among other things he says that simplicity is a disposition of the soul lacking variety and ignorant of any perverse thinking, and which is moved by no evil thought. Thus Saint Paul, exhorting to almsgiving, commands them to do it in simplicity: "He that giveth, in simplicity," Rom. ch. XII, verse 8. See what is said there. Of conspicuous simplicity, and an emulator of the first faithful, we have a domestic example and mirror in our Society in the Reverend Father Paschase Broët, who, one of the ten first Fathers of our Holy Father Ignatius, was made Apostolic Nuncio through Ireland, and was judged by Saint Ignatius before all others worthy of the patriarchate of Ethiopia, on account of his rare wisdom and sanctity joined with wonderful candor and simplicity; so much so that by the same Ignatius he was called the angel of the Society. For thus writes our Sacchinus, in volume II of the History of the Society, Book VI, number 97: "His own special praise was said to be simplicity mixed with prudence. He embraced it from the beginning, and held it through the whole course of his life. He himself preached it frequently, and desired it to be commended by all"; and that for three reasons: "First, because the matter most capable of heavenly gifts is simplicity: the perennial fount of blessed tranquillity of heart, an impenetrable bulwark against the devil, the conciliatress, nourisher, and adornment of the other virtues. For what cheerfulness is in a beautiful face, that simplicity is in the face, as it were, of virtue. Second, because it itself is a captivating allurement of others' goodwill. For nothing is so winning and lovable as a candid and open temperament, on which you can securely rely; as a mind unknowing how to harm anyone, and prepared to benefit anyone. Third, because both God and men are wonderfully delighted by the company of the simple. Finally, simplicity restores human offspring most especially to that state from which the serpent's fraud first cast down our first parent." An illustrious example of simplicity also was given recently by the most illustrious Cardinal Bellarmine; so much so that, when someone said rather freely that he had not been raised to the pontificate because he was reckoned simple, he replied candidly and cheerfully: "Happy the simplicity which has freed me from so great a burden!"
Verse 47: Praising God and Having Favor
47. Praising God. — He notes that they gave thanks to God after the meal, and praised Him for His provisions as for gifts. Hence after the agape they sang to God hymns and spiritual canticles, as the Apostle says, Ephes. v, 19. Who again, I Tim. IV, 4: "Nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving." See what is said there.
And having favor, — that is, being lovable, pleasing, and acceptable to all the people. For "favor," the Syriac translates רחמית rachamê, which signifies a visceral affection, and a compassion, love, and benevolence flowing from the innermost bowels. Furthermore, this favor and love of the people was procured for the faithful by "the beneficence of almsgiving and the candor and simplicity of their morals," says Saint Chrysostom; likewise by modesty, gentleness, and holiness shining forth in countenance, words, and every action.
But the Lord increased, — προσετίθει, that is, He added to the number and assembly of the faithful, namely the Church, as the Greek has, of which presently, many others "who should be saved," inspiring in them faith and the desire of baptism and the Christian life, by which they would be justified, and, if they persevered in them to the end of life, would be saved and would attain eternal blessedness.
To the same, — that is, together, namely in the Church, as the Greek and the Syriac have. Furthermore the Greek ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, that is, "to the same," refers it to the beginning of the following chapter. But it seems that Luke wrote here ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, which someone explained by adding in the margin τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, that is, "in the Church"; which then by another, thinking this belonged to the text, was transferred into the text, with ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ being shifted into the next chapter. But in whatever way you read it, the sense is the same. For "to the same" is the same as "together," "alike," namely in the Church, as I said. Finally, Saint Luke so exactly here and in what follows narrates the virtues and life of the first faithful, because this was the very interpretation of the Gospel and the practice of Christ's doctrine, which expresses His law to us in vivid deeds, and therefore is itself the living law and norm of the Christian life for us. "In the life of the Saints we recognize what we ought to read in Scripture," says Saint Gregory, homily 10 on Ezechiel. And conversely the Gospel and "the written Law is a commentary on the life of the Saints," says Philo, in his book On Abraham.